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Communities in Nature: Growing the Social Role of Botanic Gardens
9th November 2011

In 2009 BGCI, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, launched a groundbreaking research programme into the social role and relevance of UK botanic gardens.  A cornerstone of this pioneering initiative was BGCI’s 2010 report ‘Towards a New Social Purpose: Redefining the Role of Botanic Gardens

Earlier this year BGCI supported three UK botanic gardens to develop their social roles through a programme of workshops and funded, small-scale research projects.  Winterbourne House and Garden, part of the University of Birmingham, set up Urban Veg, a community based vegetable garden designed as a two way cultural exchange and learning experience for the Islamic communities of Birmingham and the Garden.  Ness Botanic Garden  ran a series of science focused workshops for students from a deprived area of Liverpool.

Now, with the continued support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, BGCI is offering five more UK botanic gardens the exciting opportunity to grow and enhance their social roles, share in building a global community of practice and pilot their own community-based projects. By taking on this challenge, BGCI’s project partners will find themselves in the vanguard of a development that many agree is critical to the successful engagement of botanic gardens with their host communities.

To find out more, and download an application form, click here.

 

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