Secret Garden Project

Up projects are proud to launch Secret Garden Project - a new programme of temporary commissions and pop up art events by young and established artists created specially for a trail of London’s secret gardens, lesser known green spaces, and urban corners.

This varied programme of sculpture, performance, planting projects, artists’ walks and literary works taps into environmental themes; creating new habitats for wildlife, revealing the parks’ ecological characteristics, and bringing a touch of green to greyer sites around the capital.

The first event to launch in Islington on Saturday 29th May will be the Mobile Picnic Pavilion by Francis Thorburn - a mobile vegetable garden that will travel around Islington’s streets pulled by a merry band of performing gardeners, providing opportunities for passers-by to explore this portable green-space and even picnic upon it!

Later in the summer, a Pleasure Garden for Birds by art and architecture collective London Fieldworks will launch simultaneously in Duncan Terrace, Islington and Cremorne Gardens, Chelsea; Shane Waltener will create Garland #22 for Islington’s Tibbey Place around the ruins of the former Tibberton Baths; and Margot Bannerman will present Bus Stops for Bees - three ‘green’ bus stop roofs around the Archway area, Islington.

Further commissions and events will appear throughout the summer along with literary works developed for the Secret Garden Project website by our Writer in Residence, Sarah Butler. These writings will provide a literary thread throughout the programme, responding to the various sites, artworks and visitors.

The Secret Garden Project is curated by Emma Underhill and Sarah B Davies and will evolve across different London Boroughs over the next 18 months beginning with the London Borough of Islington as part of their Greening the Grey Strategy and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea as part of their In Transit Festival.

Further announcements about Secret Garden Project events and commissions will follow soon.