Harding’s Pits, King’s Lynn | Sainsbury Centre, Norwich |Twickenham Common, London
Three oak circles of seven trees have been planted in 2025 with our host cultural partners; GroundWork Gallery, King’s Lynn; Sainsbury Centre, Norwich; Orleans House Gallery, Richmond.
Workshops and public talks have been supported by Arts Council England with activities throughout the year at King’s Lynn Town Hall; Whitefriars Primary School, KL; Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival 2025; Sainsbury Centre; Lynn Museum, KL; Buckingham Primary School, Twickenham.
Each circle is rooted into a network of partners including Harding’s Pits Community Association and King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council; Habitat & Heritage, Richmond and Richmond-upon-Thames Borough Council; Lynn Museum, KL
The circles are the initiation of a national project where aesthetics and ethics meet, Beuys’ Acorns – the Prelude & the Planting aims to plant up to seventeen circles in public spaces partnered with host cultural centres. The ground for each circle is prepared by a creative programme of public engagement – the Prelude: working closely with local practitioners and groups to creatively celebrate the Planting and stimulate a legacy of radicle [sic] care to foster a reciprocal ecology between plants and humans with the trees at the centre. Each circle will be deeply rooted in the land and local people.
The duration of the planting scheme is 2025-2027.
Background
The participating trees have been grown* since 2007 as part of Beuys’ Acorns, Ackroyd & Harvey’s open-ended research project which is a direct continuation of Joseph Beuys’ groundbreaking artwork 7000 Oaks – City Forestation Instead of City Administration (1982), using acorns collected from the original trees in Kassel, Germany. Working closely with the outreach and education departments of arts institutions, local practitioners and community residents, we will embrace the spirit of Beuys’ Acorns as a catalyst artwork to create a series of workshops, actions and activities that have public participation at the core.
Since its inception, Beuys’ Acorns has been exhibited across the UK and France in venues including Tate Modern, London; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Sainsbury Centre, Norwich; Southbank Centre, London; CUBE, Manchester; Le Jardin Botanique, Bordeaux; Le Potager Du Roi and La Maréchalerie, Versailles. Exhibition of the trees has been in parallel to live research and public conversations with the artists and invited guests into the cultural, biological and climatic significance of trees in a rapidly urbanising world.
One tree was permanently planted at Tate Modern in 2021 to celebrate Joseph Beuys’ centennial and acknowledge Tate declaring a climate and ecological emergency.
Further circles are in development with Thamesmead, Peabody; Eden Project, Cornwall; Goethe-Institut, Kensington; Surrey Hills Arts; West Horsley Place
Links:
https://www.rhacc.ac.uk/events/richmond-arts-ideas-festival-2025
https://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/article/71647/Leaf-Printing-Workshop
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/beuys-acorns
https://www.orleanshousegallery.org/events/cultural-reforesting-exhibition/
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