Trees will do the talking on London’s Trafalgar Square ‘Plinth’ this month - not once but twice
Both plinth occupants will be spreading the word for conservation charity the Woodland Trust on the importance of planting more trees; one using her elevated hour-slot on August 6th to give out potted acorns destined to grow into mighty oaks, and the other handing out native tree saplings on August 27.
First onto Antony Gormley’s One & Another plinth is Carnoustie-born Aimee Henderson (28), studying fine art at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee and using her hour (4pm – 5pm) to turn the plinth into a giant potting shed!
At the end of her hour she aims to have a symbolic 60 English acorns in pots, ready to hand out.
And on August 27 Chester teacher Tamasine Croston will don a Dorothy Perkins ‘Grass is Greener’ t-shirt to mark the Trust’s High Street corporate partnership and stage a session of Play Your Cards Right between 9-10am – with giant playing cards and the help of her sister Bryony.
Lucky winners will receive a Trust sapling with planting instructions
One of the lucky 2400 people selected at random from more than 30,000 plinth applicants across the UK, Aimee even plans a web site to track the growth progress of her acorns.
“I wanted to do something symbolic for each minute of my hour and so have decided to plant sixty trees in pots and hand out to the general public,” she said. “I like the idea that sixty trees were born on top on the plinth”
“The acorns are from native English oak, and being quite hardy should germinate. The pots will go into recycled paper bags along with growing instructions, stickers, badges and general information about the project.
Tamasine, who teaches at Oldfield Primary school in Chester, has been a long term supporter of the Trust’s award winning Nature Detectives web site – with two garden projects and pupils immersed in wildlife.
“I am normally extremely shy, but I am going to do my best to make people aware of the Woodland Trust,” said Tamasine, whose card game winners will receive either a cherry tree or a holly tree.
Trust head of woodland creation James Lonsdale praised the efforts of both women. “Anyone illustrates how important is it for us to plant more trees is doing a great job.”
“The Trust has just held a successful and high profile woodland creation reception at the House of Commons and now the word has spread to Trafalgar Square. It’s great.”
Trees are a hot topic within London with Mayor Boris Johnson’s new environment plan suggesting that an extra two million trees should be planted in London to combat rising temperatures over future decades.
Live plinth streaming is available on www.oneandanother.co.uk. Sky Arts runs a weekly Plinth highlights programme every Friday evening at 7pm.Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, email: media@woodlandtrust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters.
The Trust has three key aims: i) to enable the creation of more native woods and places rich in trees ii) to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future iii) to inspire everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free.