On Saturday July 2nd we held our third Civic Street Open Day alongside our partners Bike For Good. For this Open Day we looked at methods of creation and ecological thinking through making, examining, collaging and imagining. From insect identifying, seasonal cooking, printing with plants and lantern-making to ecology bike rides, screen-printing, we held a mixture of activities that explored these themes.

Donna Borokinni held a cooking workshop which explored seasonality and Scottish grown produce, focusing on the beetroot. Cooking and eating with the seasons promotes thinking about where our food comes from and what our cultural and ecological relationships are to it. With a group of workshop attendees Donna prepared lunch for the day, serving up some delicious courgette fritters, a watermelon and feta salad, a carrot and beetroot slaw and vegan chocolate brownies to top it off!

Elie Lakin, from Unit Studio, led a ‘Public Pixels’ workshop – creating bespoke paper lanterns illuminated by LED light pixels. Across the day these pixels were hung in the event space at Civic House, becoming a canvas of light.

Zoe Pearson hosted two workshops: an insect identification workshop in the morning which led attendees through the green space of Civic Street exploring what tiny creatures call the space their home. In the afternoon Zoe held an ‘insect making’ workshop, constructing insect sculptures from willow branches and scrap material.

A + E (Art and Ecology) collective held a collage and photographic print workshop using a playful and environmentally friendly form of photography: the anthotype. This process works by collecting plant matter and distilling their colour and dye using alcohol to become a photosensitive material. In their workshop, participants experimented with this process using samples of printed works from the old Civic Press archive – revitalising through these naturally transient prints a morphological relationship between civic history and ecological futurity.

Bike For Good hosted a series of activities across the day including face painting, arts and crafts, smoothie and e-cargo bikes, cycling taster sessions and an ecology bike ride with a foraging picnic.

Check out the images below by Aga Młyńczak to see all of the fun activities and keep an eye out for our upcoming open day on August 6th – this time all about food!