All workshops and talks are FREE, DROP-IN, and OPEN TO ALL AGES, unless stated otherwise.
Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to the workshops.
Origami Workshop
with Akiko Wakefield of The Museum of East Asian Art
10am – 1pm
2pm – 4pm
Bath Abbey (North Aisle)
Make origami creatures to add to the Eden Forest.
The Aye Aye Spy Agency: an adventure
with The House of Fairy Tales
10am – 6pm
Kingston Parade (signposted)
Suitable for all children with a watchful eye aged 6+
With rumours flying of the dreaded forces of Mnee lurking in the corners of the forest, The House of Fairy Tales has sent the legendary forest protection force, the Aye Aye Spies, to investigate, and they need your help. Join us for fun filled investigations and explorations, and top secret missions to the furthest reaches of the forest, and with the help of Bristol Zoo even a little beyond.
We are the Creatures of the Forest
with theatre director Lucy Cassidy and musician Sarah Moody
10am – 4.30pm
Kingston Parade (signposted)
Age 5+ (parents welcome to take part alongside their children)
Play theatre games, help make some music for the performance, create your own creature costume using sustainable materials – then if you’d like process and perform with the whole group. Performances will take place at 12pm and 3:30pm.
Make a Little Book
with Laura Little & BSU Publishing
10am – 6pm
Kingston Parade – Book-making station
Pick up your Forest book pack from the book-making station – and go wherever your imagination takes you on your Forest journey. Don’t forget to return to the Station to have your creations turned into a beautiful book!
The Tactile Tree
with artist Laura Blake
10am – 1pm
Kingston Parade
Come and help build a sensory walkway through trees adorned with pom-poms and hand crafted leaves.
Shadow Puppet Theatre
with Filskit Theatre
10am – 1pm
Friends Meeting House
What creatures live in the forest? Join FIlskit Theatre and make your very own forest creature shadow puppet using found and natural materials. Tell your puppet’s story in one of Filskit’s shadow theatres using light, projection and animation.
The Trees are Alive!
with writer Alice Maddicott
10am – 2pm
Friends Meeting House
Create your own tree character – explore its personality and life, before making and decorating your tree with its own story to add to an evolving village of living trees. You can write to tree pen pals via the pop-up tree village post office.
The Most Mysterious Eyes of the Forest: make a mask or headpiece
with artist Ellie Shipman
10am – 2pm
Kingston Parade
Become a creature of the forest using recycled materials to make your own magical forest eyes!
What Do Our Children Need?
with Agnes Javor
10.30am – 12.30pm
Friends Meeting House
For parents and teachers
In the 21st century what you can do with what you know is becoming more important than what you know. Together we shall explore why curiosity, creativity and keeping questioning alive contribute to discovering and recognising problems as well as finding novel ways to solve them.
Rose Garlands
with artist Alison Harper
11am – 1pm
Rose Tree, Kingston Parade (signposted)
Join artist Alison Harper to make fabric garlands using twisting and plying techniques, then complete them with roses made from found materials.
Get Fruity with the Fruit Tree
with designer Matthew Leece
12pm – 4pm
Fruit Tree, Kingston Parade (signposted)
Join Matthew to design fruits from scrap material to finish his Fruit Tree and think about ways of reusing scrap materials.
Origami Workshop
with Akiko Wakefield of The Museum of East Asian Art
2pm – 4pm
Bath Abbey (North Aisle)
Make origami creatures to add to the Eden Forest.
What’s Hiding in the Forest?
with artist Clare Day
2pm – 5pm
The Story Tree, Kingston Parade (signposted)
Come and draw what’s hiding in your imagination (butterflies, tigers, giants, friends?) and we will add it to our story tree to tell the story of who or what is hiding in the forest, and what happens next.
Urban Jungle
with artist Holly Dabbs
2 – 5pm
Friends Meeting House
Look closely and you will see the city streets are filled with eyes! Join Holly and some new animal friends on an truly immersive storytelling experience exploring nature in the city. Build the set, devise characters and plot before performing your tale.
EmBark: on a sensory adventure…
with environmental-art educators Jess Tanner & Clare Bissell
2pm – 6pm
Kingston Parade
Join environmental–art educators Jess and Clare Bissell for a full programme of multi-sensory activities taking children and adults alike on a playful, spirited adventure of the heart and soul. Take home a tiny garden in your pocket, grow a recycled tree, or join the masked and musical forest parade. EmBark: Reawaken your senses!
Tree-hive Making
with artist Miranda Wells
3pm – 6pm
Kingston Parade
Make a beehive from recycled materials for your garden – help save our wild bees!
The Tree in Me
with Sparklab art&philosophy
3pm – 6pm
(run as short workshops – 3 – 3.35 / 3.35 – 4.10 / 4.10 – 4.45 / 4.45 – 5.20 / 5.20 – 5.55)
Friends Meeting House
Playful art & philosophy workshop – children and adults are dared to portray themselves as trees using mixed media (from scraps of paper to iPads for stop motion animation).
