About Scrubs Bird Life Project
During July-August 2021, Urbanwise.London worked at Old Oak Primary school as part of the Old Oak Community Centre summer programme in partnership with Artist Renata Fernandez. During this time, we delivered a series of events and activities involving local children to increase their connection to the Wormwood Scrubs. A particular focus was on the birds of The Scrubs and during the project we encouraged new friendships and created a collaborative piece of art to make a banner and a guide for families.
Our aim was to get children closer together as a community by encouraging them to explore the wonderful Wormwood Scrubs. Around 40 children went on walks and 80 children participated in the workshops. They enjoyed bird watching and bug hunting while at the Scrubs and creating art with a professional artist using a gel printing technique.
We liaised with artist Renata Fernandez and organisation Bubblesqueakeat CIC to coordinate and supervise all activities.
Comments by participating children included:
“A hundred? I didn’t know there were so many birds at the Scrubs!”
“I loved learning about birds and creating art with Renata and Urbanwise”
“It was fun going out and learning how to use binoculars to watch birds”
For a detailed history if Wormwood scrubs please check this document produced (scrubshistoryv2) by DJ from the Friends of Wormwood Scrubs Community Group.
Workshops
We used the list of birds found in Wormwood Scrub compiled by Urban Birder David Lindo and delivered two walks and six art workshops for children. The walks were attended by 16 and 18 children and happened during the first two weeks of the projects, while the art workshops were attended by around 20 children per session over a period of six weeks.
Guide and banner
With the work produced during the art workshops we produced the ‘Birds of the Scrubs‘ banner (please see below) and guide for local children and families. The banner is on display at Old Oak Community Centre outer fence so visitors to the Scrubs can see it. The guide will be distributed to local schools and presented in an assembly at Old Oak Primary School
Links
David Lindo – The Urban Birder
Old Oak Community and Children’s Centre
Friends of the Wormwood David Lindo Bird Archive and Birds of the month
Wormwood Scrubs History by DJ (Friends of Wormwood Scrubs)
Acknowledgements
Scrubs Bird Life was part of Mayor of London’s In the Making initiative. In the Making projects are funded through different funding sources, including:
The Mayor of London’s Good Growth Fund
National Lottery Heritage Fund
Arts Council England
