In the UK, as elsewhere in the world, our native insects and plants are in catastrophic decline and we are losing the intricate mix of species that gave the natural world such richness. In response, Bugs & Blossoms activities encourage people to notice, care and take positive action. There will be further events and projects exploring this theme in 2022.
Read the three winning poems in the 2019 Bugs & Blossoms Poetry Competition on our Blog.
Bugs, Blossoms and BioBlitz Arts
Waveney & Blyth Arts launched Bugs & Blossoms in 2019 to promote events that encourage people to notice insects and flowers and to facilitate positive action.
Our initiative aims to work across all the creative arts – to celebrate the wild flowers and insects that are part of our lives. But we go further – we want the arts to draw attention to the plight of many of these species and to encourage people to be inspired by them and to take action, however small and however local, to conserve them.
Conservation area to the right will be left uncut
In 2020, we planned to focus on the bugs and blossoms found in country churchyards. Old burial grounds often have fantastic, flowery grassland as they have been so little disturbed over the centuries. A churchyard or burial site may be the most ancient enclosed piece of land in a parish, perhaps even older than the church building, having its roots in pre-Christian times. Apart from grave digging, the grassland will have been relatively undisturbed, re-seeding naturally for hundreds of years. A benefit of this is a diversity of grasses and flowers and associated animals and insects, some of which may now be rare in Britain.
Waveney & Blyth Arts plans to host workshop events in country churchyards to explore their biodiversity and create inspired art work. Alongside the arts activity we will engage a naturalist to work with us to identify as many species as we can. This is known as a BioBlitz so we have called our project BioBlitz Arts.
We have, for now, put these plans on hold. As soon as we are able, we will set up the BioBlitz Arts sessions. This spring we are watching and waiting. As flowers and insects emerge into an unusually quiet and unpeopled environment, we look forward to a time when we can once again visit these sites and engage creatively with Bugs & Blossoms. In the meantime, you can read some of Melinda Appleby’s reflections and findings in the churchyard near her in our latest blog article, and maybe think about recording some of the biodiversity in your area, or make a creative response to it? If you’d like to share this with us, email newsletter@waveneyandblytharts.com