Museums, Parks and Capability Brown

Plenty of exciting things going on this month, not least that Capability Brown Festival 2016 has been awarded £911,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund  http://www.capabilitybrown.org/news/heritage-lottery-fund-awards-capability-brown-festival-ps911000-grant - don't forget to sign up to the website to keep up to date as events develop.  If you are in and around London it's worth finding the time to visit two garden-related exhibitions that have just opened.

Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden runs at the Royal Collection until October http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/painting-paradise-the-art-of-the-garden-bp, while the Garden Museum's Education of a Gardener: The Life and Work of Russell Page is open until 1st June http://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/page/russell-page-03-15-06-15.  In different ways and for different reasons, both exhibitions make very positive contributions to the future of garden history.

The Garden Museum's exhibition gives us a tantalising glimpse of the archive recently deposited by the children of Robert and Jelena de Belder - close friends of Russell Page.  Choose a quiet time to visit and enjoy having the space to really immerse yourself in the material on display.  Then re-read your copy of The Education of a Gardener with fresh eyes.

Think about the privilege and pleasure it must have been for all those involved with curating the exhibition. And of course, of the future generations of students, scholars and garden historians who may, in time, be able to access this wonderful resource.

Perhaps there will be a few more garden historians around the world in years to come as a result of Painting Paradise? This new exhibition shows us the rich variety of 400 years of horticultural art in the Royal Collection.

(copyright Liz Ware)

The paintings are impressive: from the magnificence of Leonard Knyff's View of Hampton Court Palace to the delicate beauty of Leonard da Vinci's seed heads.  But what struck me above all else was the breadth and depth, not only of the Royal Collection, but also of the subject with which we are involved.  Could there be an exhibition about anything other than horticulture that could transport us from the sublime to the practical and back again, and sometimes within the same exhibit?

Look out for Henry VIII's copy of Ruralia Commoda with its tips for growing giant leeks; the recently restored 18th century Sunflower Clock; and Queen Victoria's fuchsia inspired jewellery, adorned with her daughter's milk teeth.

It's good to think that by the time the exhibition ends in October, some visitors will have taken away with them a new curiosity about horticulture having experienced a little of the role it has played in our political and social history.

Lastly, but with great urgency, don't forget to sign the 'Save our Parks' UK petition before the General Election on 7th May.  If you've already done so, please pass on the link to someone who hasn't.  We wouldn't have the urban green spaces we enjoy today if it hadn't been for the efforts of previous generations.  Now it's our turn! https://www.change.org/p/save-our-parks-protect-and-invest-in-the-uk-s-public-green-spaces?recruiter=113025150&utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Time to wake up?

(Copyright Liz Ware)

Spring is on its way and
The Association of Gardens Trusts 2015 Yearbook is hitting the bookshelves of County Gardens Trust (CGT) members around the country.  In this year's lead article, Chris Beardshaw writes about the responsibility we all have to present and explain our heritage gardens and landscapes to a new generation.  The CGT articles that follow show the many creative ways in which we are taking that responsibility very seriously.

There's the Surrey Gardens Trust's development of  'Gateway' visits http://www.hha.org.uk/learning-and-outreach-2/heritage-for-all/gateways-gardens-trust.html; London Parks & Gardens Trust's collaboration with the Duke of Northumberland and his team at Syon Park; and Hertfordshire Gardens Trust's ground-breaking collaboration with the Woodland Trust at Tring Park. http://www.hertsgardenstrust.org.uk/index.html

From Somerset Gardens Trust's work with schools to Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust's Research and Recording project to record Aylesbury Cemetery, it's difficult to believe that such a wide variety of successful projects has been created - and all by volunteers.

Gilly Drummond (AGT President and Chairman of CB300 Project Management Board) also brings us up to date with news about Capability Brown Festival 2016.  How exciting that Alan Titchmarsh will be presenting a three-part series on Brown at Belvoir Castle for Channel 4.  How wonderful that so many events are being planned to tempt urban audiences to explore Brown's landscapes. http://www.capabilitybrown.org/event/capability-brown-festival-design-ideas-competition

The opportunities for waking people up, not just to Brown, but to all our historic landscapes and the  wellbeing we experience when we're in the natural world, are growing by the day.  Perhaps this is just the right time for the UK based and multidisciplinary Landscape, Gardens and Health Network to make an appearance?

Last year's Symposium on 'Healthy Landscapes' held at the Garden Museum was inspirational.  But, despite its fascinating content and excellent speakers, it seemed to me that something crucial was missing.  While the positive effects of landscape on our minds and bodies had comprehensive coverage, our spiritual connection with nature barely had a mention.

The recently established Landscape, Gardens and Health Network recognises that we need to take a more holistic approach.  It would be good to think that it in the near future it will be common sense to include an appraisal of spiritual benefits in any evaluation of a landscape, rather than pretending that they don't exist.

Penny Brohn Cancer Care Centre (copyright Liz Ware)

The Network's latest meeting and Seminar (held at the exemplary Penny Brohn Cancer Care Centre in Bristol) brought together a mix of gardeners, landscape architects, designers, academics and health care professionals to discuss their work and to make plans for the future of the network.

A website and an international conference highlighting current research are just two of the options being discussed.  There's no shortage of material.  The eight very brief presentations given by network members left me wanting to hear more from them all.  Why, for example, does designer Juliet Sergeant feel that an over-emphasis on the visual beauty of gardens may be leading us to underestimate their full potential?  How does a garden designed for dementia patients as described by Stephen Pettet-Smith differ from the hospice gardens designed by Kathyrn Aalto and Jeremy Parker?

Contact angiebutterfield50@gmail.com or hardyexotic1@btinternet.com for more information.