Nature Rising - a reflection

1.First of all, let’s start off with some introductions:

Gnisha Bevan (she/her) – I lead the Black Seeds Network, we're the lead partner for Nature Rising along with Friends of the Earth. I’m the Executive Producer for the Nature Rising exhibition. 

Michelle Pascale  –   I'm a filmmaker and was the Creative Director for the exhibition. 
  
Laura Woodfield  (she/her) – I'm the Producer for the public programme at We The Curious; a large ranging events programme that takes place both inside and outside our building and in our communities. I commissioned the Nature Rising exhibition.  

2. Let’s look back at the Nature Rising exhibition, how did it come together? What was the original vision? 

Laura: It came about quite by luck, Gnisha and I were having a catch up about some of the work she was doing with Black Seeds Network, she was telling me about this programme called Nature Rising that they'd been working on. I thought it sounded amazing; I asked how they were telling people about it and mentioned that we had a space where we could tell that story – I thought that it’d make a really interesting exhibition. 


Michelle: We're city dwellers in a diverse community. How can and how does that affect us in terms of nature, with the lack of green spaces and all the hurdles that we have to overcome? 
 
We have different voices from different cultures, and through the Nature Rising programme we come together. We realised the expertise that was in the community already - all of the ages and past experiences, voices that often don't get heard. How could we do something that shows all of these voices and explores the wealth of experience, expertise, colour, vibrancy of these? 

The idea of doors came up quite early; we're often banging on doors, we're also often trying to be let in, but this was a chance to let others into our space as well. Showing the potential was the idea of these doors that were represented in the exhibition - showing what and who we are. 


Gnisha: Michelle and I are both really passionate about storytelling, and the fact that our stories are so seldom told. It's really heartbreaking when it comes to the green movement and all the crises we face; we've got loads of talent and skills to share, so it was really wonderful to have an opportunity to bring our stories to life with something that so deeply referenced our cultures and our heritage. And one that was so assets-focused, rather than a deficit mentality. Quite often people are looking for what's wrong with Global Majority people and communities, and not actually all the amazing the wealth of talent, skill and inspiration that we actually bring.

3.Why do you think an exhibition like this is so important?

Gnisha: It was wonderful seeing ourselves there, some people were really quite emotional. I was really emotional - the first time I saw it, I thought “wow, I've never seen anything like this. I don't usually see myself in anything like this”. It was really beautiful.
 
We're not well represented in the environmental movement; we’re not there in the curriculum, in schools, in textbooks. Some of our academic work is hard to find, the successes of what we do is not well researched, and all of this is having an impact on the sector. The sustainability sector is the second least diverse sector in the UK, after agriculture (see The RACE Report and links below). 

There are lots of factors feeding into why that's the case. At best we're not represented or we're misrepresented. But at worst, we're actively erased. There's a misconception sometimes that we aren't interested in the environment, that we have to be educated, that we have to be engaged with. Another way of looking at it, is that maybe the mainstream sector is going about things in ways that aren't working for the majority of people. There's a specific set of things that people are invited to take part in when it comes to environmental action and that's coming from a particular viewpoint - there's so much more going on. 

So seeing ourselves represented well, and positively, from there you can start conversations that could potentially have really amazing ripple effects. If we want to start with gaining interest for our communities, it’s far better to start with some decent positive representation. 


Michelle: In the making of the exhibition, it was a challenge for all of us - it was a chance to prove ourselves, and a chance to show what we could do when we do things our way and do it for our community. 

It was important to us to get the feedback from the community that they really loved it;  so seeing their faces, seeing them saying “yes, this is representative of us” was wonderful. 

During the making of the exhibition, some of those voices began to emerge — as well as within the teams and people working in We The Curious. I really loved that. The first day it was four white walls and it was a bit “wow, OK, here we go”. The process was frightening and challenging, but also fun. 


Laura: One of the things that We The Curious is really passionate is about welcoming people who don't feel science for them for whatever reason, whether that's feeling unconfident with the subject and the different topics or whether they don't necessarily feel welcome.

It spoke to that pledge to include everyone in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths); we’re in a position of privilege as a large central Bristol venue, we exist in a place with a platform and I think it's really important that we share that platform with other people. Being able to give space to these conversations in our venue felt really important. 


Gnisha: For a Just Transition to a sustainable future; we know that the pipelines for green skills aren't really there in our communities at the moment. We want to spark early excitement, celebrating Global Majority contributions in relatable ways within a science centre that’s deeply rooted in communities. This way we can create a more inclusive path into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) so that people can see it is for them.

4. What’s the impact of it been?

Laura: One of the biggest impacts for me was that it's the first time we've been able to leverage our reimagined Community Membership offer alongside an exhibition in The Box.  We were able to register groups and partners visiting Nature Rising as community members - we brought in a huge variety of people to see the exhibition, who wouldn't necessarily normally be in the building. That's the first time that we were able to have Community Membership working alongside a community-led exhibition space. It was a really positive part of it, so we were able to host friends and family days, with Black Seeds Network offering a number of spaces on regular dates throughout the exhibition run. I think that really created a much broader impact than we would have had if it was simply just a ticketed exhibition. 

