Wakehurst champions one of the UK’s most threatened habitats in new summer art programme, Meadowland
Release date: 25 April 2024
14 June – 10 September 2024; 10.00-18.00
Tickets on sale 26 March 2024 at kew.org/wakehurst
Included in day ticket price
£1 entry for recipients of Universal Credit, Pension Credit and other legacy benefits
Wakehurst, Sussex
Highlights include:
- Five 3.5m tall wooden gateways decked in multicoloured prayer flags form a shrine to the plants and pollinators of meadows in The Wings Flutter, Grasslands are Alive from artist Saroj Patel
- Giant steel gramophone gives nature a voice, projecting a series of interviews with meadow wildlife recorded onsite at Wakehurst, from audio producer Annabel Ross, composer and sound artist Alice Boyd and sculptor Donnacha Cahill
- Portal to a parallel world reveals what life might be like from a bee’s perspective in In Visible Light, a bespoke audio-visual piece from Heinrich & Palmer
- Circle of colourful woven chairs handmade in Dakar offer a peaceful haven to slow down and enjoy the natural surrounds of the Asian Heath Garden, designed by Tord Boontje and inspired by traditional Senegalese weaving practices
- Multitude of mown paths through Wakehurst’s Coronation Meadow afford visitors an intimate audience with plants and wildlife – complete with quotes from inspirational figures carved into ash saved from the gardens
- Wakehurst’s 40-acre ancient parkland, South Park, opens to the public for the very first time
- Accompanying series of events offers activities for all ages throughout the summer months, from music, aerial performances and fire dancing in Wanderwild, to the next plant-saving mission for young planet protectors in Nature Heroes: Flower Power
Forming the most ambitious summer programme to date for RBG Kew’s wild botanic garden, Meadowland at Wakehurst presents a series of bespoke art installations specially commissioned for the 535-acre site to give voice to one of Britain’s most critically threatened habitats – the meadow.
Running for 13 weeks, Meadowland forms both a celebration of the diverse wildflowers, grasses and wildlife that form these precious ecosystems, and a rallying cry to unite people in protecting the rare habitat for future generations.
Wakehurst is home to a range of beautiful biodiverse meadows – from the ancient Hanging Meadow in the Loder Valley Nature Reserve to Coronation Meadow created in 2015 as a response to the then Prince of Wales’ call for new wildflower meadows marking 60 years of the late Queen’s reign. Across the country, it is today estimated that only 1% of species-rich meadows survive in active management and continue to be lost at an alarming rate. The scale and speed of this decline represents a conservation catastrophe. Responding to this critical state, Wakehurst has developed Meadowland to champion this threatened habitat in its time of great need.
Working in collaboration with leading artists on four new installations, Wakehurst hopes to connect visitors with the grasslands that serve such an important role for both the environment and society. Nestled across the landscapes, the bespoke commissions will draw explorers down new paths through Wakehurst's vibrant meadows, teeming with life – inviting them to follow the shifting landscapes as they bloom and fade across the season. Taking inspiration from swishing grasses, buzzing pollinators, bursts of colour, and hidden voices, the artworks span a multitude of creative mediums from audio and film to sculpture and textile. For the first time in a summer programme, Wakehurst’s own horticulturalists will explore their creative side, as the meadows themselves become a canvas for important stories, illustrating the symbiotic relationship between humans and grassland.
A sense of arrival
Meadows offer an arena of calm, a space to feel immersed in the sights and sounds of nature and disconnect from the pressures of life. For artist Saroj Patel, a desire for visitors to enjoy this feeling of being present in nature informed her large-scale piece, The Wings Flutter, Grasslands are Alive. Located in the breathtaking Bloomers Valley, rich in local Wealden species, her five large gateways form a shrine to the meadows. Taking inspiration from the grasslands across her ancestral home in Gujarat, India, and the colourful shrines carved into the foothills of the Himalayas, the 3.5m high gateways will be adorned with over 700 handsewn flags, evoking the colours of butterfly and moth wings and the flowers they pollinate. Bells at each gateway signal a sense of arrival, evoking an inner peace when rung, completing the sacred place where plants, pollinators and people meet.
