Installation Views, Creatively Connected Exhibition

Creatively Connected Exhibition
Bowlees Visitor Centre, Friday 7 August - Wednesday 2 September 2026

Across the hay meadows, hedgerows, waterways and hillsides of Teesdale and Swaledale, farming has shaped the landscape for generations, in its wildflowers, birdsong and biodiversity. This way of farming to support nature to thrive has been described as high nature value farming.

The Creatively Connected Exhibition brings together the processes and work of artists John Coburn & Tim Shaw, Matt Denham, Azadeh Fatehrad and Laura Harrington.

From September 2025 to October 2025 the artists spent time in conversation with farmers, conservationists and communities across the area, through workshops, site visits, events and creative activities.

Together they explored the relationship between farming and nature. Their work considers what this relationship means today and how it might look, sound and feel like now and in the future. The work on display at the Bowlees Visitor Centre is the result of that enquiry - a creative response that has been shaped by listening, exploring and working alongside the people who care for this place.

Creative Connected Artists: John Coburn & Tim Shaw, Matt Denham, Azadeh Fatehrad and Laura Harrington
Poet in residence: Lizzie Lovejoy
Creative Producers: Northern Heartlands 

My intervention at last month's Creatively Connected Symposium at Raby Castle has featured in a recent article written by editor Janie Caldbeck on Agricology, an independent knowledge platform supporting all farmers and growers to transition to more sustainable and resilient farming systems. Of the workshop, Janie writes:

'The combination of his amazing, magnified images of seeds of rare plant species inspired by the Teesdale Assemblage, a rare alpine-arctic collection, along with encouraging attendees to participate in the gentle act of seed sowing, served to underline the importance and beauty of these different species. A simple act of raising awareness that could have powerful implications.'

The Symposium marked the culmination of Creatively Connected. This year long project, produced by Northern Heartlands, is part of Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected, a major natural heritage project that is a collaboration between the North Pennines National Landscape team and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and is funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. 

As part of my current commission Handling Futures, October offered an opportunity to explore protective structures in nature in the setting of the Blackwell Parkland in Darlington with Field Botanist Falgunee Sarker from the Darlington and Teesdale Naturalist Field Club. Active members of the community have spent years working towards securing higher levels of protection for this ecologically significant site. From the red pigmented anthocyanins that shield autumn leaves from winter sunlight as the leaves shed their chlorophyll to the poisonous yew berries that protect the tree from natural predators: our guided visit offered the opportunity to consider the nature's own protective systems as the future of the parkland remains precarious.

My Layers of the Past | Pockets of the Future workshop took place in the yurt at Raby Castle.
Setting images: Matt Denham. Workshop images: Claire Collinson Photography

Meadow vetchling seed

Over the past six months, I have been exploring Teesdale in search of ‘blueprints’ for nature. The work I am developing for Creatively Connected explores the many intersecting factors - from climate change to land management practices and the policies that govern them - that influence how Teesdale’s unique environments are cared for.

The starting point for this journey was learning about the Teesdale Assemblage, a unique mixture of alpine-arctic flowers and southern European species that are only found in this combination in Teesdale, and the work of the Teesdale Special Flora Trust, the North Pennines National Landscapes (NPNL) and many others to protect, conserve and improve these rare plants. I am exploring the idea of the ‘Assemblage’ as a wider metaphor for the unique combination of habitats, land management practices, lived experiences and ways of nurturing the landscape that set out blueprints for nature recovery that are specific to Teesdale.

On this exploratory journey and with my fellow artists, I have spent time getting to know Teesdale’s landscapes better and taken part in nature recovery works with the NPNL Farming and Nature team. I’ve spent time at local archives to explore how the farmed landscape has evolved over time and how these layers of history are embedded in the land. And most importantly, I’ve spent time with local farmers, land managers, experts and volunteers invested in nature recovery and had rich and nuanced conversations about care for and connection to this place. I’ve encountered bracing winds (although not as bracing as they were 30 years ago I’m told), moments of connection and a real generosity with the wealth of knowledge held by the people who live and work here.

I’m looking forward to the next months of conversation and encounter in the landscape and to drawing these experiences together through creative work.

I am pleased to have been selected as one of five artists for Creatively Connected, a year long commission funded by National Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England to respond to the landscape and environmental issues across Teesdale and Swaledale. The project, produced by Northern Heartlands, aims to inspire a wide range of groups to creatively connect in new ways with the environment and nature inspired by Teesdale and Swaledale landscapes.

I will be working closely with the Tees Swale: Naturally Connected team, communities and partners to share ideas and develop creative conversations around hill farming, conservation, nature restoration, environmental issues and the landscape.

For Creatively Connected, I am looking forward to meeting and spending time with the human and more-than-human residents of Teesdale – with local farmers, and conservationists, landscapes and flora. This next year offers a unique opportunity to develop my recent work exploring the value of low-intensity farming systems to our natural environment. The interdisciplinary potential of this project excites me, and together with fellow artists, producers, communities and environmental organisations I hope to dig deeper into ways of encountering and nurturing the landscape to craft blueprints for the future.

Find out more about the project here: https://northpennines.org.uk/creativelyconnectedartists/

This month We Held Our Breath is screening as part of CARBON Film Festival: Cinematic Reflections on an Elemental Force. Our lives are saturated with carbon, and the screen reflects its presence everywhere. Though unseen, carbon’s influence permeates our lives and finds reflection in countless stories. The festival invites audiences on a journey from the barren grounds of an e-waste dump yard to the magical forests of the Western Ghats. Produced by Science Gallery Bengaluru and hosted by Bangalore International Centre, the Festival showcases a distinctive collection of cinematic narratives centered on the theme of carbon and bring to life stories that span generations, reflecting both the past and the ever-evolving present. These stories of ambition, resilience, and perseverance offer a deeper understanding of the transformative power of carbon.

The festival offers an immersive environment where visitors can deeply interact with these ideas through various films and discussions, with a wide array of films spanning different languages, including German, English, French, and Hindi, and spanning genres from documentary features and narrative features to experimental shorts and animated shorts. Filmmakers and scholars have been encouraged to create a colorful, interactive space that encourages people of all ages to consider carbon’s critical role in our lives and the global ecosystem.

Find out more here: https://bangaloreinternationalcentre.org/event/carbon-film-festival/

Here are a few images of Hot Contents at Crown Street Gallery. The exhibition will be open until 18 June from Monday - Saturday during Crown Street Library's normal opening hours.

We Held Our Breath [still], 2024, Two Screen Video Installation with Sound

Opening at Crown Street Gallery in Darlington on 20 June, Hot Contents explores the relationships between the past and present industrial heritage of the North East and the climate emergency.

The society we live in has been built on the foundations of industry. In the North East, our industrial culture and landscape – from coal mining to steel working, textile production to large-scale engineering – is a significant part of our regional identity. Industry has played an important part in shaping our cities, towns and communities. However, the growth of industry and the pace of associated development has also played a significant role in accelerating the climate and ecological emergency: from the pollution caused by industrial waste to the growth and profit-oriented actions that shape our local environments.

Hot Contents imagines a near future where unsustainable growth and over-production has dramatically changed our landscape. Taking the form of brightly coloured video installations, sound maps and living sculptures, the work in this exhibition explores possible futures through local sites of transition, spaces of resistance, and climate action that aims to shape a positive future for Darlington and its surrounds.

The exhibition will run from 20 June - 18 July, and theopening time are available on the Crown Street Gallery information page. Hot Contents is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and Creative Darlington.