755 Artscapers of all ages strengthened their relationships with nature and one another with the help of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination in 2023-2024, as shown in our new annual review.
The review highlights the increasing versatility of our outreach projects, highlighting collaborations with Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Cambridge City Tree Team that supported creative encounters for thousands of residents across the city this year.
In partnership with colleagues at Fullscope and Cambridge Acorn Project, young people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough were supported to access the restorative benefits of being outdoors, and colleagues from across health, education, planning and the arts participated in a one-day immersive training experience at Storey’s Field, Eddington.
Four new resources were launched, including an introductory guide to Artscaping and a new walk for wellbeing, supporting our aim of increasing access to our practice. Our enduring partnership with TOWN enabled teenagers and young adults to participate in creative consultation workshops, while our Fantastical Forest continued to grow, fostering new connections with schools across the region, and sparking reflective conversations about creativity, children and nature.
2,300 residents visited our ground-breaking Imaginarium event during the Cambridge Festival in 2023-24, as detailed in the review. They learned about the network of organisations working to create a greener, fairer city, making what would nature do prints, immersing themselves in the newest CCI sound recordings, and contributing to an art installation designed by artist Hilary Cox Condron. By doing so, visitors and volunteers helped us raise awareness and appreciation for the important lessons nature teaches us, galvanising stronger support for creative, participatory approaches to sustainability and outreach.
Ruth Sapsed, outgoing Director of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, said:
This is my last Annual Review as the Director of CCI. It has been a huge privilege to lead this wonderful charity since we established it back in 2007. Writing my reflections made me appreciate how many children and communities we have already supported to ‘flourish in infinitely wonky, beautifully different and communally crafted open-ended environments, particularly forests, fields and unruly artscapes’. These words are from our Call for Spaces of Liberated Learning and I love how they capture the essence of the work. I compare CCI to a boat in my reflections and describe how she has changed and grown from a wayward coracle at the beginning to a sturdy and powerful ship that is ’safe to take into unknown waters, able to take on different challenges and navigate into all sorts of harbours'. I’m already enjoying watching these new adventures evolve and know she will go on to support many more children and young people, artists and communities led by Emily.
The annual review was agreed by trustees at the charity’s AGM in Cambridge on 25 September.
Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination would like to thank our key funding partners and individual donors for their support in 2023-24, including:
Cambridge City Council
Churchill College
Evelyn Trust
Jesus College
King’s College London
Kiss Communications
Newnham College
Queen’s College
Selwyn College
Sidney Sussex College
TOWN.
Trinity College
Trinity Hall College