Peace and pollinators have also proven to be inspiring subjects for multi-disciplinary designer Tord Boontje. The Meadow Shadow installation will form a ring of brightly coloured cocoon-like chairs in the heart of the Asian Heath Garden. Woven by expert craftspeople in Senegal, the curled shape of the tall chair backs invite visitors to nestle into the enclosed seat, designed to provide shade. Bespoke digitally-printed cushions featuring imagery from the surrounding plants and animals explore the ecosystem of the meadow and offer additional comfort. Designed for dwelling, the chairs offer a place to slow down and enjoy a deeper connection with nature. Encircled by a specially selected collection of wildflowers, the chairs will reflect the bright colours beyond. Boontje was inspired by the research of Kew scientists, exploring which colours attract a greater diversity of pollinators.
Whilst Boonjte’s work invites stillness, a new intervention in Coronation Meadow encourages visitors to roam to every corner of the expansive grassland. Breaking with tradition of a single mown path, the horticultural team will mow a maze of paths through the grasses and wildflowers, inviting people to experience the variety of plant life and the wonders of new perspectives from each end. As they wind their way through, planks of ash harvested from fallen trees across Wakehurst will display quotes from a range of figures about what meadows mean to them.
Changing perspectives
Meadows serve an important role in the health of the planet, providing food and shelter for an array of mammals and nesting birds whilst the diverse species of wildflowers and grasses offer food to pollinating insects – a community which has inspired two multimedia installations.
Annabel Ross, founder and producer of the podcast series ‘Messages from the Wild’ joins forces with British composer and sound artist Alice Boyd, and Irish sculptor Donnacha Cahill to create Voices from the Meadow, a new audio installation housed in Cahill’s The Gramophone, a 3.2m steel gramophone. Weighing a ton, the sculpture will project interviews and sound recordings made onsite – with unexpected interviewees. Giving voice to nature, the piece reveals stories of a cinnabar moth, meadow grasshopper and a scissor bee, voiced by Wakehurst horticulturalists and scientists, accompanied by the sounds of their natural habitat. Visitors are invited to nestle into a natural amphitheater created by the Wakehurst team and specially planted with the flowers that would attract such creatures.
Experiencing life from an insect’s perspective is a concept artist partnership Heinrich & Palmer also explore in Beeline – a film lasting 12-15 minutes housed in a large shipping container overlooking the Millennium Seed Bank. As visitors enter the enclosed space, they are transported into a new portal which asks ‘what might life look like to a bee at Wakehurst’? Combining drone footage with evocative imaging methods and experimental filming techniques, the film will shift viewers into an imaginative space, inviting them to leave human perspective behind and consider what the outdoors might look like to the powerful pollinators which the natural world relies on.
New discoveries
At Wakehurst, visitors can immerse themselves in a whole spectrum of grasslands, from meadows to prairie and parkland. The American Prairie found at the heart of the garden transports people to the arid grasslands of North America, flourishing in late-summer with an ever-evolving tapestry of flowers and grasses. For the first time ever, visitors can also explore the ancient parkland of South Park. The 40-acre species-rich grassland bordering the Asian Heath Garden, is entering a new phase of life, where the horticultural team will add additional wildflower species to enhance its colour and character and undertake a summer hay cut combined with autumn and winter grazing.
But for summer 2024, the profusion of wildflowers and wildlife that form the meadow habitat, once a common feature of the British rural landscape, will form a ‘living programme’ for Wakehurst. Working with the cycle of traditional meadow management practices, the Meadowland experience will shift with each month. From blooming colours in early summer, to the sun-bleached tones of high-season grasses, and eventually the freshly mown scenes following the hay cut as autumn approaches, the changing landscape and how the installations sit within them invite visitors to return to admire their evolution and the caretaking required to conserve the precious habitat.
Accompanying events
A full programme of events for all ages will run throughout Meadowland. More details below.
