Community Art Project - Gedling Country Park and Café - Adult Learning

This practical outdoor course invites learners to work together as a small group to design and create a piece of community art for Gedling Country Park. Over the duration of the course, participants will share ideas, explore the landscape, and collaboratively plan a creative concept that can be built using natural materials such as willow. The group will decide together which location best suits the artwork they want to produce. Once a design is agreed, learners will gather suitable natural materials, prepare them, and build the final piece on site.

The course is based almost entirely outdoors, and every session begins by meeting at the park café before walking together to the work area. Learners should be aware that the environment includes hilly and sometimes uneven terrain, and the practical nature of the activities means that standing, bending, light foraging, and general physical involvement will be required. This is not a classroom-based course. Participants will be moving around the park, exploring and working with natural materials. Suitable outdoor clothing and sturdy footwear are essential.

By the end of the course, learners will have taken part in a creative planning process, contributed to a group design, and helped to build and install a nature inspired artwork in the park. They will gain experience of collaboration, environmental awareness, and simple construction techniques using natural materials. The final artwork will remain in the country park for the wider community to enjoy.

Note: There is a car park at Gedling Country Park but a suitable ticket is required. If you pay with cash it is £2 or online with Ringo £2.40. Both prices include all day parking.

If you receive certain benefits you will be offered the course for free, however if you have a financial barrier which may prevent you from enrolling on the course, please visit our funding page for further information.

Residency in England

To book and enrol on one of our courses, you must be living in England permanently and live outside of the devolved areas listed below or live within the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) devolved area (Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire).

• Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield 

• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough

• Greater London

• Greater Manchester

• Liverpool City Region

• Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland

• Tees Valley

• West of England

• West Midlands

• West Yorkshire

Residency Eligibility – other criteria

If you are living in the UK on a visa we will require evidence of this in order to be funded for the course, you can upload this evidence when you apply for the course. (completion of a questionnaire will be required).

Some exceptions may apply for example

• Your visa expiry date must be beyond the end of your course

• Asylum seekers must have lived in the UK for 6 months or longer while their claim is being considered by the Home Office

• You are receiving local authority support under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 or the Care Act 2014

Any learner who is not funded full cost fees would apply to these courses.