On International Family Day, Sunday 15 May, the UK’s longest and most sensational drone show Our Wilder Family will take to the skies above Coventry’s War Memorial Park. The city sky will become the stage for an epic story inspired by the biodiversity of the living world and celebrating our connection with it. Accompanied by music and live poetry by local artists, Our Wilder Family asks us to contemplate a positive future that is made possible through unity and connectedness.
360 drones will feature in a live show in the skies above the city. While up to 10,000 free tickets are available to experience the work in the War Memorial Park, the display will be viewable up to 2.5km away (weather dependent) across the city.
Our Wilder Family will also be brought to audiences around the world through ground-breaking live streaming 5G technology, which allows viewers to become an active part of the story with a drone’s-eye-view of the action beamed to their phones and devices. Audiences can also stream the accompanying music and poetry through local radio stations.
As the display shape-shifts in a routine inspired by the murmurations of flocks of birds, a new sound score created by Dan Jones, the BAFTA and Ivor Novello Award winning composer, and in collaboration with local communities, will complete the performance, conceived as a mesmerising bedtime story.
Our Wilder Family is one of the closing events for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 and is a highlight in the Green Futures programme which explores wildlife, natural heritage, and landscape, uncovering the story of the city’s ‘hidden nature’ and reconnecting communities with their local environment.
Further events also announced today provide a range of ways to learn new skills, explore the city and connect with the natural worlds. From masterclasses in sustainable urban farming, to mass planting programmes which will create new pathways for pollinators, outdoor arts performances and living sculpture art trails, there are ways for citizens and visitors of all ages to get involved.
Coming after the launch of the world's first hub for flying electric cars and delivery drones – named Air One – in the city at the end of April, the programme highlights the many ways in which the UK’s motor city is leading the way for a more sustainable future.
Green Futures is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of Coventry UK City of Culture, which seeks to increase understanding and support for positive environmental change.
Highlights include:
Our Wilder Family and Wildlife Gathering
As the sun sets on Sunday 15 May, Our Wilder Family, a sixteen-minute long sensational artist-led drone show will take to the skies above the city.
Wildlife will continue to take centre stage with Wildlife Gathering, a city-wide celebration marking World Bee Day (Friday 20 May), International Tea Day (Saturday 21 May) and International Day for Biodiversity (Sunday 22 May).
Coventry's myriad of parks and green spaces will be celebrated with activities taking place across the city, from Spon End, to Coventry’s heritage park. Families are invited to take part in community instigated ‘bee and tea’ parties; work with an artist to create their own habitat for animals in their garden (from hedgehog sanctuary to bird boxes); explore local walking trails and engage in an array of arts and crafts, or simply enjoy a picnic and appreciate the environment around them, exploring the hidden green spaces scattered across the city.
Gardening and growing
Ahead of this, gardeners and the green-fingered are being called up to make a change, through events in April and May designed to teach new skills in urban farming, encourage biodiversity and make the urban landscape bloom.
Following a recent report by Buglife, which highlighted that bees are avoiding Coventry due to low pollen levels, Bee-Lines is a major mass planting project that will create stunning floral pathways for pollinators across the cities. Planting begins in April, with thousands of packed of seeds distributed across the city, and in May visitors will be able to see the results, with displays across the city.
Allotmenteering has a proud track record in Coventry, tied to its manufacturing heritage, and activities across this green patchwork will celebrate the revolutionary benefits of growing food and being with nature. Award-winning mental health service and plant-based café, The Pod is working with artists, activists and scientists to present a series of events designed to create a more rooted approach to the local food economy, and consider new ways to create access to healthy, sustainable food for all – a need more urgent than ever during the current cost of living crisis.
Biodiversity
Planting across the city is just one way in which citizens and visitors can learn more and take action on biodiversity. Living Moss Murals created by creative studio Mosstika, founded by artist Edina Tokodi, will be springing up around the city, depicting some of Coventry’s hidden wildlife and encouraging biodiversity, and creating a fun way to explore the city.
An unprecedented city wide wildlife census will take stock over 48 hours as the Coventry Creature Count calls up adults and children to create a snapshot of all life in the city and a benchmark for measuring future improvements.
Explore nature and heritage
Coventry’s medieval and industrial heritage will be open to explore, with events such as Charterhouse Reveals, which invites visitors behind the garden wall of Coventry’s stunning 14th Century Charterhouse, one of only nine Carthusian monasteries in the country, which will be open to visitors for the first time later this year following an extensive restoration. The kitchen garden was the heart of life of monastic life, and is being reimaged as a new focus for community food production.
