The PLANTinum Jubilee (FREE)

We will be working with four local artists to offer a wide range of plant-related creative activities:

• Making individual plant fibre sweatshirts, using a bicycle linked to a sewing machine – with Alice Holloway
• Hidden Nature – nature-writing workshops for adults (or teens accompanied by adults) – with Amanda Tuke
  Back in 2013, a rare wild orchid, the White Helleborine, was found quietly growing in Buckingham Palace grounds among the garden plants. Even small gardens can be home to hidden wild plants and animals, and if you look beyond the most obvious garden plants, our garden at the Institute is full of hidden natural treasures. Mosses and liverworts grow on the paths and birds sing from the trees while pollinating insects and invertebrates hunt for food. In this relaxed supportive nature-writing workshop you’ll hunt out hidden nature in the garden and use it as an inspiration for a piece of short (maximum 50 words) “Thumbnail Nature writing”.

  please book Creative Nature Writing Workshop here (£5 refundable deposit required)

• Storytelling – with Kerima Mohideen
• Making a large textile banner to commemorate the event – with Zoe Burt.

We will also be making a herbarium specimen (dried, pressed, labelled plant specimen) to commemorate the event.

Heritage photographs and stories from the SLBI’s 112-year history will be displayed, including a portrait of the young Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) which has been hanging in the SLBI building since May 1937, when it was published in the Illustrated London News.

We will have Jubilee-themed refreshments for sale and you can relax in our garden.

Drop-in entry for all activities but please book the Nature Writing Workshop (2-3pm or 3.30-4.30pm) to secure your place.

Thanks to National Lottery players, this event has received funding from the Arts Council England Let’s Create Jubilee Fund.