Hari Byles and I – as the Earthlings collective – were awarded the the Live Art Development Agency (LADA)’s Garrett Centre Commission, which is intended to link LADA up with the communities around their building. We wanted to join up Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, where Hari worked, with the many community growing spaces around the area, and LADA’s home at the Garrett Centre. We secured further funding from the Mayor of London’s Culture Seeds and collaborated by the Bengali East End Heritage Society to put together a series of workshops and collaborations, working with local growers to create installations from their stories of gardening in Bethnal Green. We brought it all together in an Open Gardens Trail, with a map designed by Soofiya, and workshops run by local people – all finished off with a feast and performances. Visitors to the trail took part in co-creating a large-scale artwork for the Nature Reserve’s billboard, designed by Saif Osmani.

You can read more about it and download Connecting Words, the zine we made to record it all, here.