Current Cultural Reforesting projects on view

Our Cultural Reforesting programme has supported artists research projects since 2021. Each artist’s research has its own focus, touching on the complexity of the ecological crisis. A number of these projects are currently on view at Orleans House Gallery: 

Ackroyd & Harvey, Beuys’ Acorns, 2007 – oak tree planted at Orleans House Gallery, 2026 

The adolescent oak tree in our woodland, along the Orleans House Gallery drive, is part of Ackroyd & Harvey’s on-going Beuys’ Acorns project. Through this project, the artists have nurtured acorns they collected into thriving young trees. The artists are planting many circles of seven trees in urban public spaces and in partnership with cultural venues. This single oak tree at Orleans House Gallery is a sister tree to one of these circles, recently sited on Hampton Common. 

Now the trees are planted, rooted into the land and rooted with the people of Richmond upon Thames. The ongoing project follows Beuys’ legacy and intention for the work: these living sculptures foster a reciprocal ecology between plants and humans with the trees at the centre. 

We are grateful to the young people who helped us plant this oak tree with Ackroyd & Harvey at our Out of the Shadows – Creative Careers Day event. 

Andrew Merritt (Something & Son), Supermarket Display, 2025 – seed sculpture and living garden 

Andrew Merritt’s playful seed sculptures shaped like familiar packaged food are slowly decomposing, losing their supermarket shape as they erode and the seeds within them germinate and grow edible or medicinal plants. These flowerbeds, located just outside of our central courtyard gates, are prototypes for vast ecosystems. They provide sustenance for worms, insects, birds, the plants and more.  

As humans, we rely on plants. Yet the relationship between humans and plants is strained by our current food systems. Let us rethink these systems and re-engage with the time when we wandered the forest for food rather than supermarket aisles.  

Andrew’s work is a collaboration with ethnobotanists, artists, ecologists, farmers, and the forest itself. A special thanks to the volunteers and community members who helped build the seed sculptures. 

Sit Spots, inspired by Kinship Workshop 

You’re invited to find a welcoming spot and sit in our woodland, gardens and courtyard. Observe nature, and yourself as part of nature, for 10-15 minutes without looking at your phone or taking photos. Sit spot practice is usually done alone, though you may choose to do it with someone else without talking. 

Sit spot is a classic nature connection practice. The practice was brought to us by the artists of Kinship Workshop, an annual programme of seasonal nature connection workshops. Participants are invited into an experiential and embodied relationship to nature, landscape and other species through grounding physical practices.