The Art Station and its community are focusing on the environment and our local natural heritage. Suffolk is known for its landscape, coast and wide open skies and the wildlife – flora and fauna – that inhabits this beautiful geography. East Suffolk and its coastline contains areas designated as National Landscapes and SSSI Sites of Special Scientific Interest; unique, rare habits that have value and significance in Suffolk, for the UK and globally.
We aim to engage our community of all ages in our local environment both in and around Saxmundham – along our River Fromus and along our coastline – through creative thinking and activities and opportunities for learning and through programming that focuses on exploring thoughts and ideas about the challenges for our climate, biodiversity and environment. Through our experience of working with the community we understand that people of all ages are more motivated to care and value nature if the experience that we can offer is enjoyable and is part of making friends and social connections and learning new things. By engaging the community in a deeper appreciation of the environment, we hope to inspire long-term intergenerational community stewardship of our local ecosystems and to empower people to value and preserve our vital habitats. What we can aspire to do locally and small steps of achievement can act as both inspiration and hope and resonate further than our town and coast.
Our aim is to connect community, creatives and environmentalists so that effective models of engagement can be shared. What works best here in Suffolk and East Anglia and elsewhere across the UK? How can we creatively bring people together to make a difference. We aim to bring to our project and programme of activities individuals and organisations with expert knowledge and experience to share their ideas and practice with us. If we can create a positive way of working together here this too can be shared as a model for what might work in a rural market town – of which there are many across the UK.
We began our Creative Environment Events in 2025 across the local market towns, Aldeburgh, Leiston and Saxmundham inviting community, creatives and environmentalists to come together and share ideas as to how we can best engage people of all ages and connect people across our neighbouring towns to support ideas and activities and create a strong and empowering network. Our first three events were :
Young Connections: Leiston. Artist and Game Designer Henry Driver presented Treeplanter, a nature game resulting in real world tree planting consequences, created in collaboration with West Suffolk College and University students. Henry launched Treeplanter – ‘Leiston Level’ and Leiston’s young people were invited to talk about about their collaboration and relationship with nature. Director of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, Emily Dowdeswell presented a Call for Spaces of Liberated Learning, designed to spark conversations about creating spaces where children flourish, ‘particularly forests, fields and unruly artscapes’. Presented in Leiston’s Longshop Musuem.
Shifting Perspectives: explored innovative and inclusive approaches to engagement with the creative environment for the wellbeing of groups and the benefit of our natural heritage through presentations, discussion and creative activity. Ruth Catlow, Co-founder and Director of Furtherfield, an arts organisation employing art and technology for eco social change, presented their innovative multi species roleplay approach. Kasia Posen, Project Development Officer at Suffolk Artlink, presented Wild About Kirkley, a site specific project exploring accessible mapping, foraging and creativity to explore Kirkley’s unique natural environment. Presented in Saxmundham Market Hall.
Walking as Discovery: explored the power of walking and observing in connecting meaningfully with others and our natural surroundings through presentations, discussion and creative activity. Richard Allenby Pratt, photographer and founder of The Suffolk Project, presented his creative practice photographing the rural landscape and its people, and supporting others to do so including through The Art Station project PhotoShed. Jevan Watkins Jones, Suffolk based artist and gardener presented The Art Station’s Riverside Walks programme and its impact. Presented in St John’s Hall, Aldeburgh.
Our focus on nature and wildlife extends beyond the creative walks to our educational initiatives for local schoolchildren. At Old Bank Garden, we hosted creative learning days in collaboration with Saxmundham and Benhall primary schools. These days were centered around understanding the critical roles that trees, insects, and wildlife play in pollination and the broader health of the ecosystem. Activities included planting seeds, studying the geometric patterns in plants and seeds, drawing, making plant prints, and crafting clay insects. These hands-on activities were designed to inspire children to explore the natural world, recognize the importance of biodiversity, and appreciate the beauty of plants and creatures.
In addition to our work with local schools, we have partnered with the Men’s Shed, a local social group, to build a series of insect hotels. These insect hotels were inspired by designs created by work experience students and have been skillfully brought to life by the Men’s Shed team. Our dedicated volunteer, Roger, painted the insect hotels to ensure they were both functional and aesthetically pleasing. The insect hotels will soon be filled with the help of local primary schools and installed near the Saxmundham community mural (painted by the community at Saxmundham Arts Festival 2023), situated between the Fromus River and Fromus Green. This installation will provide the entire community with an opportunity to observe the insects as they settle in, fostering a deeper connection to nature and helping to raise awareness of the vital role insects play in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
We were also thrilled to welcome pupils from Benhall Primary School to our Old Bank Garden for a tree-planting event. This memorable occasion marked the planting of a ring of fruit trees, generously supplied by Botanica, a local nursery and arboretum known for cultivating trees of authentic English provenance. These fruit trees will not only beautify the garden but also provide a welcoming habitat for wildlife, promoting biodiversity within the space. The pupils from Benhall Primary School actively participated in the tree planting, gaining hands-on experience in the process of planting, protecting, and labeling the fruit trees. Over time, we look forward to watching the trees grow and flourish, creating an environment that benefits both nature and our local community.
Over the last three years we have offered artist-led nature walks to individuals and groups or all ages locally in and around Saxmundham, within the coastal National Landscapes area and along our River Fromus. Many people don’t have access to nature especially those who live in urban areas, have socio-economic challenges or whose families and friends don’t have the experience or confidence to be out in the landscape.
Our walks along the River Fromus led to a project called River Fromus, our river, our past, our future and have provided a rewarding opportunity for The Art Station and our community to discover our river – which is currently a hidden natural asset passing through our town.
The Art Station have been developing the riverside garden behind our Old Bank building over the last three years. Through engaging our community in planting, seeding,dry wall construction and leaving areas to grow undisturbed we are sharing knowledge and supporting habitats in the garden.We welcome volunteers and inidividual and group visits for creative sessions that focus on biodiversity and what is currently present in the garden.