After a successful pilot in 2023, Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival is returning for a full launch
this June to showcase arts, culture and community. The theme for this year’s festival is Cultural
Reforesting, which aims to promote positive social change and conversation by asking “how can
we renew our relationship with nature?”. For two weeks, venues and public spaces across
Richmond will host over 50 events including music, dance, theatre, art installations and
exhibitions, as artists endeavour to answer this important question.
The festival was instigated by Richmond Arts Service in response to Culture Richmond’s 10-year
framework, which is a plan for the borough to establish a vibrant and inclusive cultural
landscape by 2031. Working with partners across the borough, including public libraries,
theatres, schools, and charities, this innovative programme of events invites audiences to
engage with artist-led projects set in the context of the ecological crises.
This year’s innovative headliners have been announced, which includes artists, activists,
storytellers, scientists, and thinkers who will interpret the theme of cultural reforesting. The
various events will take place across the London Borough of Richmond including three hub
spaces in Richmond: The Exchange in Twickenham, OSO Arts Centre and Hampton Common.
Tania El Khoury is a Lebanese live artist who creates interactive installations and performances
that reflect on the production of collective memory. Created in collaboration with a trauma
therapist, El Khoury’s guided somatic experience, Memory of Birds (13th – 15th June) explores
the political violence that literally and figuratively gets buried in contested lands. The experience
is co-presented by Shubbak Festival and Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival, supported by Arts
Council England.
ORIGIN (13th – 22nd June) is a deep listening experience by A Right/Left Project, ran by Stephen
Dobbie and Colin Nightingale, who are Associate Artists at Punchdrunk. Combining cutting edge
spatial sound design, lighting and composition, ORIGIN invites audiences into a collective deep
listening experience at the cross-over between art and wellness. Born out of a desire to create a
calming space to allow audiences to slow down and disconnect from the everyday, this
mesmeric audio explores themes around the cycle of life and our human connection with
nature. With music composed in collaboration with Toby Young and lighting design by Ben
Donoghue, each cycle of the experience reveals what is hidden at its core.
The Waves are Rising (13th – 29th June) is a unique Augmented Reality work which presents
Raqs Media’s beautiful poetry about the environment as an engaging digital performance. The
piece focuses on how humans in cities are casting waste into our waterways, specifically the
Thames, with further exploration of trade and the Empire and the changing nature of our rivers,
seas and weather as a result of climate change.
Garbh (14th – 15th June), which means ‘womb’ in Gujarati, is an exhilarating outdoor
participatory dance performance by Shyam Dattani. Set in a striking sand terrain which enriches
movement, the dance offers a multisensory celebration of heritage, community and innovation
created by British-Gujarati artists.
International artists Ackroyd & Harvey will lead the Beuys’ Acorns Oak Circle (21st June), to
celebrate the Summer Solstice. Ackroyd & Harvey will introduce participants to Beuys’
Acorns and the impact of German artist Joseph Beuys’ seminal artwork “7000 Oaks” on their
work. Regarded as one of the leading artists of the 20th century Beuys was an environmental
campaigner and educational activist. The artists will encourage participation from the
attendees to make placards, posters and crowns celebrating the solstice, nature and trees. This
circle of oaks, grown by artists and planted in partnership with the Richmond Arts Service is a
festival hub space.
They will also lead a Solistice Song Ritual led by choirmaster Philippa Snell of the Wild Choir,
amongst the circle of trees. The circle of trees have been grown from acorns collected from
Joseph Beuy’s 7000 Oaks artwork. Beuys held great respect for the culture of tree veneration
and interest in Celtic myth and artefacts. This natural voice workshop invites audiences to join
the oak circle and partake in a simple ritual to celebrate the longest day of the year.
Actor and author, Paterson Joseph will present Sancho & Me (25th June), which is an
extraordinary story of an unlikely hero. The event is part-biography and part-dramatized
readings from Paterson’s acclaimed novel The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho.
Sancho was born on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1729, yet he became a writer,
composer, shopkeeper and respected ‘man of letters’ in 18th century London – the first man of
African heritage to vote in Britain. This is a special iteration for the festival, as Joseph focuses on
the natural landscape of Richmond, which was also Sancho’s home.
Councillor John Coombs, Richmond Council’s Spokesperson for Arts, comments, Richmond upon
Thames has long been a home for artists, a place where creativity takes root and flourishes.
Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival highlights this spirit, using the arts to tackle some of the most
pressing challenges of our time. Cultural Reforesting is about more than just nature – it’s about
renewal, regeneration, and the power of creativity to inspire change. Through this festival, we
invite everyone to be part of a movement that reimagines our future, reconnects us with the
natural world, and proves that art has a vital role to play in the climate conversation.
Full programme details can be found on the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival website at:
https://richmondartsandideas.com/
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