Michelle: I think it really helps when events allow people to attend as a group. Going alone, even with a free ticket, doesn’t have the same impact. Being with others makes it easier to feel comfortable and settle into the space. It was really nice to celebrate together.
 

Gnisha: I just want to say a huge thank you to We The Curious for this partnership, it’s been absolutely brilliant. The emotional impact of feeling represented, knowing that our communities are welcome in a space and also knowing that we've got allies in the city is huge. We know that budgets are tight, but everything we asked for, Laura and her team said “let's have a think about that” - I fully expected to be told no, and then you told us yes, every single time. Thanks so much to the Exhibitions team who helped to bring Michelle’s creative vision to life. It’s a delight to work with partners that are willing to go on that kind of journey with us.  

The impact is that, going back to the green skills pipeline, we employed a total of 7 Black artists and we had four other team members - so that's all people have now had opportunities to work in the green, creative and science centre sectors, from one exhibition. Huge thanks to our artists Keyane, Rosina, Dan and Nadia.

We've got confidence to be able to say “we can do this” – Michelle and I both stepped into new roles, it was my first time being an Executive Producer, and Michelle's first time as a Creative Director. 

We’re starting to have conversations with new potential partners. We're really, interested in talking about the environment through the arts, through creativity, through interactivity - we've learned so much about that through working with Laura and team, so that’s been brilliant.
 
It's the first time that Easton and Saint Paul's have been represented in We The Curious in this way, and I’d say probably the first of its kind in terms of it being a Global Majority led exhibition on the environment for Bristol for six months – that is a huge achievement. 

We’ve had different visitors from our communities coming to see the exhibition, we know that at least three families have had repeat visits. I was talking to one parent, who said that her daughter absolutely loved it and kept asking to come to We The Curious. She loved the exhibition and being able to explore all the different exhibits in the venue, learning about science in a really hands-on way.  And she's not the only one, there was another family that kept coming back and asking for more, all of those stories make me really excited.

5. And what’s next? Where do we go from here? 

Michelle: I might be doing another exhibition exploring Black identity in Bristol, so moving on from the Windrush generation and looking at the second generation of first-borns here. I've been approached on that because of this exhibition, I'm hopeful that I can bring in some of the artists along with us on this. 


Gnisha: We want to keep going! Our communities have given us really great feedback, so we want to keep doing things that are meaningful to them. We’re really happy that we can continue on this journey and they love the fact that what we're doing is culturally appropriate. They love that it's drawing on the skills and talents that they already have, and that we’re talking in a language that is accessible and understandable. We're not hitting people with loads of jargon, we're treating people with the respect to recognise and value their knowledge.  We really, really want to build on that and keep drawing on people's skills. We're bursting with ideas!  


Laura: I hope that this exhibition had demonstrated to the wider We The Curious community about what's possible when we work in partnership like this. I'd really like to see more of that working at We The Curious, this has been a really positive example of what can happen when the partnership works well. My hope is what comes next is more of the same, it's been a really fun project to work on.

*Bonus question – what are you most proud of?

Michelle: It comes back to seeing the doors work because that was the thing right at the beginning. When they (the artists) saw themselves, each one of them reacted so brilliantly, I think all of them were just so moved by seeing themselves and their expertise reflected. It reminded me of the power of storytelling and the power of voice – giving them a voice in an exhibition like that, and for them to shine. 


Laura: I think I'm most proud that we got it how you wanted it, because it's always a race against time, budgets and ambition versus reality. We did a lot with not a huge amount, and that’s credit to the Exhibitions team. I think I'm most proud to hear that it looked how you wanted it and it was the exhibition that you wanted for everyone to see. 


Gnisha: I can never choose just one thing, but I can give you 3 things… 

I echo what Michelle has said about stories, this has been a dream that I've had for a long time about improving representation of Global Majority people who are interested in the environment in the city.  Being able to have such a great platform to do that is a huge, huge achievement, so I'm really proud of that. That happened because of the amazing team at Nature Rising, and also for this specific project; the creative team, Michelle's creative vision, and then all the artists and everybody that implemented all of that. I'm really, really proud of everyone. 

I have to thank We The Curious, I’m proud that we were able to work together so well in such a great partnership. To be able to showcase what we could do - who knows what the ripple effects of this are going to be for the future. 

For anybody that came and enjoyed the exhibition, I'm really proud that we were able to deliver something meaningful and that might spark some change and open up some opportunities for others.

Links and further information:

Nature Rising was created by a consortium of partners, led by Black Seeds Network and Friends of the Earth. We are: Nature Rising, Black Seeds Network, Friends of the Earth, Divina Botanica, Bristol Rainforest, KMT, and Fam Films. 

Accompanying Nature Rising exhibition booklet: Nature Rising Exhibition Booklet by Black Seeds Network - Creative Connex

Podcast on Nature Rising from Carbon Copy: Bonus Episode: Nature Rising | Carbon Copy

Article about Nature Film from Bristol 24/7: Nature Rising film celebrates Global Majority leadership in Bristol

Article from RACE report on diversity in the environmental sector