From 2023-20027, the PLACE Collective is joining a consortium of more than 30 organisations in the Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People Hub. Being part of this community is an exciting opportunity to bring art and artists into discussions around land management and just transitions in land use, in a complex practice-science-research-policy context.
How might an artist offer novel lenses through which to consider land use change?
How do artists working with other specialists take dialogues in new directions?
How might art influence discussions & actions around land use change?
What might an artist notice that others do not?
The UKRI-funded ‘LUNZ’ Hub is led by the James Hutton Institute and the University of Leicester. The LUNZ Hub aims to provide all four UK administrations with the evidence they need to develop policies that will drive transformations in land use needed to achieve net zero by 2050, while also addressing and reversing biodiversity decline, and supporting people to thrive.
Achieving transformation at scale, in a process of just transition, requires insights from many sources, as well as collaborative working, including across the devolved UK governments. The objective of the LUNZ Hub is not to set policy recommendations, but to promote discussion and dialogue, and provide evidence, that can inform these recommendations. This requires close integration between policymakers, academic researchers, farmers, foresters, growers, land managers and other practitioners, and brings in social, economic, scientific and artistic disciplines. Knowledge, experience, questions and provocations from all these sectors are important in a collaborative journey to better understand the issues at hand, and the possibilities for change.
The involvement of PLACE Collective artist researchers in the work of the LUNZ Hub will be evolving over the three years of the project, most closely affiliated with Work Package 2 (Transdisciplinary community and capacity building). The artist lead, co-ordinating the PLACE Collective’s involvement, will be Rob Fraser (co-founder of the PLACE Collective).
PLACE Collective artists have been joining LUNZ Hub meetings, taking part in discussions relating to research, knowledge exchange and frameworks for change (such as the UK government’s recent Land Use Framework consultation) and co-running workshops and events (including the Big Tent event, in partnership with the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas, in March 2025). The Resonance project is a key element, convening conversations outdoors, while co-creating a living sculpture, emphasising the importance of place-specific approaches land management, relationship building, and plans for change. In 2025-2026, the Creative Collaborative Placements programme will connect artists with specialists from research, practice and policy, with one artist in each of the devolved UK nations, to respond to specific topics and themes in the context of land use change.
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LUNZ Hub films on Land Use and attitudes to change, first shown at Edinburgh Royal Society.
Big Dig Day – peatland restoration, tree planting, and conversations about land use change
Resonance Project – co-creating a living sculpture, and sharing knowledge and thoughts on land use, change, and relationships to place
Big Tent ‘Resonance’ Event, March 2025
