What’s On Offer?
Thanks to funding from Liverpool City Council, Open Eye Gallery and dot-art can offer community groups that work with people who are either CEV (clinically extremely vulnerable) or transitioning out of shielding (e.g. due to physical health, mental health, anxiety, loneliness, debt advice, bereavement etc) FREE photography based workshops exploring trees and the natural environment, to become part of “The Story of Liverpool Through its Trees” project.
The content of the workshops is flexible and can be tailored to the needs of each group, but will include:
• Introductory full-day session
• Concluding half-day session
• Resource pack (to be used during workshops and afterwards)
• Activities to include: Photowalks, photography tuition, group sharing, using personal stories and old images as starting points for discussions around changes in local green spaces/tree loss/climate change etc.
Outcomes:
• Personal Tree Stories produced (to include image/s and text) and added to https://openeyestories.org.uk/treesproject (and later to the new Tree Stories website)
• Potential to exhibit as part of LOOK Photo Biennial during 2022
• Mental health benefits of being outdoors, exercising and learning new skills
• Renewed interest in and appreciation of green spaces and the role they play in combatting the climate crisis.
Background:
Back in late 2020, we started inviting the public to create a history of Liverpool through its trees, using personal stories and photography. Take a look at the Open Eye Stories website to see our trees stories collected so far.
Trees are the perfect vehicle through which to tell a story of the region – they share its resilience, strength and its diverse and fascinating story. In these times of global crisis, we all benefit from taking a step back and seeing our own experiences in a wider historical context. The city and its trees have survived war, disease and many other hardships; this pandemic is just the most recent.
We started by asking a broad cross-section of people, from historians to tree professionals to family members, to share a story about a tree that was important to them. Eight of these were selected and Open Eye photographer and resident Andy Yates was commissioned to produce images of these important Liverpool trees. These photographs show trees from a few years old to over 1000 years old – so already we are starting to build a picture of the trees that have affected us and our city region as it was founded, has grown, thrived, declined and thrived again. We hope the project will also encourage us to engage with and be more aware of the trees and green spaces that enrich our lives.
In 2022 we are opening up the project to many more people and hope that you would like to be part of it, sharing your own personal tree story.
Event Date: Tuesday 25th January 2022 - Sunday 31st July 2022
Categories: Arts | Community Event | Free | Photography
