Exploring a Metaphor - The Artist-Gardener

“It depends on the seed, the soil, the light and the warmth.”

As well as in several fertile but crowded spaces in London, things are growing, flourishing, in Oxford, in Birmingham and in Broadstairs.

I have always loved gardening. As a child I devised many ways of getting bigger and better tomato plants and fruits, thrilled at growing what my grandmother still called “egg-plants” (I suspect secret suspicion of the French prevented her saying “aubergines” - she wasn’t alone) and managed to grow decorative gourds which cluttered up the family home even more. The passion goes on. It is still thrilling to see the seeds germinate, the first green shoots push through the soil from plants that I have planted, to eat fruit from our trees, asparagus from our garden and so on. It is very deep in me, perhaps in all of us, certainly in my children who demand bits of garden for beans, for herbs, for flowers, and especially great big sunflowers.

Gardening is creative in a wonderful way. You have to be active in it, you have to be nurturing of it, you have to be vigilant and protective of it. You can control it, but only up to a certain point. You also have to acknowledge and respect that each plant, each seed, is different and grows in its own way. The amount of water can only be partly controlled when the rains come, the heat, drought, light levels and the multiple pests can all spoil, or at least change, your plans. There are some things you can add to help the growth, and some things you probably shouldn’t. And that is all part of the fascination. My windowsills have always had plants just so I could wonder at the unfurling new green leaves. My garden is my world of wonders.

Just like our work at Pan!

For the last two years we have been “seeding” projects. We used the word without really examining the metaphor. We knew everyone would understand. But it actually lets us see the work in an interesting light. Without being overly pedantic, nor stretching the metaphor too far, let’s follow it through.

The Seed was the idea and the experience, which was ready to grow in new soil. 

Pan Intercultural Arts had over fifteen years of experience and success in using the arts to work with refugees, to work with Survivors of Trafficking and working with young people close to criminality. Our artists and teams of peer facilitators had experience of working creatively with these often marginalised and disadvantaged people to help them re-ignite their creativity and to re-imagine their futures while building the confidence to do so. Thousands of people have passed through our projects and had grown into positive role models for their peers and produced much beauty along the way

The Soil was the new community to which we took the idea.

Colleagues and contacts told us of areas where this work was needed - rich soil. These were identified as Oxford for working with young refugees and asylum seekers, Broadstairs for female survivors of trafficking and Birmingham for young people in an area with a reputation for crime. We searched for partner organisations to give us a safe and secure space to get started, a community centre, an old chapel, a young people’s theatre. These were our gardens, our allotments, to plant the Seed.

The gardeners were our artists and the apprentice gardeners (now fully trained and gardening) were the local trainees found through our partners.

Some were already trained arts facilitators, some were from youth and social work and others were peers from the communities we were working with. Many stayed the full two years of training, some dropped out but took their new skills with them, some joined quite late but brought their own skills into play. As you might imagine, working with these often fragile groups needs different skills, different approaches. Many things had to be re-thought and re-learned so that the work could see results.

The variable weather conditions were the amount to which our partner organisations, target groups, schools and colleges could nurture the projects, encourage participation, advocate for the work.

Of course there were unexpected conditions too which affected the growth. The seasonal exam period prevented some attendance, as did the annual Ramadan. A flood of older participants having to take part time after-school jobs or the arrival of a football tournament washed some people away. These were all regrettable but not every seed grows!

For two years Pan’s artists travelled once a week to the new gardens, the local trainees taking part in the planning and learning, like apprentices, by watching, taking part, taking on roles and finally taking over.

Growth is always different and surprising. The ideas, the confidences, the scenes, the videos all came at different speeds; after long waits, sudden bursting realisations, with slow and steady growth into substantial plants or trees, and the gardeners had to keep all these speeds together to maintain some sort of order in the garden

And who enjoyed the gardens? Where are we in the metaphor? Were the participants the growing plants? Was it their ideas and imaginations which were the flowers and fruits ? was it they who blossomed and ripened? Or were the participants those who ate the fruit? smelled the flowers? etc. Or was it for the audiences, those who saw and marvelled at the growth, in places where growth was really not expected, especially at that speed, aided by Pan fertiliser!!!

Or is that such gardens are for all of us to enjoy, to grow, to help others grow, to smell and to taste and feel that our lives are fuller and richer. Without this growth we are so much poorer.

Out there in Oxford, Birmingham and Broadstairs the buds are swelling, the shoots are visible and the new gardeners are as fascinated as we are.

We have called this our Expansion programme and we are now searching for new soil in which to further seed our ideas. The gardens will all look different, but will all be so because of nature’s way of developing massive diversity in each species, each growth pattern, each fruit. Allowing each one to grow to its best ability is our wish and our skill.

Of course some fell on stony ground. The seeds in one other city were not well tended when a partner organisation, seemingly enthusiastic, couldn’t bring the apprentices along and didn’t water the seeds with the engagement needed. It was sad to see them wither.

But with the other new allotments we have been able to walk away knowing that the roots had taken.

If you are interested in partnering us in our next developments, if you have soil ready for planting, we have the seeds and warmth, please contact us.

[email protected]

ps prompted by friend and actress Madeleine Bowyer I am reminded that gardening also often requires a lot of clearing stubborn weeds and breaking hard ground. Now I wonder where that fits into the metaphor?