An online lecture series being run by the Gardens Trust will offer a range of perspectives to fill the gaps in our collective knowledge, and explore new ways of engaging with the whole history of landscapes, gardens, and horticulture.
If you want to learn more about the links between placemaking and historic injustice, an online lecture series being run by the Gardens Trust may be a good place to start.
The series, Other Voices in Garden History, will offer a range of perspectives to fill the gaps in our collective knowledge, and explore new ways of engaging with the whole history of landscapes, gardens, and horticulture. With a diverse range of topics and speakers, it aims to uncover and celebrate some of the voices usually absent from the legacy of empire, colonialism, and enslavement.
Speakers include scientists, artists, historians, gardeners, heritage professionals and academics.
Sessions will cover:
- ways in which the Atlantic slave economy permeated the garden culture of Georgian Britain
- contemporary questions of race, heritage and the English countryside
- the realities of plant-hunting in China
- work by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh to become more inclusive
- projects to engage refugee groups and other diverse communities with historic parks and gardens
- the voices and stories that have helped build Africa’s Great Green Wall
- and more
The final event in the ten-part series will be a discussion panel, where leading figures in the field will debate the issues raised.
The series does not aim to point fingers. Rather, it seeks to explore ways to acknowledge past wrongs and celebrate voices beginning to be heard.
The series starts on 12 April 2021 and will run for ten weeks, with lectures taking place every Monday at 6.00pm. Recordings will available for those who can’t make the live session. Tickets are £5 per session or £40 for all ten, with a discount price of just £15 for the full series for students and apprentices.
