Silverthorne Lane: Plot 6

Artist(s):
Rachael Champion and Jonathan Trayte

Partners:
Studio HIVE
City of Bristol College – Foundation Diploma in Art and Design

Ginkgo Projects are working with Studio Hive to deliver their public art programme for Plot 6, the westerly most plot in the Silverthorne Lane development. A site-wide public art strategy for Silverthorne Lane proposed an approach to commissioning that spanned the entire site, (plots 1–6) focusing on green and blue infrastructure (the ecology of both the land and water within the site) and access to nature prompted by the fact that the Feeder Canal forms one side of the entire length of the site boundary. 

Within Plot 6, this approach has taken the form of a 6-month artist residency with artists Rachael Champion and Jonathan Trayte and the production of permanent interventions into the public realm within the site. 

The Urban Reserve 

Rachael Champion and Jonathan Trayte have been commissioned to undertake a 6-month residency, through which they will research, test and create proposals for an urban nature reserve on the Plot 6 site in collaboration with the landscape architect and wider design team.   

The residency is an opportunity to explore ways of supporting both the urban wildlife and those people who interact with it, to better co-exist and care for one another, increasing people’s understanding and awareness of the wildlife in and around the Feeder Canal. The urban reserve will become an area of enriched accessible green and blue space that will mature and invite further wildlife and visitors into the site as the years go by.

During the residency phase, Rachael and Jonathan have developed partnerships with organisations and experts such as City of Bristol College, Screenology, Bristol Natural History Consortium, and UWE Bristol, as well as artists, makers and nurseries, community groups and businesses in the St Phillips Marsh area.

A public programme of activity is taking place from September to November as part of the artist residency, including: participation in a Europe wide bioblitz; creation of temporary animal shelters with students from the foundation course at City of Bristol College; a sound artwork by artists Sonia Levy and Lucy A Sames; and a project with students from Screenology. The residency culminates in an event and exhibition at the Screenology building on Silverthorne Lane in November 2023.

Find out more information and a full programme at https://www.feedercanalresidency.com/activities

Events

29 September 2023

  • Mini Bioblitz with Heather Rumble, Caroline Nash, and Beth Croucher
    Session 1: 09:30 am – 12 pm
    Session 2 (depending on levels of interest): 13:00 – 15:30pm
    More information

  • Nocturnal Bat Walk with Heather Rumble, Caroline Nash, and Beth Croucher
    19:30 – 20:30pm
    More information

9 – 13 October 2023

11 – 12 November 2023

  • An event and exhibition that explores Bristol's Feeder Canal as a cultural and ecological place in transition. The exhibition features artworks and research created and encountered during the Feeder Canal Research Residency. The event on Saturday 11th November includes creative workshops, lunch and a series of talks.

    All welcome, venue: Screenology, Silverthorne Lane.
    More information

Art Commissioning at Silverthorne Lane

Encouraging and supporting people’s access to the rich green and blue infrastructure in Bristol can contribute to improving physical and mental wellbeing within our cities. The art commissioning at Silverthorne Lane provides a valuable opportunity to contribute to the creation of a healthy place for people to live and work, as well as creating a destination and place of value for people in local communities and the wider city.

The development at Plot 6 will provide student housing with substantial amenity areas and public landscaping in and around it. This includes:

  • A large enriched courtyard area and landscaped frontage to the canal with public access

  • Provision of 706 bedrooms with none on the ground floor

  • A new focal gateway tower at the east of the site

  • A holistic approach to flood mitigation, access, movement and landscape