Arts Council England
Arts Council England supported the National Landscapes Association’s first national arts commissioning programme – Nature Calling – via its Lottery funded Nationally Significant Project stream.
Nature Calling was designed to amplify new voices and create innovative artwork in collaboration with communities close to National Landscapes. Writers and artists were commissioned during 2024, with a national season sharing the artwork between April and October 2025.
The National Landscapes Association worked with Activate Performing Arts as national executive creative partner, and 24 National Landscapes and two National Parks got involved.
Six ‘hub’ National Landscapes commissioned written pieces including ‘Nature’s Anthem’, a rap by MOBO-Award winning Still Shadey, and six larger scale artworks including a henge for Luton and new companion for the Cerne Abbas Giant.
Communities from areas close to the National Landscape, but which traditionally hadn’t been well represented in these places, co-created the artworks and spent time being inspired by their nearby nature.
The results show that National Landscapes teams involved in Nature Calling surpassed almost all its ambitious targets:
- 8,258 active participants engaged (against a target of 4,923)
- Live audience of over 55,000 people
- Online and digital audiences surpassed 550,000 (target 4,933), supported by features on BBC Countryfile and an expanded programme of digital content across the projects.
Teaching staff on a Nature Calling activity reported that the group of young people attending “were (normally) often easily distracted” and that they had “rarely seen them so engaged.”
Local communities and, more importantly, new visitors were engaged, representing groups from all backgrounds and ages. The evaluation shows how successfully teams reached new and diverse audiences:
- 35% of participants were from the most deprived households in the UK (21% IMD1 and 14% IMD2)
- 34% identified as from a global majority ethnic background
- 25% were under 19 years old
- 24% identified as disabled
