Nature Calling will see 29 artistic projects in National Landscapes and two National Parks across England.

Six major artistic projects have been developed in six hub National Landscapes; choose your adventure game trails in Croydon and the Surrey Hills, a new giant for Dorset, a permanent chalk Henge land artwork and social space for Luton and the Chilterns, fleeting billboards in the Lincolnshire Wolds, the captured sounds of the Mendip Hills and Are You Lost? in the Forest of Bowland.

John Watkins, CEO, National Landscapes Association said:

“Landscapes only exist through the lens of people’s perception, that’s why everyone has a stake in these places, protected for the nation. Artists are able to make significant progress and change in the heart of a community, not just promoting access, but supporting people to find belonging, where civic society might take decades.”

Nature Calling has commissioned artists and writers to work deeply within multiple local communities to increase knowledge and access to nature for more people, to improve wellbeing and inspire a sense of belonging to the countryside on their doorstep. The result is six significant and original artistic responses with a season of events, installations and launches presented between May and October 2025. Nature Calling is delivered by National Landscapes Association, Activate Performing Arts and six local National Landscapes. It is supported by Arts Council England and DEFRA’s Protected Landscapes Partnership.

National Landscapes Association's vision for ‘Nature Calling’ is to encourage and invite new audiences to make a connection with their local natural landscapes when there is a current and pressing need to secure nature’s future. Through contemporary conversations about what landscape means to us today inspired by artists working with communities, National Landscapes Association would like more people to enjoy nature. Partnering with Activate Performing Arts to create ‘Nature Calling’ helps to safeguard nature’s future through enabling a broader sense of place and belonging for more people.

Nature Calling follows the Landscapes review findings that national landscapes should be accessible to all and a positive force for the nation’s wellbeing, and the University of Derby’s award-winning ‘Nature Connectedness’ research, showing the quantifiable benefits to wellbeing from connecting with nature.

Kate Wood, Artistic & Executive Director of Activate Performing Arts, Executive Producers of Nature Calling, said:
“After working with the National Landscape Association for the past 10 years, and creating the ‘Arts in the Landscape: Connecting People to Nature Arts Strategy’ with them, it is good to see our recommendations brought to life through 'Nature Calling'."

Bill Gee, co-executive producer for Activate Performing Arts on Nature Calling went on:
"The quality of the writers, artists, rappers, composers, and partners involved across the programme is exceptional, and will succeed in connecting many new, diverse people to nature and their local green spaces.”

John Watkins, Chief Executive, National Landscapes Association, went on:

“Nature is calling to us. We are aware that many people do not know what a protected landscape is, if they can access it, and how. People feel that landscapes are ‘not for us’, but we know that landscapes do not exist without people. Often, National Landscapes are close to town centres and cover vast areas, some of which is easily accessible, and yet many wouldn't know this. Artists can play a brilliant and ingenious role in communicating that nature and natural spaces are for everyone to play and explore. This large scale and deep reaching series of projects by artists and writers is a way for us to get into communities and encourage them into the landscape to challenge narratives of exclusivity. Through Nature Calling we are informing how landscapes can be accessed and can improve wellbeing through the artist's approach and the brilliant artworks they are making.”