For more press information, please contact
Iliana Taliotis at mail@ilianataliotis.com or 07931 341 112 or email wakehurstpr@kew.org
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Notes to editors
Image credits from left to right:
Wakehurst’s Bloomers Valley, Jim Holden © RBG Kew
Tord Boontje, ‘Shadowy chair orange’, Photography by Eye Studio - Moroso
Donnacha Cahill, ‘The Gramophone’ for ‘Voices from the Meadow’ by Annabel Ross, Alice Boyd and Donnacha Cahill
Full programme of events
Meadowland
14 June – 10 September 2024
10.00-18.00
Tickets on sale 26 March 2024 at kew.org/wakehurst
Included in day ticket price
Summer Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
15, 16, 22, 23, 29, and 30 June
14.30-17.30 (picnic area open from 12.30)
£17.50 per adult / £8.75 17-25 yrs / £5 4-16 yrs / Members 20% off
Tickets on sale soon at kew.org/wakehurst
William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream finds a wild home at Wakehurst as The Archway Theatre Company present this much-loved comedy. Designed for young audiences, this retelling of four young lovers encountering fairies of the forest is set outdoors with the beautiful American Prairie and the Pinetum (Wakehurst’s very own magical woodland) surrounding the natural stage. Audiences can become fairies themselves with face-painting artists ready to transform with a flick of a brush, whilst storytellers will get visitors primed for the theatrical experience. And with Midsummer celebrated on the 21 June, these performances couldn’t be better timed.
Wanderwild
18 – 20 July
18.00-21.00
Tickets on sale April 2024
Adult tickets from £12
Tickets: Member on sale 7 May / General on sale 14 May / Early bird ends 27 May at kew.org/wakehurst
Wakehurst basks in a golden glow during the long balmy evenings of late-summer. With a botanical cocktail in-hand and music lilting on the breeze, visitors can drift from the glistening waters of Mansion Pond, through the open lawns, to the gently waving grasses and wildflowers of the American Prairie and at each spot enjoy beautiful performances from dancers, musicians and more. Rounded off with mouth-watering dishes freshly cooked to order, it’s hard to imagine a more sumptuous experience than Wakehurst’s Wanderwild.
Nature Heroes: Flower Power
23 July – 1 September
10.00-18.00
Badge mission prices will vary but start from £3
Tickets on sale 26 March at kew.org/wakehurst
Inspired by the colours and textures of Wakehurst’s meadows and the wonders nestled across the gardens in Meadowland, the summer edition of Nature Heroes invites budding botanists to discover more about wildflowers and the important role they play for the planet. The specially-designed trail will weave through the ancient parkland of South Park – a beautiful space that will be open to visitors for the first time in 2024. Plus, there’s the all-important badge to collect for superhero capes!
About Wakehurst
Please note that Wakehurst is referred to just as Wakehurst, not Wakehurst Place. It is not a National Trust property.
The National Trust was bequeathed the Mansion and grounds of Wakehurst in 1963. It was then entrusted to us here at Kew in 1965, and we now work in partnership with the National Trust to care for our collections and heritage areas.
Wakehurst is Kew’s wild botanic garden in the Sussex High Weald National Landscape. Its ancient and beautiful landscapes span 535 acres and are a place for escape, exploration, tranquility, and wonder. Its diverse collection of plants from Britain and around the globe thrive within a tapestry of innovative gardens, temperate woodlands, meadows, and wetlands. Wakehurst is a centre for UK biodiversity and global conservation, seed research and ecosystem science. At its heart is Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, the world’s largest store of seeds from wild plant species.
RBG Kew receives approximately one third of its funding from Government through the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and research councils. Further funding needed to support RBG Kew’s vital work comes from donors, membership and commercial activity including ticket sales. In the first six months since implementing a new accessibility scheme for those in receipt of Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Legacy Benefits, Kew has welcomed over 45,000 visitors with £1 tickets.
At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, we’re dedicated to harnessing the power of plants and fungi to end the extinction crisis and secure a future for all life on Earth. With our world-leading research, global partnerships and beloved gardens – home to the world’s most diverse collections of plants and fungi – we’re using our trusted voice to shape policy and practice worldwide. As a charity we rely on the critical support of our visitors, not only to sustain the gardens, but to protect global plant and fungal biodiversity for the benefit of our planet and humanity.