WaterWAYS, over the May Bank Holiday weekend, is a city-wide creative celebration of Coventry’s often hidden blue spaces and waterways over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend, with free family friendly activities taking place on the Coventry Canal, River Sherbourne and other water bodies in the city, activities include guided walks, kayaking, cycle tours, poetry readings and storytelling. Across the weekend, artist led projects include: Walk with Me from Talking Birds will be a self-guided audio tour providing insight to the vibrancy of Coventry’s heritage; Roam+Dwell by Ludic Rooms offers inspiration and ideas for new ways to experience life by the water with invitations to play, make and explore things afloat at Coventry Canal Basin; and Jack Frogs environmental art trail by artist Jack Foulks working with Open Theatre
Other ways to explore the city and its hidden nature include a new sound installation by artist Rosie Tee in the Sensory Garden of the War Memorial Park. For those wanting to explore Coventry’s nature on foot, join Muslim Hikers and Active Inclusion Network on a reflective hike across Coventry’s natural landscapes.
Chenine Bhathena, Creative Director of Coventry City of Culture Trust, said:
“Green Futures marks the culmination of a transformative project that has taken shape across our year as City of Culture, placing nature, the environment and the future of our planet centre stage. Through these events, we are showing how art, culture and community can make lasting difference to the way we engage with nature, and highlight the urgent issues of the day. We invite you to experience immersive art trails that lead across the city, take part in wildflower planting, camp out in forests, dig for a sustainable future for food production for all, and experience an incredible drone show that combines the beauty of nature with cutting-edge technology.”
Robyn Llewellyn, Director, England, Midlands & East at The National Lottery Heritage Fund said:
“It’s thanks to National Lottery players that we are able to support this ambitious Green Futures programme. Connecting with nature is so important to our health and wellbeing, so I’m thrilled that Coventry City of Culture are putting this at the heart of their programming. Coventry 2021 will be the greenest and most environmentally conscious UK City of Culture to date, and I’m so pleased that we are able to help make this happen.”
Listings Information
The Pod
Until - Monday 30 May, 2022
Various locations, including Food Union CV5 allotment site
Working alongside its large body of Food Union members, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry
Cathedral, Historic Coventry Trust, local allotmenteers, musicians, artists, and craft professionals as well as other key national lobbyists to deliver a series of events, programs, and residencies. These ‘interventions’ will build a sustainable Green Future for and with the city.
These events include:
● spaces(in)BETWEEN - An exploration of Coventry based artists and writers
● Green Growing: unearthed – A tour of the newly planted medicinal garden that celebrates the heritage of weeds nature's healers.
● Green Growing: allotment cultures - The creation of eco and civic corridors between allotments, with the aim of building a triangular economy of skill share, tool share and a union of food that will have a lasting impact within the city’s food growing communities.
● Alternative Arts Lab: Master Gardeners – A celebration of Coventry’s food growing heritage though stories of people who have held allotments in the city for 25+ years
● Alternative Arts Lab: Tools of the Trade – A craft and art exchange to aid wildlife gardening, inspired by the stories of the city’s growers
Nature Nurture by Starfish Collaborative
Various locations in North East Coventry including Moat House Park, Wyken Slough and Wyken Croft Nature Park
Free
Nature Nurture is a series of events run by Coventry-based Community Interest Company Starfish Collaborative which enables people to access, explore and experience creativity, culture and nature. The project has been created to encourage long lasting positive mental & physical health and social change in Coventry.
These programmes are in partnership with: CCC Rangers, Friends of Moat House Park and Wyken Slough, Moat House Family Hub, Moat House Leisure Centre, Wood End 24th Scouts group, Volunteer Tree Wardens, Wood End Health Centre, West Midlands Police (Julie Harrison, Jerry McLeave, Police cadets), Councillor Kevin Maton, Team Springboard CiC, The Fabulation Theatre Co.
Nature Tots
Tuesdays
10am – 12pm (Term time only between 8th March and 24th May)
Moat House Park Winston Avenue, Coventry, CV2 1EA
Sessions for early years children and parents in Wood End/Henley Green
Free
Starfish are delighted to be collaborating with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Education Team and Coventry Libraries Service for these Early Years Foundation Stage nature and creativity sessions for parents/carers and their pre-school children living in the Wood End/Henley Green/Bell Green community. These sessions are fun and creative ways to explore nature in the park for positive wellbeing.
