Grizedale is a large forest in North West England, which is owned and managed by the Forestry Commission. It was one of the first places in the UK to site sculpture in a public context.

 

The Grizedale Forest Art Archive features all known artworks sited in the Forest  for a week or more since 1977. They were predominantly created through on-site residencies, which involved the Forest operating simultaneously as a studio, gallery and source for art materials. As the Forest is managed, areas have regularly changed because of tree felling and replanting and this has affected the experience of seeing the sculptures. Some were intended for open sites that are now overgrown, and vice versa. 

 

Many of these artworks have long since disappeared through either being decommissioned or by morphing back into the landscape, so this archive is the first opportunity to see all of the sited sculptures together - be they current or decommissioned -  in the environment that inspired them. This website also gives an insight into the artists' experiences of living and working in the Forest through the Artists' Interviews videos. There is also a summary of the key themes informing the sculptures over the last five decades. 

 

This archive and website was created by artist, Edwina fitzPatrick as part of her Arts and Humanities Research Council funded practice-based PhD, working in collaboration with the UK Forestry Commission and Glasgow School of Art. There is also further information about the overall research project, including Edwina's art works in response to Grizedale.  The PhD paper, Artist's geographies of the landscape-archive is now published.