From 2018 to 2025, co-directors Laurel Gallagher, Isla Telford, and Jenny Harper led Urban Wilderness CIC, bringing art, play, and creative collaboration into communities across Stoke-on-Trent and the Midlands. This archive preserves a record of their projects, partners, and impact.
Winter Wastelands brought together creative responses from across Stoke-on-Trent during the winter lockdown of 2020/21. Urban Wilderness CIC commissioned artists and communities to explore connection, wellbeing, ritual and resilience through public art, clay, poetry, digital portraiture and creative rituals.
Read MoreOur Youth Grows in a Wasteland is an audio drama project by Potboiler Theatre exploring young people’s experiences of being outdoors in Stoke-on-Trent. Through collected stories, audio plays, and a verbatim account of the city’s first Black Lives Matter protest, the work amplifies youth voices and local activism within Hanley Park.
Read MoreTaking Up Space brings together Black women from Staffordshire to reclaim green spaces through walking, dance, and poetry. Initiated after the 2020 lockdown, the project culminated in dance and poetry performances filmed in Hanley Park.
Read MoreA joyful family arts festival co-created with young people and artists in Stoke-on-Trent, celebrating creativity, freedom and play through performances and workshops.
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