Breath of Fresh Air Adult Wellbeing Sessions
Tuesday 8th March - Tuesday 24th May, 2022
1.00 -3.00pm
Moat House Park Winston Avenue, Coventry, CV2 1EA
Free Woodland wellbeing sessions for adults of all ages living in Wood End, Henley Green and Bell Green.
Days of Doing
Monthly from April onwards
Days of Doing are daylong celebration events on a Saturday in visible and accessible green spaces in the heart of the Wood End community. They are designed to celebrate people power and contribution, community diversity and commonality, as well as supporting the physical and mental wellbeing of individuals and the community as a whole. Days of Doing are a great way to get to know people from the community from different backgrounds, experiences and ages, while working together to nurture the green spaces that we share.
Bee - Lines
April and May
Various locations, including Charterhouse Heritage Park, community allotments and urban green spaces citywide.
Bee-Lines is a mass planting project to create beautiful floral pathways for pollinating bees and insects through new wildflower meadows and displays across the city. Inspired into action by research that shows that bees avoid Coventry due to the lack of pollen in the city, the Bee-Lines project will distribute over 2000 free packets of seeds to citizens, schools and charities, to make Coventry bloom this spring. Get involved or just enjoy the displays in areas including a huge stretch of Coventry Canal as well as cultural destinations such as Charterhouse Heritage Park.
Bee-Lines is being led by Coventry City of Culture Trust, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, Coventry City Council, The Canal and River Trust and the Historic Coventry Trust will be working with Coventry communities, cultural and educational organisations to deliver the project in multiple locations.
Rivers of the World
Friday 1 – Saturday 30 April, 2022
Big Screens at Millennium Place & more city centre locations to be announced
Free
Rivers of the World creates collaborative artworks inspired by river themes and environmental studies, linking primary and secondary schools in the UK with partner schools in developing countries around the world. Primary and secondary SEN (Special Educational Needs) students in Coventry have been engaged in a two-year international art and education project by Thames Festival Trust. These exciting works will be exhibited through physical and digital displays at different sites and venues across Coventry as an opportunity to see how creative our future generation is outside the classroom. Shona Watt has been Rivers of the World’s lead artist since its inception, and is known for creating spectacular flag installations that have been seen worldwide.
An international art and education project by Thames Festival Trust delivered in partnership with the British Council. Supported by Arts Council England, the British Council and Coventry City Council
Animals! by Dens and Signals
Monday 11 April – Friday 22 April, 2022
Community Centre and Libraries tour
Adults £2, Children £1
Fun, interactive and featuring original songs, Animals! is an empowering and uplifting performance about animals, humans and nature. It celebrates the amazing wildlife around us and makes big things feel possible.
Dens & Signals bring people together to create connections, shared moments, and future possibilities.
Commissioned by Coventry City of Culture Trust supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Forest Camps – Earth Day Event
Friday 22 April, 2022
Bishop Ullathorne School Grounds, Leasowes Avenue, Green Lane, Coventry CV3 6BH
Free
Come and see what young people from Coventry have created through a series of workshops with local artist Auden Allen, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, West Midlands Police, Ludic Rooms and ARUP. Discover new ways to engage with natural spaces in the city, explore the idea of safety in our green spaces and hear beats made from natural sounds.
Commissioned by Coventry City of Culture Trust supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Historic Coventry Programme Charterhouse Reveals – Carthusian Life
Sunday 24 April, 2022
10am – 4pm
Charterhouse, Coventry, CV1 2JB
Timed and ticketed entry in 2hr slots
Free
As the first in the series of Charterhouse Reveals, Carthusian Life will showcase the significance of Charterhouse as a future heritage attraction for the City of Coventry. In the first session, visitors can dive deep into the history and significance of the crucifixion wall painting via a guided tour of the painting for the first time since restoration by heritage specialists Perry Lithgow. Visitors can also enjoy the heritage craft presentation and pouncing demonstration led by Saskia Huning who recreated the painting.
Accessibility: Charterhouse is currently a construction site and currently there is no lift access.
Haus of Kraft Presents...
Tuesday 26 April, 2022
2.30pmand 7.30pm
Assembly Festival Gardens – Queen of Flanders
Tickets from £5
Spectacular. Sensational. Sustainable.
