RiverRun
Interrogating the environmental impact of the way the Dorset land is farmed, and the impact on the rivers and waters that feed Poole Bay.
One of the biggest challenges to the UK environment is the poor state of freshwater and the amplifying impact of climate change and farming practices on it. Wildlife in freshwater has declined at a faster rate than in other habitats and is particularly susceptible to climate change.
RiverRun 2019-2022
RiverRun is a three year project that connects Cape Farewell’s scientific partners with local farmers and artists. The creative programme of research and development is designed to embrace and interrogate the complex issue of the poor state of freshwater, and aims to raise awareness of the magnitude and impact of the problem. The research and development phase culminated in exhibitions, events and workshops in Autumn 2021, and we were delighted to be partnering with Durlston Country Park in Swanage and Lighthouse in Poole.
The RiverRun project has grown from recent studies by the scientist Antony Jensen at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, on the increased algae blooms that form in the summer in Poole Bay. These have a negative impact on wildlife, fish and human health, and proven links have been found with farm practice and food supply. Even organic food production has environmental impacts, witnessed by the algae blooms on the Sydling Water which runs past Cape Farewell’s HQ in Sydling St Nicholas and feeds into the Frome River, which, in turn, feeds into Poole Harbour. Cape Farewell wants this information to be part of our wider conversation about the relationship between food production and land use, water courses and the associated links to climate change.
RiverRun 2023-2026
RiverRun is continuing with a three-year partnership project between Cape Farewell and Wessex Museums running from 2024 to 2026, to create a series of community projects and a series of major exhibitions to chart the stresses being faced by the River Frome and Avon in the South West UK. This will build on the pilot work undertaken on the project by Cape Farewell over the last three years.
Wessex Museums Trust is a registered charity and thriving consortium of the principal museums of Dorset and Wiltshire: Poole Museum, Dorset Museum, The Salisbury Museum, Wiltshire Museum and Swindon Museum. The Wessex Museums are perfectly placed to share the story of Wessex, its people, and its relationship with the world. The partnership brings the opportunity to reach a wider audience, educating people to our unique local chalk river ecosystems. Eighty percent of chalk streams are located in England with the majority of them situated in the South West region.
Through workshops & using museums’ collections, artists, scientists, curators and participants will collaborate on creative responses to the ecological crisis in our rivers. The project will culminate in major exhibitions in the Wessex Museums in 2025 and 2026 showcasing the work. Each of the Museums have vibrant youth and community partnerships already established and the RiverRun programme will stimulate creative engagements augmenting a societal shift in how we nurture and protect rather than pollute our rivers. Currently these rivers are physically stressed due mainly to farm run-off, human waste treatment and discharge, recreational use and water abstraction.