Landscapes of Hope. A touring exhibition at School Gallery, Folkestone and the Arts, Health and Wellbeing Centre, Gloucester.

Olczak, Susie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9615-5514, Champion, Rachael and Pelly-Fry, Becca (2025) Landscapes of Hope. A touring exhibition at School Gallery, Folkestone and the Arts, Health and Wellbeing Centre, Gloucester. [Show/Exhibition]

Preview	Text Landscapes+of+Hope+Press+Release.pdf - Published Version Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (2MB) | Preview
Preview	Image Landscapes of Hope - poster E.jpg - Published Version Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (380kB) | Preview
Preview	Image Landscapes of Hope - Day of Talks.jpg - Published Version Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (402kB) | Preview
Preview	Image EXTENDED Landscapes of Hope City Campus Gloucester copy.tif - Published Version Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (23MB) | Preview
Preview	Image Gloucester Landscapes of Hope - Day of Talks GLOUCESTER.jpg - Published Version Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (493kB) | Preview
Preview	Image Gloucester Landscapes of Hope -Film Night.jpg - Supplemental Material Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (305kB) | Preview
	Text Documentation of The leaves fell, falling, until the only tree was the falling itself (2025) .docx - Published Version Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (1MB)
	Text Landscapes of Hope. Gloucester Press Release.docx - Accepted Version Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (368kB)
	Text Gloucester List of Works.docx - Supplemental Material Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (3MB)
	Text Landscapes of Hope, Schoool Gallery, Folkestone.docx - Supplemental Material Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (8MB)
	Text Landscapes of Hope Gloucester.docx - Supplemental Material Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (9MB)
	Video (Ayni. Video work shown in Gloucester. Copyright Susie Olczak) watch_v=xuqiw9ayID0&feature=youtu.be - Other Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (996kB)
Preview	Video (Conduit. Video work shown in Gloucester. Copyright Susie Olczak) Conduit .mov - Other Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (511MB) | Preview

Abstract

Landscapes of Hope Rachael Champion and Susie Olczak Curated by Becca Pelly-Fry 12 July - 23 August 2025 School Gallery, Folkestone This was part of the Folkestone Triennial public programme. A public programme of events included a weekend of events with a foraged feast by Nastja Säde Rönkko, a sound walk by Alison Neighbour, a tour of the Triennial artwork with Sara Trillo, a visit to Open Art Folk and the Coat of Hopes at Folkeston Museum and a discussion at Folklore. Also a day of talks with talks by Professor Catherine Dormor from Westminster University, Folkestone Triennial curator Sorcha Carey, Dan Keech, Alison Neighbour, John Kenneth Paranada curator of sustainability at the Sainsbury's Centre, Nastja Ronko, Sara Trillo, Rachael Champion, Bean from UCA Canterbury, Susie Olczak and Becca Pelly Fry. 26 September 2025 - 8 January 2026 Landscapes of Hope Arts, Health and Wellbeing Centre, University of Gloucestershire, Gloucester This programme included a day of talks with talks from Susie Olczak, Becca Pelly-Fry, Zillah Bowes, Holly Williams Richards, Dan Keech, Professor Abigail Gardener, Dr Alice Goodenough and Philip Reeder from the SAGE Project, Sarah Bowden and Geoff Moss from We Create, Professor Janet Dwyer and Berglind Karlsdóttir. It also included an evening of film screenings with the Frome International Climate Film Festival in collaboration with the Royal Geographic Society. Landscapes of Hope was a touring two-person exhibition by Rachael Champion and Susie Olczak. The artists explored forms of localised hope within the context of escalating climate challenges, foregrounding stories of adaptation and resilience. Olczak’s recent research in Latin America examined local rituals and everyday practices as frameworks for understanding how communities sustain life in extreme environments. Champion’s work addressed the corporeality of extracted, transformed and consumed materials, tracing how these processes alter the physical and ecological characteristics of landscapes. Drawing on local stories, customs and rituals, the exhibition functioned as a visual experiment in responding to landscape. It considered how communities adapt to environmental precarity, positioning resilience as both a lived and collective practice. First presented in Folkestone, a ‘borderland’ coastal town facing Europe, the exhibition was informed by a research trip to Dungeness, one of the driest locations in the UK. The second iteration in Gloucester shifted this dialogue to a markedly different ecology. In contrast to the aridity of Dungeness, Gloucestershire’s wetter environment opened up new lines of enquiry around water, health and landscape. The exhibition engaged with the region’s pioneering Arts and Health and Nature on Prescription initiatives, asking how access to green and blue spaces contributes to wellbeing, and how these benefits may be altered as environments become increasingly unstable. Across both iterations, tending to a small patch of land or garden emerged as a central metaphor for environmental care. Acts of attention and maintenance were framed as gestures of solidarity and resistance, offering modest yet meaningful ways to engage with climate resilience. In this context, attentiveness became a method for learning to live more harmoniously with both human and non-human others. Landscapes of Hope proposed a shift away from human-centred frameworks, advocating instead for forms of nature-led intelligence. In doing so, it identified and nurtured pockets of hope within increasingly hostile conditions, offering ways to navigate the complex ecological realities of the present.

Item Type:	Show/Exhibition
Related URLs:	https://www.creativefolkestone.org.uk/fo... https://www.schoolgallery.co.uk/
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Arts, Culture and Environment
Depositing User:	Susie Olczak
Date Deposited:	03 Jul 2026 14:20
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2026 14:20
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15973

University Staff: Request a correction | Repository Editors: Update this record