In response to the global impact of fast fashion, the Haus of Kraft Coventry collective team up with artists and writers from commonwealth countries to create a catwalk show like no other. Fusing arts, movement, music and spoken word, their upcycled creations go from rags to runway using only waste textiles and sustainable materials. Much more than a fashion show, this spectacular event is layered with stories about the threads that connect people, places and the planet.
Directed and designed by world-renowned Creative Artist Jeanefer Jean-Charles and Designer Marsha Roddy. Join this ground-breaking sustainable celebration of Coventry, where movers and makers of all ages and cultural backgrounds unite, celebrating the city’s diverse community, creativity, spirit, environmental consciousness and people power.
Supported by funding from Spirit 2012, the British Council, the DCMS and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
WaterWAYS
Thursday 28 April – Monday 2 May 2022
Multiple waterside locations – All of Coventry's WaterWAYS including the River Sherbourne, River Sowe and the Coventry Canal and Basin
Free
Explore Coventry’s blue spaces with free family-friendly activities from the Canal and River Trust, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and Coventry City Council Parks Team.
Join the Canal and River Trust on board the education boat for free family craft activities and storytelling on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 April. Activities include kayaking, fishing and cycling all weekend along the Coventry Canal. You can also sign up for a guided Heritage, Ecology, Poetry or Folklore walk along the water edges of the Sherbourne, Sowe and Coventry Canal.
Juneau Projects in Spon End will host a creative workshop to curate inspiring new artwork for Spon End, encouraging visitors to rediscover nature in the area.
- Walk with Me from Talking Birds will be a self-guided audio tour providing insight to the vibrancy of Coventry’s heritage
- For a fun and creative afternoon, Jack Frogs from Open Theatre will host an imaginative environmental arts trail enhancing the landscape of Coventry’s biodiversity.
- Roam+Dwell by Ludic Rooms offers inspiration and ideas for new ways to experience life by the water with invitations to play, make and explore things afloat at Coventry Canal Basin.
- The Muslim Hikers hike in collaboration with Active Inclusion Network (30 April) will be a cultural event welcoming all faiths and none to join on a waterside walk and community Iftar.
Free maps will be available at the Canal and River Trust visitor centre or the City of Culture Shop.
Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Canal & River Trust and Severn Trent Community
Fund
Coventry Creature Count with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust
Friday 29 April – Monday 2 May 2022
City wide
Coventry is being called to action to take part in a city-wide mission to understand its bugs and wildlife, creating a snapshot of life and a benchmark for measuring the success of biodiversity initiatives.
Coventry Creature Count is a great way for adults and children to learn about the stunning wildlife in the area ranging from wild plants to vibrant animals. Starting at the end of April, people can record the wildlife they see and share their experiences, culminating in a 48 hour animal census.
With options to record information on the iNaturalist mobile phone app, web page and paper recording form, the count is accessible to all.
CastAway by Highly Sprung
Monday 18th - Friday 22 April
Co-commission with Canal and River Trust
Bishop Ullathorne School Grounds, Coventry Big Top, Bishop Ullathorne School, Leasowes Avenue, Green Lane, Coventry, CV3 6BH
Highly Sprung’s CastAway is a stunning outdoor performance that explores the impact of today’s throwaway society on our waterways. The all-female cast immerses audiences in an underwater world where performers dive, twist and float over 26 feet in the air to delight, inspire and captivate audiences of all ages.
Moss Murals
Friday 20 – Sunday 22 May, 2022 - Launch, Tours and Guided Walks
Moss Murals brings Coventry’s hidden nature to life in living moss murals, whilst working with communities in the city to create new biodiversity in urban areas. Mossitka, the creative studio founded by the artist Edina Tokodi, will incorporate plant life and other materials found in the local natural environment. This work advocates sustainable living and draws attention to the deficiency of nature in daily life and the hidden urban nature of Coventry.
Innervation, A Sensory Experience for the War Memorial Park
Friday 20 – Sunday 22 May, 2022
Free
Innervation is an immersive multi-facted sound art installation; bringing communities together to combat loneliness and produce a vibrant, valuable space. The installation will include an original sound piece created by Midlands based performer and composer Rosie Tee and a multi functional public structure from Producer and Creator Bryony Rose.
