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 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 commissioned sculptor Raphael Daden to create a Sky Works canopy installation in Longton, combining light and birdsong to explore the absence of nature in the town centre and reimagine the public realm after dark.
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 MoreA temporary public sculpture by artist David Bethell, commissioned by Urban Wilderness CIC, exploring heritage, fragility and hope through precariously balanced architectural forms.
Read MoreA temporary public artwork by Anna Berry, commissioned by Urban Wilderness CIC, exploring resilience, heritage and renewal through a sculptural response to Longton’s urban buddleia.
Read MoreA creative consultation in Longton that grew into public interventions, heritage-led activities and cultural programming — now continuing as a community-led CIC.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC developed a new Artist Design Guide and heritage colour palette for Longton, supporting business owners to make sympathetic improvements that celebrate the town’s unique architectural character.
Read MoreUrban Wilderness CIC co-created the Garden of Possibilities with young people from 42nd Street for the National Trust’s Castlefield Viaduct — a quiet, restorative space shaped by youth voice and urban nature.
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 MoreA socially engaged art project by Dana Olărescu responding to the decommissioning of 20th-century power infrastructure — part of Decommissioning the Twentieth Century. Using posters and community engagement, it gives voice to workers, residents and future imaginaries around West Burton Power Station.
Read MoreA documentary film produced under Decommissioning the Twentieth Century, reflecting on the closure of Fawley Power Station and its impact on landscape, community and memory.
Read MoreA co-creative public art commission by Urban Wilderness CIC inviting communities to imagine what should be preserved, shared or re-imagined at the former Chatterley Whitfield Colliery — not just historic artefacts, but everyday stories, hope, and future possibilities.
Read MoreA major AHRC-funded research project led by Keele University in partnership with Urban Wilderness CIC, exploring how 20th-century industrial and energy infrastructure becomes heritage — and how communities can shape that process.
Read MoreSeeds of Hope was a community-growing initiative by Urban Wilderness CIC, working with young people and local residents across Knutton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Abbey Hulton. Through gardening, craft, sustainability workshops and outdoor activities, the project promoted wellbeing, food growing, community connection and environmental awareness.
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