Making of a Meadow

Abstract

‘Making of a Meadow’ is an expansive research project developed in 2024, culminating in the ‘Language and Landscape Impact Fellowship’ in 2025, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Acceleration Account, the Royal College of Art, in collaboration with the Kent Downs National Landscape. The project consists of a series of public workshops led by selected artists across the KDNL. The KDNL is applying for UNESCO Geopark status, and these creative projects form part of a body of evidence demonstrating the importance of the relationship between creativity, geodiversity and biodiversity. A key aim of the project is to expand access to and provide creative engagement with the bio- and geodiverse habitats of the Kent Downs in support of this application. The project also supports creative learning through the design of an educational resource for the KDNL (Making of a Meadow Notebook) for schools and the public to use to encourage, celebrate and attend to geo- and biodiversity. This article evaluates and advocates for creative methods of paying attention to chalk grassland habitats to support understanding their value alongside expanded conceptions of literacy, textual, sonic, visual and linguistic, raising awareness of the vital importance of bio- and geodiverse habitats to the health of the world in both human and planetary ways.