Forest of Imagination heads riverside for 5th Anniversary

Arts pop-up Forest of Imagination is to take place in Bath again from 28 -30 September 2018, connecting people to nature with a series of fantastical forests, art trails and innovative sculptures.

Returning to the city for its fifth consecutive year, this year’s free event will see spaces in Kingsmead Square, down Avon Street to the River Avon at Bath Quays North, all transformed into a series of ‘Future Forests’ designed to spark people’s imaginations.

Each Forest will offer a sensory kaleidoscope of playful installations, art trails and workshops, exploring different aspects of forest life - from the forest floor to the forest canopy.

This year’s event is also being launched in partnership with Bath Children’s Literature Festival (28 September – 7 October 2018), one of the city’s most popular annual events.

Amongst a host of creative installations by artists, schools and local businesses, highlights for this year’s Forest of Imagination event will include:

· A ‘Courtyard of Creativity’, designed by architect Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios featuring architectural street furniture, providing a venue for eating, learning and creating.

·  Interactive street theatre from children’s art charity The House of Fairy Tales

·  A 3D forest soundscape created by Illustrious, led by Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware

·  Forest pyramids built by Carpenter Oak & Woodland with architect Piers Taylor

· An inflatable forest by landscape architects Grant Associates

· A floating forest on the River Avon by Grant Associates

· Installations and workshops by local artists and designers including Alison Harper, Jessica Palmer and Matthew Leece

· An immersive installation in collaboration with Shai Akram and the egg theatre Incubator project

· Illustrations of the river ecology with Conor Busuttil and local schools

· A collaboration with Three Ways Special School involving artists Luke Woodbury, Matt Cleary and Juliann Worrall Hood

· Artworks on the River Avon by River is the Venue (RIV) – a collaboration between art gallery 44AD artspace, arts charity Art at the Heart of the Royal United Hospital (RUH) and the University of Bath, celebrating the history of Bath’s river

Forest of Imagination 2018 has been made possible thanks to generous funding from Arts Council England, Grant Associates and Herman Miller Cares, together with the support of a host of other local businesses and organisations including Bath Spa University, Bristol Zoo, Wessex Waterand Bath BID.

A ‘home grown’ event, Forest of Imagination was co-founded by Bath based landscape architect Andrew Grant of Grant Associates, whose work on the iconic Gardens by the Bay featured in Planet Earth 2 - the BBC’s most watched natural history programme to date.

Grant Associates is part of a collective of local companies and creatives who co-design the event including arts charity 5x5x5=creativity, Bath Spa University and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.