Seasons and Redhall tree dressing by The Weeping Girls

EVERGREEN

The Evergreen Project begun in 2015 as a year long project with SEASONS and Redhall Walled Garden.

Over 2015/2016 the Jupiter learning team has welcomed members of SEASONS and Redhall Walled Garden to Jupiter Artland for a series of visits and workshops as part of an ongoing partnership. The project evolved when a member of SEASONS, a service offered by City of Edinburgh Council to support people with their mental health and wellbeing, passed away leaving a small legacy to the group. SEASONS have been visiting Jupiter Artland for many years and were inspired by Nathan Coley’s In Memory to create an ongoing project thinking about memory and how we mark the passing of life. SEASONS joined up with Redhall Walled Garden, which offers training in horticulture, conservation, maintenance skills, ITC/admin and life skills for people with mental health problems and works with over 50 service users. Over the months different members from Seasons and Redhall have been visiting Jupiter Artland and responding to the changes in the seasons, the artwork and the trees. The Jupiter learning team have also visited Redhall Walled Garden to run art workshops on site.

The project is named Evergreen after the title by Patrick Geddes, which celebrates local culture and living nature and was recently republished by Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust. As part of the legacy of the project the group have sourced, gifted and planted a series of pine trees  to form part of a new pinetum at Jupiter Artland. The pinetum began when Nicky Wilson bought a selection of old lead tree labels from a house closing down in the Borders. We have been working to source all the trees related back to these lables to create a pinetum at Jupiter Artland.

On 13 October, Jupiter Artland, SEASONS and Redhall Walled Garden are screening ‘Evergreen‘, a short film and exhibition reflecting our yearlong journey through this beautiful landscape. Taking inspiration from the changing seasons and Jupiter Artland’s permanent collection, we explored themes of memory and loss. With a celebratory mid-winter tree-dressing event, creative making sessions and conifer tree planting for woodland renewal, each of us put a little bit of ourselves into this project and watched it grow and change. We know that presenting Evergreen at a time when returning to nature has never been more essential for our well-being.

Currently the film is also part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.