Celebrating ten years of the Arts, Science and Conservation Programme at the David Attenborough Building
Cambridge Conservation Initiative’s (CCI) Arts, Science and Conservation Programme (ASCP) has worked with artists and colleagues across CCI to deliver an innovative and collaborative programme of residencies, exhibitions and events in the David Attenborough Building (DAB) for a decade.
Since 2016, when an exhibition by artists Ackroyd & Harvey, Conflicted Seeds + Spirit, was part of the opening celebrations for the DAB, collaborations between artists, musicians, poets, conservation scientists and practitioners have flourished. Over ten years, the ASCP has supported more than 30 artists, held over 20 events and exhibitions, and built a growing collection of artwork.
With CCI’s focus on transformative restoration, regeneration, and resilience, the ASCP continues to explore the role artists can play in articulating new and innovative conservation narratives.
Core to our success has been a close collaboration with CCI’s Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme (ELSP), to host and support in situ artist residencies across their portfolio of projects. Recent work on how to frame and evaluate the impact of residencies has been a core outcome.
Since the beginning, ASCP has also worked closely with the annual cohorts of MPhi in Conservation Leadership students, both learning from their extraordinary experience, sharing ASCP lessons, and facilitating placements for students with a particular interest in the arts.
As a celebration of ten years of collaborative activity in the DAB, highlights from the programme are presented here, in the display cases on the stairwell, and across works from the collection that hang in the public areas of the building. Works exhibited include generous loans and gifts from our patron Sir David Attenborough, from CCI partners and colleagues, and from artists following residencies.
Artists included in the exhibition include Ackroyd & Harvey, Bárbara Carvalho, William Cooper, Beatrice Forshall, Sarah Gillespie, Angela Harding, Rebecca Jewell, Jonathan Kingdon, Bryan Kneale, Antony Lyons, Thomas Miller, Bruce Pearson, Nik Pollard, Greg Poole, Elizabeth Reeder, Lucie Rie, Dafila Scott, Peter Scott, Ivan Shopov, Amanda Thomson, Nico de Transilvania, Esther Tyson, Marcus Vergette, Richard Walters and John Yayen. We thank them, the CCI Partners, colleagues, and collaborators, and all the other artists, and creatives who have combined to support ASCP and ELSP in Cambridge, and across the wider geographies in which we are working together.
It is clear that participatory and interdisciplinary arts practice can invigorate engagement, dialogue and debate in response to the most urgent challenges facing life on Earth and build hope for the future. We look forward to continuing to work within the CCI and wider communities to rise to the challenges we all face, and explore innovative and transformative means of achieving real change.
