OU Art Historian helps people reconnect with the natural world

An open book with an illustration on display

Sam Shaw (History of Art) led a stall at a National Trust ‘Nature Weekend’ at Attingham Park in Shropshire (13th-14th June). This event formed part of Attingham’s Nature Recovery Project, which seeks to better manage and restore habitats within the Attingham estate and to help people reconnect with the natural world. Sam was there to represent two OU OSC projects: Art & Ecology and TREASURE (Tools to Realise Socio-Economic Benefits from Floodplains Under Restoration) and to promote the short film Inside Outside – Restoring Floodplain Meadows at the National Trust. An object from this film was exhibited at Attingham Mansion especially for the event and Sam ran a number of activities for adults and children, including a 'spot the difference' based on Humphrey Repton’s Attingham Red Book (1798). Over a hundred visitors stopped at the stall over the course of the weekend and explored the connections between objects from the the Trust’s collection, and the nature restoration work going on in wider environment.