Posts tagged: RHS Bridgewater

OFFSHOOT: Memory Keepers at RHS Garden Bridgewater

Artist in Residence Yan Wang Preston launches OFFSHOOT at RHS Garden Bridgewater.

Join us at RHS Garden Bridgewater to meet photographer Yan, hear about her residency to date – and find out how you can become a ‘Memory Keeper’ for our magnificent 300 year old tree!

Saturday 21 June – 10:30am to 1pm at RHS Garden Bridgewater Learning Studio
£5 entry (refreshments included)

Book your tickets here!
The Sweet Chestnut Tree at RHS Garden Bridgewater, 20 Nov 2024
©Yan Wang Preston

In the historical grounds of RHS Garden Bridgewater stands a magnificent sweet chestnut tree, estimated to be around 300 years old. What vibrant, turbulent and wonderful memories could this tree tell us about our history?  What memories does it keep?

Yan Wang Preston, OFFSHOOT Artist in Residence at RHS Garden Bridgewater plans to create an artwork to honour the sweet chestnut’s life, and to retrace and explore its preserved memories – with your help.

On Saturday 21 June 2025 – the summer solstice – Yan will launch the project and host the first memory-collecting event at RHS Garden Bridgewater.

Yan will be in conversation with Josh Corbett, Bridgewater’s arboriculture team manager and self-proclaimed tree enthusiast. They will discuss their respective roles as artist and arborist and focus on how to look after woodlands for the future.

Yan will then present the star of the show, the sweet chestnut, before explaining her idea behind the Memory Keepers project. Anyone who wishes to take part will join a raffle, where each person will be randomly assigned a year between 1720 and 2020.

If you would like to join Yan’s project and become a ‘Memory Keeper’ you will be invited to write a short story (5-10 sentences) inspired by your given year. It does not need to be connected to the tree and can be about any historical event that happened that year, anywhere in the world.  

For inspiration you will go home with a beautifully designed folder containing a blank sheet alongside Yan’s photos of the tree  and 19th century images too. You can then submit your short story in a stamped addressed envelope addressed to Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

We will gather stories over the next six months, and our Memory Keepers’ stories will eventually form a collaborative artwork celebrating the enduring presence of our sweet chestnut tree. 

This will be exhibited at Salford Museum and Art Gallery in 2026/7. Memory Keepers is both a talk and a participatory event. Submitting a story is entirely optional.

Lily’s Gift
A leaf wrap with sweet chestnuts
©Yan Wang Preston
Find out more about our RHS Artist In Residence here!

OFFSHOOT Artist in Residence programme is a collaboration between University of Salford Art Collection, RHS Garden Bridgewater and Open Eye Gallery Liverpool and is generously supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

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Artist in Residence at RHS Bridgewater – Dr Yan Wang Preston

“We’re delighted to be working with RHS Bridgewater, which is such a beautiful asset right on our doorstep. I’ve been aware of Yan’s amazing work and her focus on the natural world for some time, and have been waiting for the right opportunity to work with her – we’re very excited.”

~Lindsay Taylor, Curator of the University’s Art Collection

Discover more about the Artist in Residence programme from award-winning artist and photographer Dr Yan Wang Preston and Lindsay Taylor, Curator of the University of Salford Art Collection.

About the Programme

The focus of the Artist in Residence programme at RHS Bridgewater will develop organically, initially exploring the former historic site of Worsley New Hall. This area of the garden, which at present is largely inaccessible to visitors, is key to the story of the garden. A cosmopolitan wilderness shaped by its geology, industrial past and horticultural redevelopment – themes that connect RHS Bridgewater to a global history and diverse cultures. The residency offers a window into this wilderness and a chance to explore the horticultural and heritage stories it holds.

Working in partnership with the University of Salford Art Collection, the first stage of the residency is a research and development period from September 2024 to January 2025. From March 2025 there will be a full development period, including a series of public workshops and a pop up display at RHS Bridgewater. In spring and summer 2026, the new work created by Artist in Residence Dr Yan Wang Preston will be presented outdoors in the garden, before an exhibition in autumn at Salford Museum and Art Gallery concludes the residency.

The Artist in Residence project with RHS Bridgewater helps the University deliver on some of its core ambitions, which are to enable healthier living, to nurture creativity and innovation, and to improve sustainability. It will also ensure that the Art Collection team continues to serve the University’s students, staff and wider communities – now and in the future.

Meet the Artist

Dr Yan Wang Preston is a multi-award-winning visual artist and photographer who is passionate about the natural world and our positions within it.

She has completed many challenging projects, including photographing the entire 6,211km Yangtze River in China at 100m intervals for Mother River (2010–2014), and walking to and photographing the same heart-shaped rhododendron bush on the South Pennine Moors every other day over an entire year for With Love. From an Invader. (2020–2021).

“I’m delighted to have this opportunity to work with RHS Bridgewater. Plants and flowers enrich our lives with so much beauty and vitality. Like people, they come from long journeys that are full of moving stories.”

~Dr Yan Wang Preston, Artist in Residence

Yan’s work has won many prestigious awards, including the Royal Photographic Society’s inaugural Photographer of Environmental Responsibility in 2023 and first prize in the Professional Landscape competition at the Sony World Photography Awards in 2019.

Her work is shown in numerous exhibitions, such as the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in 2024, With Love. From an Invader. at the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh in 2022 and Mother River in the 2015 UK-China Year of Cultural Exchange in China.

Yan has published two books: Mother River, and Forest, both with Hatje Cantz in 2018. Her work is collected by leading public institutions, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Wuhan Art Museum in China.

Based in West Yorkshire, Yan is a passionate gardener. Her favourite plants are peonies, rhododendrons and water lilies. Besides her artistic career, she also lectures in photography at the University of Huddersfield.

“For the research stage of this residency, I would like to prepare the ground first – to gain an understanding of the journey of RHS Bridgewater, and to try to grasp why the plants mean so much to us from personal, collective and artistic angles.”

~Dr Yan Wang Preston

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