New art project aims to connect Louth and Horncastle people to countryside and nature

‘Shelf Life’ is one of six national artwork projects for Nature Calling, a programme that wants to inspire local people to access, and engage with, the countryside on their doorsteps.

The programme has been commissioned by the charity, National Landscapes, with the aim of improving wellbeing and creating a sense of belonging.

‘Shelf Life’ has been developed through a series of workshops and conversations with young people from secondary schools, who have produced three striking, small-scale billboards that will tour Lincolnshire.

It shines a light on the plight of nature across the Lincolnshire Wolds, examining how to achieve a balance between securing home-grown food and drink through modern-day farming, and protecting and enhancing nature.

The project is being presented by Instar, a collaboration of artists and naturalists dedicated to “exploring and understanding the profound link between art and nature”. And it is considered to be one of the largest-scale arts projects of its kind to come to the Louth and Horncastle areas.

‘Shelf Life’, which has been developed by Nottingham-based Instar artists Trish Evans and Nick Humphreys, is predominantly a print-based, sculptural installation but is formed of three elements – the schools’ billboard artwork, a film featuring the voices of Wolds farmers and landowners, and larger billboards.

Trish and Nick say: “The ‘Shelf Life’ project is informed by how the landscape appears, how it has changed and what is missing.

"Observing where nature has retreated and how fields for farming have expanded, the artists have engaged with farmers and landowners, discovering pressures on rural life, farm life and wildlife.

"The artists have explored this tension between agriculture and ecology by considering the systems, policies and social demands that drive a loss of nature and biodiversity.”

About 70 young people living in the Wolds have helped to create the billboard artwork, based on the themes of hope for nature and natural habitats.

Trish and Nick went on: “The project reimagines and transforms the traditional advertising purpose of a billboard as a place to promote and share.

“We want to highlight the fragility of the human relationship with the natural world, asking whether we are selling out on nature or buying into nature.”

As part of ‘Shelf Life’, writer and poet Ayesha Chouglay has also been commissioned to write four short poems.

She said: “I approached the writing through the lens of an unexplored family connection to Lincolnshire. My mother’s side of the family was based there.

"I find it fascinating how you can feel so connected to a place you’ve never been to. I spent a week in Louth, walking and facilitating workshops at Hubbard’s Hills, connecting to people who know the area well.”

The ‘Shelf Life’ project launches next month and visits the SO Festival on Mablethorpe sea front on Sunday, June 15.

On Wednesday, June 18 and Thursday, June 19, it is at the Lincolnshire Show in Lincoln, and then at the Wolds WordFest in Louth on Saturday, July 12.

It visits the Joseph Banks Centre on Bridge Street in Horncastle on Saturday, August 9 before returning to Louth for the town’s popular Teenage Market on Saturday, August 23.