Tate Britain Workshop

Sunday Social: if plants could talk

24 March 2024 at 14.00–17.00

Unknown artist, Britain, Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield 1615. Tate.

Join an afternoon of free activities exploring the botanical world at Tate Britain

Celebrating Tate Britain’s gallery rehang and marking the arrival of Spring, this free programme of afternoon activity takes inspiration from artworks in Tate's collection exploring the ever-changing relationship between humans and plants. Expect to be guided on special tours, take part in workshops, and find new ways to connect with the art on display.

Programme

All events are free and drop-in. Materials will be provided for each workshop.

14.00–16.00 Nature Weaving: workshop with Steele Studio

Weaving makes up a lot of our world. It’s how textiles are formed, and even how buildings stay together. This workshop will introduce you to the unique art of “nature weaving” — weaving with nature’s materials. You will be able to experiment, play, and connect with nature. Open to participants of all ages and experiences.

14.00 – 17.00 It’s Freezing in LA pop-up

Join the It’s Freezing in La! team to talk all things plant and human relationships and get your hands on their latest issue 10, ‘Plants’.

14.30–15.15 Plants, People and Landscapes: guided tour with Claire Ratinon and Sam Ayre

This tour will explore the complex and evolving relationships between humans and the environment. Adopting a decolonial lens, the tour will 500 years of British art, to uncover some of the untold histories behind the plants and landscapes depicted in the art on display.

15.00–17.00 Queer Botany in Collection: drawing workshop with Edward Luke Thrush

This session will take a queer gaze at the botanics represented in the works on display, looking at how plants have been used as metaphors and indicators of LGBTQIA+ expression, and the stories behind these relationships. Open to all skill levels, you’ll be using Posca pens to sketch directly from a floral display inspired by queer stories and the art on display.

Activities for Families

Meanwhile, Play Studio and Story Space will be open for families of all ages to engage in zine-making activities.

Claire Ratinon

Claire Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer. Claire has shared her growing journey in talks for organisations including Tate Liverpool, Barbican Centre and Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh, as well as on Radio 4 and in her column for the Guardian’s Saturday Magazine. She co-wrote the pamphlet, ‘Horticultural Appropriation’ with artist, Sam Ayre and her latest book, ‘Unearthed’ is out now.

Sam Ayre

Sam Ayre is an artist who specialise in participatory projects, creatively engaging groups of people in exploring their opinions, ideas, encouraging radical imagining, embracing tangents, conviviality and mistake-making, with a supporting studio practice focusing on wooden sculptural furniture and landscape painting. They are currently exhibiting at Whitechapel Gallery and have delivered commissions for Turner Contemporary, De La Warr Pavilion, Towner, Tate Modern, Freelands Foundation, Art Night London and National Gallery amongst others and is currently artist in residence at West Dean College and Ark Schools.

Steele Studio

Steele Studio was established by Stephanie Steele to educate everyday folk on the interconnectedness of our food, fibre and fashion systems. As a fashion designer and then organic food grower, Stephanie recognised this important missing link in fully understanding how to navigate the challenges we face as beings on a changing planet. Steele Studio facilitate nature connection activities that provide a comforting space to explore this interconnection, not only with materials, but with each other - recognising diversity, appreciating magic, and encouraging a new face of wellbeing.

Edward Luke Thrush

Edward Luke Thrush is an illustrator who explores the boundaries between urban and natural environments through a queer perspective. Working mostly in a figurative, detailed style, he incorporates botanics into his works as a means of adding context and symbolism, delving into the connection that queerness has to nature and the stories that have been told to express the lgbtq+ experience using plants. Working in various media, he holds workshops and also works in a creative partnership installing murals and public art.

It's Freezing in LA!

It’s Freezing in LA! is a critically acclaimed platform for climate writing and images. They find detailed, complex and fascinating new topics and make them accessible, engaging and exciting. They have built a space that fuses art, politics and science while platforming emerging and under-represented writers and illustrators in the climate movement. They publish a bi-annual, 60-page collection that dives into difficult environmental questions and in Spring 2023, IFLA! launched the digital platform https://itsfreezinginla.com/

Tate Britain

Collection displays

Millbank
London SW1P 4RG
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