Woodland R&D
In collaboration with Stomping Grounds and with support from Arts Council England, Historic England and Newcastle University, Wild Museum is researching and developing creative programmes that work with an ancient wood outside Prudhoe, in Northumberland.
Duke’s Hagg Wood is 33 and a half acres of woodland.
It’s an everyday site for people in Prudhoe.
A jungly playground for generations of residents growing up. It was once the grounds of the mental health hospital next door. It has ancient soil. It’s now home to Stomping Grounds and thousands of young people access forest school education every year. It was coal mining land for decades. It apparently sits on top of a former medieval village.
We are working with local communities and heritage, arts, technology and ecology professionals to develop new types of cultural heritage activity that 1) works more imaginatively with the past, present & future of this space and the natural world all around us, and 2) increases local engagement with climate crisis.
Across 2021-22 we delivered a programme of exploratory workshops with 21 artists, technologists, researchers, and heritage professionals. At these sessions we developed new ideas for inspiring public exploration of green spaces. Read more.
Across 2022-23 we are working with Stomping Grounds, digital artists and 20 neurodivergent young people to tell the hidden working class stories of this post-industrial woodland. Young people will collect audio stories with local residents of all ages, create digital soundscapes of life 100 and 200 years ago, and digitally publish their interpretations for woodlands users to experience today. Read more.
Want to get involved or find out more? Drop us a line.
