Story So Far
In 2020, Gemma, our founder and director, through her role as Appetite Director for the Arts Council England funded Creative People and Places National Portfolio programme: Appetite, began to collaborate with Orit Azaz and Imagineer on a project and enquiry around bridge building, connections and relationships and large scale spectacle, Bridge. This was during the COVID-19 pandemic and space opened up for imagining the future.
As part of the work that is now known as Imagine Bamboo, the enquiry for Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffs grew. If Bamboo is a future sustainable material for the UK and planet, what can that mean for a place like Stoke and North Staffs that has made its name using clay, coal and other materials for craft, industry and more.
Through the collaboration, Appetite supported four people to take part in two Creative Labs hosted by Imagineer with BambooU, Bali: Kim Mountford from MODE Architects, Chloe Rickett, Francesca Wheeler and Monica Cru-Hall.
We hosted sessions with community groups and with the public at events to use the material and understand its benefits and possibilities: All Saints Community Garden in Knutton, Middleport Matters, The Portland in Project, PM Training apprentices, Better World, The Big Feast and more.
Taking Root by Ling Tan saw 16 baby Borindas temporarily adopted by reception children at a school in Keele, by staff and students at Keele University, Middleport Matters and others from other community groups.
In 2022, Imagine Bamboo hosted the first Summit at Sunset Park in Birmingham where a UK-grown bamboo arch was built by an international community led by a design by specialist structural engineers, Atelier One.
The parts were then brought back to North Staffs to be successfully re-built as part of Keele University’s Green Festival in March. 2023. Where a cloud swing circus engineer tested the bamboo along with over 150 people and dogs on a bamboo swing.
We also hosted talks by experts including: Orit Azaz, Chris Matthews from Atelier One, Michael Brisbane a bamboo expert and president of the UK Bamboo Society and a session for potential partners to hear from Mark Ormerod, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at Keele University and Hector Archila from UWE.
In August 2023, Brilliant Bamboo was formed as a Community Interest Company to take the work further, with co-Directors Matt and Susan. A GoFundMe raised some much-needed funds to support the ambitions in the first year and developed the community of interest further. The story does not stop there: our website, blog, and socials will tell the story of what we’ve been up to since.
