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25 May 2005
International artists visit Cambridgeshire Fens –
The Great Fen Project is recorded through the medium of art
A group of wildlife artists from around the world visited a unique conservation project in Cambridgeshire from 9 to 21 May 2005. The Great Fen Project hosted the Artists for Nature Foundation (ANF) for two weeks while they portrayed fenland landscapes, wildlife and the local community, using a variety of media such as painting and sculpture. The artwork produced will help to raise the profile of the project.
The Great Fen Project is a large-scale wetland habitat restoration project, between Huntingdon and Peterborough. The Project aims to reconnect two National Nature Reserves, Woodwalton Fen and Holme Fen, which are remaining fenland fragments surrounded by arable land, creating what will be lowland Britain's largest wetland reserve, 37 square kilometres in size. Over the next half-century the site will develop, sustaining a variety of wildlife, with visitor facilities and activities, such as horse riding and cycle hire. The site will be a haven for wildlife and people, a place where it is possible to walk around all day without retracing your footsteps.
The Artists for Nature Foundation is a unique, international organisation of well-known wildlife artists, whose aim is to raise public awareness of endangered areas, through their artwork and books about their trips to different sites. The artists, selected to represent a variety of styles and media, created a pictorial record of the wildlife that clings on in this remnant of once-widespread fenland, and showed what this area might look like when the Great Fen Project is complete.
This is the second of two visits from ANF and involved local and international artists, as well as members of the local community who took part in activities arranged at the site. We would like to thank those who have given their generous support in kind: Corporal Paddy Stuart of Two Squadron and his team from the Army, Andy Owens at Defence Estates, East Ham Air Cadets, RB Organic, Masterfoods and Lattaloo Hire.
The Great Fen project is a partnership between The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough, English Nature, the Environment Agency and Huntingdonshire District Council. For more information, email info@greatfen.org.uk
