Peat Fest: The Oxford Stage (2024), creative engagement workshops, Lye Valley Nature Reserve & Bullingdon Community Association, Oxford, UK.

Peat Fest: The Oxford Stage was a two-day peatland-themed festival engaging with the unique ecology of the Lye Valley Nature Reserve in Oxford. Participants were invited to contribute to a collaborative tapestry with and of the Lye Valley, which took shape over the course of the weekend during three creative workshops led by Oxford-based artists Usha dapur Kar, Caroline Vitzthum, and Helen Edwards. Peat Fest: The Oxford Stage was supported by RE-PEAT and is part of their wider Peat-Fest series - a unique festival celebrating all things peaty and building a community around peatlands through events of peatland learning and fun.

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Fen, mud & monoprint with Usha dapur Kar

In this workshop, participants took inspiration from the colours, plants, shapes, soils, and sounds explored on a walk through the Lye Valley Nature Reserve to create earthy images on a shared tapestry using painting, mono-printing and collaging techniques as well as getting messy making their own paints with soil samples gathered in the Valley. For inspiration and to build a creative context, Usha gave an introduction to the art of the Gond people, former forest dwellers from central India. The emphasis of the workshop was on making-together - being creative in community and enjoying the process.

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Reed, reed, reed the weave with Caroline Vitzthum

During this experimental workshop participants worked with reeds gathered from the Lye Valley Nature Reserve and creatively explored different forms of weaving this raw plant material. Common reed (Phragmites australis) is a well-established plant in the Valley and and due to it being a rather dominant, fast-spreading species, it is regularly ‘grazed’ by volunteers to maintain biodiversity and allow other plants to thrive alongside it. Participants experimented with all parts of the plants - the stems, leaves, and seed heads - and applied different collaging techniques to incorporate them into the textile piece. The plant material is alive and, over time, it will change texture, colour, and shape while undergoing the natural cycle of decay.

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Grass puppet theatre with Helen Edwards

Participants created puppets out of bundles of grasses, sedges, reeds, and wetland flower materials found in Lye Valley Nature Reserve. The puppets brought to life the movements of the plants thriving in the soils and sedimentary layers of the Lye Valley. The group listened to the gestures and movements of the grass puppets and brought them to life through collective dance and movement, while discovering new stories of the Valley. The workshop was inspired by Helen’s travels in Java and the traditional art of Wayang Suket - meaning ghost of the grasses/grass shadow puppet - conveying both traditional stories and Javanese wisdom for living well. In the next stage, the puppets will be used to create a shadow puppet play in front of the textile, relaying the discoveries and stories from the workshop.