Featured image photo above by Kelly Hill Photography

The Ground Up Conference is a GroundWork NetWork event. Over the last year more than 20 artists have been working together with GroundWork Gallery and partners, and with all kinds of other collaborations, sharing expertise. The Ground Up Conference, is broadly about extraction – of any material taken out of the earth, for any reason. Extraction has underpinned our summer residencies for four years now. During the 2024 season, we explored the subject together in so many ways, with artists focusing on extraction issues by visiting river, coastal and inland landscapes.

This conference will focus mainly on land and is the first of two, the next one will be in summer 2025, when we will focus more on the coastline and shore.

The Ground Up Conference: Friday 15 – Saturday 16 November

We aim to discuss the collaborations and sharing of expertise which informed each project during the artist residencies.
What have artists a) learned, b) discovered and c) revealed?
What are the implications in terms of their work and its impact?

Each artist will briefly present their work and then we will open discussion with partners and respondents from contingent fields of expertise.

What emerges in terms of increase in knowledge, sensibility or environmental campaigning?
What, if anything is anything emerging that we can discuss anew?
Are we in danger of stereotyping what is good or bad practice, what is ‘natural’, what is ‘industrial’?

How do we take next steps, and with whom?

Join us to discuss the themes which have emerged via recent residency projects and collaborations.

Programme Outline

There are 4 themed programme sessions over 2 days Friday 15-Saturday 16 November, each day’s timing: 10.30 for 11.00 to 5.00.

Each session will consist of 4-5 artists talking about the work they developed,
There will be discussion with the other expert partners.
And there will be plenty of opportunity for discussion open to all the participants.

Bookings

The conference will be held at Thoresby College, Queen Street, King’s Lynn, 5 minutes walk from the gallery. This is a wonderful early 16th century great hall overlooking the Great Ouse River and owned by the King’s Lynn Prservation Trust. Further details here: https://www.klprestrust.org.uk/project/thoresby-college/

Fees to attend: £25 per day / £40 for 2 days. Free for GroundWork NetWork Associates
Simple refreshments provided. – teas, coffee, biscuits; soup and bread for lunch

Book and pay in advance via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-ground-up-conference-tickets-1021527816197

Further info via: mail@groundworkgallery.com

Speakers include:

James Aldridge (artist); Lucy Dukes (artist); Sam Hodge (artist); Caroline Chouler Tissier (artist); Kelly Hill (photographer); Tim Fisher (NRT); Jonah Tosney (NRT); Sam Hodge (artist); Sophy King (artist); Amanda Wallwork (artist) Tim Holt Wilson (geologist); Tamlin Lundberg (ceramicist and forest school teacher); Sara Trillo (artist); Lizzie Kimbley (artist) Charlie Gardner (environmentalist); Lydia Halcrow (artist); Nicola Streeten (comic novelist); Julia Giles (artist); Katrin Spranger (artist); Nick Acheson (naturalist) Jan-Micha Gamer (artist); Victoria Lucas (artist); Sarah Horlock (ceramicist and archaeologist); Rachel Wright (photographer); Liz Hide (Sedgwick Museum)

The Ground Up Conference outline draft programme

Keynote address. Charlie Gardner, ecologist: thinking about environmental politics and the impact of the climate emergency.

Session 1
Rivers, banks and moist environments – care and contamination
Focus on protecting and maintaining the diversity of riverine environments

Discussion With
Tim Fisher and Jonah Toney – Norfolk Rivers Trust
Russell Biggs & Gaywood River Revival group

James Aldridge – Queer river
Kelly Hill – chalk rivers
Sophie Marritt – rivers, contamination, links to extraction
Lucy Dukes – mosses

Session 2
Quarry treasures  – minerals, fossils
Focus on artistic and geological discoveries during stone and aggregate quarrying

Discussion with Tim Holt Wilson, geologist, Liz Hide, Sedgwick Museum

Sam Hodge – earth pigments
Caroline Chouler Tissier – clay
Sophy King – extraction issues
Amanda Wallwork – geology
Tamlin Lundberg – extraction, and stewardship

2nd day: Saturday 16 November

Session 3
Above and below ground:
Focus on- nature, observation, protected and nurtured land – above and beneath the surface
 

Discussion with Helen Lindsay, conservation specialist and owner Broomhill, Reepham; Nick Acheson, Naturalist
 
Sara Trillo – holes and moles
Lydia Halcrow – above and below
Nicola Streeten – permaculture, nurturing, Wild Ken Hill
Julia Giles – ancient vegetation traces

Session 4
Connections between nature and industry
Is it all bad? Focus on urban contexts, contaminated land, extractive, tainted and polluted landscapes, or features, & industries
 

Discussion with Fabia Pollard, environmental specialist, contaminated land
Katrin Spranger – chemicals, pollution & contaminationJan-Micha Gamer – salt
Victoria Lucas – coal
Sarah Horlock – landscapes of contamination
Rachel Wright – industry, nature tension

Lizzie Kimbley – local industry; repurposing waste

Final plenary discussion: where do we go from here, and with what and whom?