​​​​​Sculpture in the Parklands

​2002-2010

The mission of Sculpture in the Parklands was to inspire artists to create artworks in response to the unique landscape and industrial heritage of the cut away bogland and to build an awareness of the arts within the community through public participation and interaction. 

​In addition to permanent sculpture and time-based work, the project commissioned video artists, composers, writers, choreographers and performance artists to interpret and document this unique landscape, folklore and industrial history.

The artists working at Sculpture in the Parklands come from a variety of places in the world. Each has a particular way of working with nature, of expressing their art. Each brings their own specific cultural experience and this plays a role in the way their art manifests itself. It can involve aspects of dance, of music, of design, of ideation, or any number of aspects that enter into evolving this new paradigm of an art that works with nature. There is an awareness of the incredible versatility and variety of nature and its forms and manifestations.   Many of the ideas initiated by artists working with nature today are seized on by “professionals” in others fields - landscapers, designers, architects, horticulturists, educators, and craftspeople. This gives a sense of how relevant an art that deals with the experience of nature really is, even more so in a world where new technological innovations are increasingly pulling us away from direct experience, the tactile world, into a parallel experience indulged on, and produced by the micro-screen technology. 

John Grande  Art/Nature Dialogues