Innervation is created by Rosie Tee and Bryony Rose in collaboration with Friends of War Memorial Park
Commissioned by Coventry City of Culture in collaboration with Friends of War Memorial Park supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Charterhouse Reveals: Heritage Pathways – Inspiring the next generation
Friday 6 May -
12 – 2pm
Part of Coventry Opens
Historic Coventry Trust will host a hard hat tour of Charterhouse exploring heritage trades. College students will enjoy a lunch with the construction team who will reveal a ‘day in their life’ with a career as a heritage tradesman and what Charterhouse has inspired and revealed to them.
In partnership with heritage construction specialists Splitlath.
Funded by The National Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Shape of Sound
Anglican Chapel
Sat 7 – Sun 8 May
11 – 4pm
With live performances on Saturday only at 1pm, 3pm and 7pm
Part of Coventry Opens
Explore and interact with this site-specific installation that examines how the inside of the ear works and how movement affects the sounds we hear. In this creative interpretation visitors will see how soundwaves enter the ear and the movements that occur that allow us to hear. Drawing from weaving, one of the industries that Coventry is most famous for, dance artists will interpret this process in live performances using a hanging warp of silk threads. Visitors and collaborators will also join together to discuss the changing sounds of the City through time in industrial Coventry and what we hear now.
By collaborators Karen Wood, Lilly Hayward-Smith, Louisa Petts 9C-DaRE), Petra Johnson and Vip Artpradid
Funded by The National Heritage Lottery Fund and Coventry City of Culture Trust
Charterhouse Reveals: Elizabethan wall painting - Charterhouse
Part of Coventry Opens
Sun 8 May
10am - 4pm
Ticketing: Timed and ticketed entry in 2 hour slots - Free
This is the second in the series as we showcase Charterhouse as a future heritage attraction for the City of Coventry. In this session, visitors get to deep dive into the history and significance of Charterhouse’s stunning Elizabethan wall painting, revealed for the first time since restoration.
Accessibility: Charterhouse is currently a construction site and currently there is no lift access.
Bookable online from Historic Coventry Trust website
Funded by The National Heritage Lottery Fund
Charterhouse Reveals – Youth Engagement programme
Part of the Wildlife Gathering
Saturday 21 May, 2022
5pm – 9pm
Tickets - £5
Bookable online from Historic Coventry Trust website
Blossom Together Silent School Disco (Saturday night only) in partnership with Make Space for Girls, Blue Coat School and Positive Youth Foundation
Funded by Coventry City of Culture, National Trust and National Heritage Lottery Fund
Charterhouse Heritage Park Reveals
Part of the Wildlife Gathering
Sunday 22 May
10am – 4pm
Ticketed - Free
Charterhouse Heritage Park
Explore the Charterhouse garden with a collection of fun filled activities from viewing live theatre performances, making seed bombs and stepping into the history of the monastery by viewing diary exerts and reflections of those who lived there from the 14th century. All activities will showcase the rich culture and heritage of Charterhouse whilst creating an entertaining and informative day for families and friends.
Accessibility:
Accessible toilets are available.
Charterhouse is currently a construction site. Access is limited in the garden.
Ticketing: Drop in 10am – 4pm / ticketed – 500 Max
Free of charge
Ticketed on the City of Culture website
Time For Nature, Juneau Projects Spon End
Part of Wildlife Gathering
Friday 20 – Sunday 22 May
Spon End
Free
Artists Juneau Projects invite the residents of Spon End to make Time for Nature. Following Workshops and conversations with residents in Spon End, the artists will lead a series of creative workshops and making sessions for residents to learn and share knowledge of the creatures and plants that live in and around Spon End and the River Sherbourne, exploring what lives here now and what may have existed in the past and thinking about how we can protect it for the future. They will also be exploring how the natural heritage interlinks with the history in the area, especially in connection to Spon Ends clock making heritage. The ideas and work generated in the workshops will contribute to a co-created art trail for Spon End.
Commissioned by Coventry City of Culture in collaboration with the Sherbourne Valley Project.
Walk With Me by Talking Birds
Saturday 21 – Sunday 22, May, 2022
Routes are self-guided and city wide
Walk with Me by Talking Birds, is self-guided tour filled with tales of nature, community and a collection of Coventry’s most diverse neighbourhoods. With actor-activated tours in Spon End, Stoke and Naul’s Mill providing an insight on Coventry’s rich and sometimes hidden history. "Sound waves never die," according to local resident, radio enthusiast and inventor, Herbert Cleaver; his patented Audioscoper allows the listener to tune in to some of the stories and people of Spon End.
Tours Maps available from the City of Culture Shop, The Nest or Online