The Aye Aye Spy Agency: an adventure
with The House of Fairy Tales
10am – 6pm
Kingston Parade (signposted)
Suitable for all children with a watchful eye aged 6+
With rumours flying of the dreaded forces of Mnee lurking in the corners of the forest, The House of Fairy Tales has sent the legendary forest protection force, the Aye Aye Spies, to investigate, and they need your help. Join us for fun filled investigations and explorations, and top secret missions to the furthest reaches of the forest, and with the help of Bristol Zoo even a little beyond.
Make a Little Book
with Laura Little & BSU Publishing
10am – 6pm
Kingston Parade – Book-making station
Pick up your Forest book pack from the book-making station – and go wherever your imagination takes you on your Forest journey. Don’t forget to return to the Station to have your creations turned into a beautiful book!
Science Busking
with Rick Hall of Ignite Futures
10am – 6pm
Kingston Parade
Explore science as you never have before!
Butterfly Habitat: Seed Eggs in Nests – Wishes take flight…
with artist Karen Myskiw
10am – 11.30am
Kingston Parade
Make seed bombs made from meadow seeds – create a seed bomb nest to take home and plant directly in your garden, or into container pots for a portable pollinator habitat.
The selected seeds will provide butterfly larvae host food required for growth and metamorphosis and be pollinators for adult butterflies.
Rose Garlands
with artist Alison Harper
11am – 1pm
Rose Tree, Kingston Parade (signposted)
Join artist Alison Harper to make fabric garlands using twisting and plying techniques, then complete them with roses made from found materials.
Bird-nests – Habitats
with Shani & Paul from Room 13
11am – 3pm
Kingston Parade
Discover and learn about the different ways birds make their nests, and have a go yourself at making nests with scrap material.
EmBark: on a sensory adventure…
with environmental-art educators Jess Tanner & Clare Bissell
12pm – 5.30pm
Kingston Parade
Join environmental–art educators Jess and Clare Bissell for a full programme of multi-sensory activities taking children and adults alike on a playful, spirited adventure of the heart and soul. Take home a tiny garden in your pocket, grow a recycled tree, or join the masked and musical forest parade. EmBark: Reawaken your senses!
Cut Out Books
with artist Sophie Erin Cooper
2pm – 4pm
Friends Meeting House
Suitable for ages 14+
Come along and explore with beautiful natural objects – as tools, surfaces and inspiration. You could draw on pressed petals or paint with a feather. Your details and drawings transforming into delicate tracing paper books.
Imagine This?
with Steve Thorp, coach, soulmaker and creative activist
2pm – 4pm
Friends Meeting House
This one’s for the grown-ups. If you are a parent, teacher, artist, entrepreneur or an otherwise creative spirit, and you’d like to learn what ‘imagination’ and ‘soul-making’ can hold for you, then join us for this workshop and conversation. You’ll need a notebook, artpad and a pen, pencil or both. There’ll be time for conversation, creativity and sharing – and plenty of information and stories about creativity, imagination and grown-up imagineering.
4pm – 6pm
An opportunity for a one-to-one imagination session with Steve in his pop-up Imagination Clinic.
Tree of Words
with artist & writer Emily Wilkinson
2pm – 6pm
Friends Meeting House
Branch out into writing! Join Emily to write inspiring tree-shaped poems and stories. Using writing and collage we will work on our own pieces and co-create large-scale word trees. This workshop is suitable for all ages who like to write.
Go Foraging Walk!
with forager Martin Bailey
3.30pm – 5.30pm
Meet outside 44AD Gallery at 3.15pm (Martin will be leaving promptly at 3.30pm!)
Spaces are limited – allocated on a first come, first served basis
On our walk around Bath you will discover numerous edible wild plants in season now. For some this will be an introduction to a green space you’ve not previously explored; others may come to view a familiar spot through new lenses, your green vision switched on! We’ll discuss what to eat, what not to eat plus how to harvest and prepare wild ingredients.
Make Birds (from waste material)
with artist Éilis Kirby
4pm – 6pm
Kingston Parade
What kind of birds live in the Forest of your Imagination? Small birds, big birds, colourful and plain, birds on a string, birds on a stick – use your imagination and the materials to hand, and see what happens…
The Wonder Pages
with writer Alice Maddicott
4.30pm – 5.30pm
Friends Meeting House
What are your favourite words? What can you see around you? What do you wonder about? Come and fill a page with wonderful words to add to the Forest Wonder Wall.
Services on Celebration and Care of Creation
Sunday 5 June
9.30am, 11.15am, 6.30pm
Bath Abbey
Martyn Ware (Illustrious) and Andrew Grant (Grant Associates) will be speaking at the 6.30pm service.
Origami Workshop
with Akiko Wakefield of The Museum of East Asian Art
10am – 1pm
2pm – 4pm
Bath Abbey (North Aisle)
Make origami creatures to add to the Eden Forest.