Making Sense of Here: revealing multiple narratives of place through artistic process and integrating art and artists into transdisciplinary research

Abstract

The celebrated English Lake District, a national park and World Heritage Site, embraces complexity and tension. In landscape decision-making, farmers, landowners, policy makers, ecologists, residents, tourists and businesses have vested interests, as do the land and other-than-humans; yet the challenge remains in considering voices equitably and integrating complex environmental data. The art project Sense of Here (2018–2020), incorporating learning from local experts, scientists and land managers, and using walking, poetry, photography, film and installations, aimed to portray and connect multiple perspectives. Learning from Sense of Here was instrumental in the establishment of the multi-artist PLACE Collective within the UK Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas; and contributed to the Windermere Accord, formed through the Ensemble Fellowship to improve pathways to better understand, mitigate and adapt to environmental change. This paper shares insights from Sense of Here and considers the role of art in shifting patterns of dialogue across different silos.