The Tree Charter Bell VI

The Tree Charter Bell project was conceived to incite critical discourse and collective action. The project serves multiple functions: TCB is a unifying instrument, calling people together for tree planting activities, a warning bell, raising awareness about the escalating climate crisis, and a ceremonial bell to celebrate new life. The premise is that each person who plants a new tree will ring the TCB in celebration and also to attract attention to the activity. These multiple purposes reflect a growing recognition of the need for art to engage with environmental issues in ways that resonate emotionally, physically, and intellectually. TCB illustrates how sound can catalyse collective reflection and community engagement, cultivating a shared sense of responsibility toward ecological challenges. The aim is to work with a different organisation each year to coordinate tree-planting ceremonies with people from differing demographics.

In 2024 Caroline Worked with The Sherwood Forest Trust, a charity established in 1995 working with nature, people and communities local to Sherwood Forest. Three hundred trees were planted across 250 hectares of land in Warsop, Nottinghamshire, in partnership with Mansfield District Council, local school children and students from West Nottinghamshire College. Each sapling was planted to the chimes of the Tree Charter Bell.

This was an active project with a simple message: plant trees as a meaningful action to contribute to planetary sustainability. The project was filmed to become part of a documentary which will be exhibited at Nottingham Castle in a new exhibition entitled FOREST later in 2025.

https://www.derby.ac.uk/news/2024/tree-charter-bell-raises-awareness...