Northumberland National Park launched festival about Britain's landscapes

The festival will be hosted across the national park and will encourage young people to explore and consider their own roles in the future of the landscape and give their views on what the National Park could look like.

With a focus on ‘Nature, People, Climate, Place’, Future Landscapes Festival will explore how England’s precious landscapes serve people, nature, industry, and climate.

It will include an exhibition from Newcastle University, and a series of thought-provoking discussions and experiences designed to prompt people to think about the role landscape plays in their lives, and what they want the landscape in Northumberland National Park to look like in the future.

ENVIRONMENT: Future landscapes by Gemma Burditt

Over the last 18 months, the national park has witnessed an increase in people visiting the park for their physical and mental wellbeing.

Tony Gates, Chief Executive at Northumberland National Park Authority, said: “How we use land is likely to change, possibly dramatically in the next ten years – from farming and food production, to how we tackle climate change and help nature to recover. The Festival has been designed to challenge how we currently see the landscape, and what we, as individuals, can do to protect and preserve the future of what our land is for and how it might look.”

The COP26 summit in Glasgow will be running at the same time as Future Landscapes, so through the Festival, Northumberland National Park has an opportunity to highlight its collective ambitions and put Northumberland on the climate change stage.

The Future Landscapes Festival will see a new exhibition hosted at The Sill. The exhibition is in association with Maltings, Arts Council England (ACE) and Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy and Institute for Creative Arts Practice.

ENVIRONMENT: Coquetdale, Northumberland National Park

It features the work of artist Gemma Burditt, who visited and collected interviews from an array of land-based businesses in Northumberland, exploring their relationship with the landscape through their own personal histories and livelihoods.

Gemma Burditt said: “I'm delighted to be exhibiting the Future Landscapes installation at The Sill.

"I couldn't think of a more perfect venue to be hosting work which aims to inspire the public to question how we use our national landscape, and the role which we all have to play in shaping what we actually see in our surroundings.”