Urban Wilderness CIC is a community arts organisation based in Stoke‑on‑Trent. This archive highlights key projects and events that illustrate our practice, partnerships and impact. During this period, the organisation was led by founding co-directors Laurel Gallagher, Isla Telford, and Jenny Harper. Our flagship annual events — Pig Walk Parade and Winter Gathering — are included here as recurring anchor entries, alongside other major commissions and collaborations.
In the Balance is an artist-led programme by Urban Wilderness CIC that explores the intersections of art, environment, and community. Through workshops, talks, walks, performances, and immersive experiences, it invites audiences to engage with complex ecological and social questions while revealing the thinking behind the artwork.
Read MoreA participatory artist commission by Urban Wilderness CIC in Badgers Wood, part of the National Forest, exploring wellbeing, creativity and connection to place with young people living with long-term health conditions.
Read MoreA Cultural Leaders programme delivered by Urban Wilderness CIC at Sutherland Primary School, supporting children in care to lead a whole-school creative project and transform their shared environment through colour, pattern and collaboration.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC delivered a Creative Careers consultation with Year 9 students in Tunstall, using youth-led surveys to bring young people’s voices into local community planning.
Read MoreYear 10 GCSE Art students from Co-op Academy Stoke-on-Trent took part in a work experience programme with Urban Wilderness CIC, designing family-friendly carnival masks for the Pig Walk Parade.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC were commissioned to deliver inclusive photo walks and an outdoor exhibition as part of the Under One Roof heritage project at St Mark’s Church, engaging primary school children and the local Deaf community in creative placemaking.
Read MoreCreative placard-making workshops across the Moorlands invited young people to answer one question — “What do you want?” Their responses helped shape OUTSIDE’s organisational planning and Youth Advisory Group.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC hosted a two-day professional workshop with inflatables designer Tim Davies, training local artists to design and build large-scale inflatable props for carnival and outdoor arts.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC provides participatory research methods training for researchers and practitioners, exploring creative, inclusive and ethical ways to work with communities.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC collaborated with Keele University and Natural England to explore how participatory storytelling can deepen community connection to sensitive natural landscapes. A fieldwork encounter at Wybunbury Moss revealed how creativity helps young people build meaningful relationships with place.
Read MoreDelivered in partnership with PiCL, this Urban Wilderness CIC project supported Reception pupils at Sutherland Primary School to reconnect with outdoor play after lockdown through weekly exploration, storytelling and creative making.
Read MoreTomorrowland supported young people in Stoke-on-Trent to imagine and build better futures through hands-on construction workshops and a 2021 pop-up shop offering £200 bursaries for youth-led environmental and community projects.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC delivered photo walks with CAFAG youth club as part of English Heritage’s national Reverberate programme, supporting young people to explore how heritage shapes their lives in the shadow of an abandoned coal mine.
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 creative community project with Co-op Academy Stoke-on-Trent, Middleport Matters and the Canal & River Trust — exploring life along the Trent and Mersey Canal through art, play and storytelling.
Read MoreA community-led project empowering families and young people to reclaim public parks for play, creativity and connection through collaboration and trust.
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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