Princesshay Honey Flow (2016)
A bespoke public artwork offering a bees-eye view of the city of Exeter and the local habitat of the Princesshay roof garden.
Permanently installed at street level in Princesshay shopping centre and dining quarter, the work signposts the presence of the pollinator friendly rooftop garden high above, where the Princesshay City Bee Project apiary is housed.
The artwork documents the activity of Princesshay’s honeybees over an entire year, recording the plants growing in the rooftop garden and samples of the biodiverse flora foraged on by the city's honeybees within a 2-mile radius of the hive.
To create this artwork, Shelton followed the honeybees' flight paths across the city, in their quest for pollen and nectar-rich flowering plants that sustain their colonies. The artwork salutes the beekeeping workforce that invisibly coexists with shoppers and the human work force, extolling the essential synergy between urban architecture, biodiversity and human health.
A visible reminder of our need for biodiverse green spaces in our urban environments for both humans and wildlife to flourish.
Commissioned for Princesshay by the Crown Estate
Watch a short film about Princesshay Honey Flow
Honeyscribe Hive
Princesshay residency, Exeter (2014-)
Since 2014, we have been working in partnership with Princesshay Bee Project and the Crown Estate to deliver an ongoing programme of creative arts workshops and live events around Amy Shelton's residency at Princesshay, engaging local communities, supporting learning and inspiring action on how cities might flourish as creative bio-diverse habitats for humans and pollinators.
To date, the programme has reached over two thousand school children across the city allowing young people to develop a deeper understanding of the urgency to protect biodiversity and support healthy societies.
Honey tastings, book readings, food events, live discussions, art workshops and facilitated visits to the bee hives, have stimulated a range of creative responses amongst local school children, local residents and visitors of all ages.
Enabling people to experience the natural world up close and participate in artistic practice through the residency, has helped enrich understanding of the links between human health and the health of the environment, and revealed the importance of engaging with the natural world and the arts to improve mental and physical health.
Honeyscribe Hive programme: 2018/19, 2016
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