Festival of Ideas: Transitions - Fruit Routes
Tuesday 17th May and Thursday 19th May
Barefoot Orchard and International House (near Pilkington Library)
Free in person events, all day & into the evening All welcome!
In your hands: 10 years of Fruit Routes
Tuesday 17th May
14.00 and 15.30 meet at the Barefoot Orchard
Storying/Walking, Parts I and II
14.00 Part I: Branching Out Storywalk: Traditional Stories of Our Treescapes
Guided Storywalk, led by Mike Wilson (LU) and Patrick Ryan
Branching Out, part of the NERC-funded UK Future Treescapes Programme, aims to capture the social and cultural values attached to our urban treescapes, by mapping the biophysical data of trees alongside the stories that we tell about them. Join professional storyteller Patrick Ryan as he brings the Fruit Routes collection to life.
15.30 – 17.00 Part II: Stories of the Heart Wood
Led by Fred Dalmasso and Liz Lovely from the Storytelling Academy, Loughborough University
Join us as we gather and share stories of the trees, both personal and universal while listening to the wisdom of the orchards. Bring your good cheer and the tales that live about you.
All are welcome. Refreshments available at the Barefoot Orchard from 15.30.
Elizabeth Jane Lovely began her PhD at Loughborough University in October 2021, affiliated with the Storytelling Academy. Elizabeth’s research is focused on the felt sense invoked by the in-person listening to of fairy tales, and how this impacts upon healing of the whole being.
Fred Dalmasso is a Lecturer in Drama at Loughborough University. As a theatre practitioner, he writes and directs plays that merge stories from the public with philosophers’ lives and thoughts in order to render philosophy accessible through the arts.
Thursday 19th May
10:00 – 13:00 International House
In your hands: 10 Years of Fruit Routes
Launch of the Fruit Routes Charter and Celebrations of Fruit Routes
10-10.30 – Coffee/Arrivals at IH
10.30 – Welcome and Introductions, Marsha Meskimmon
10.45 – 11.45 Presentations
Anne-Marie Culhane, ’10 years on and the Fruit Routes Charter’
Chris Fremantle, ‘Ecoart in action: thinking about an art that articulates dependencies’
David Bell, ‘LU Arts and the Environment’
Jo Shields, former Associate Head of Sustainability at LU and Sustainability Lead, WHPRG
12.00 – 13.00: Panel Discussion on Fruit Routes and the Future
Marsha Meskimmon (Chair), Anne-Marie Culhane, Chris Fremantle, David Bell, Gillian Whiteley, Paul Conneally, Pawas Bisht and Alena Pfoser
13.00-14.00 Lunch
13.30 – 14.00 lunchtime listening event
Serena Smith, A Litho-Phonic Encounter
In handbooks on lithography sound is generally overlooked, there is however always noise: the subject of this live reading of research material, in which Serena Smith explores the resonating depths of limestone.
Serena is a lithographer, writer, PhD student, and participant in Fruit Routes, currently exploring the poetics of stone.
14.15 – 15.30 Ensemble Improvised Walk around Fruit Routes
An invitation for all to walk around the route together sharing different observations, reflections and knowledge.
15.30 – 17.00 Barefoot Orchard
Wild Tea
Join us for tea and foraged food from campus in the Barefoot Orchard. Try your hand at tasseography - the art of reading the future, with Paul Conneally and Anne-Marie Culhane.
Paul Conneally is a cultural forager, haiku poet, artist and musician. He was born in Sheffield and lives in Loughborough.
18.00-19.00 Barefoot Orchard
Spell-ing the Green Knowledge
To mark and celebrate a decade of Fruit Routes and the passing on of the project, Topologies-of-Between, will be bringing together sound, image, mark-making, objects and voice in an improvised performance. All are welcome.
Topologies-of-Between [Gillian Whiteley, Geoff Bright, Lyn Hodnett and Walt Shaw] work with sound, image and mark-making to conjure and provoke transformations and unsettlements within improvised performance.
Gill is an artist-improviser and Honorary Fellow at Loughborough University. Interests include intersection of art/politics and creative dissent, see www.bricolagekitchen.com
Geoff is an experimental improviser interested in the relationship between philosophy and improvisation. He is a Visiting Scholar at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Lyn is a visual artist and sonic improviser/vocalist exploring themes of personal and universal myth, nature and female iconography. She is an Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.
Walt is an experimental percussionist and visual artist, who thinks of the two creative spheres as very much interrelated. It's always a case of a leap into the void, followed by learning, shaping and refining.
21.00 meet at the Barefoot Orchard
Moth Trapping
Find out about more about these wonderful night-time creatures with Graham and Nona Finch from Leicestershire Entomological Society. Graham and Nona have been monitoring moths at Loughborough University for a number of years.
Events in Barefoot Orchard take place on level ground and with some on site seating provided. The route itself is not always on structured paths but is mostly flat with alternative routes for sloping areas.
Contact ias@lboro.ac.uk for any access queries.
All welcome!