Celebrating the Sycamore Gap Tree.
Art work, poems and exhibitions.
Hi everyone,
We thought it might be nice to write something again about the Sycamore Gap Tree, as one year on we are celebrating art produced from the tragic felling.
As the news spread quickly on the morning of Thursday 28th September, personal memories, snapshots, artwork and photographs were shared across social media. Online timelines were full of beautiful imagery and poignant words.
Now, it has been a little over a year since that day and we have seen poetry published, an exhibition installed and projects with schools carried out across the county. Here is a round up of just a few of these beautiful projects that have grown from such a sad day for Northumberland.
An iconic Northumberland landmark…
Read our post from last year as we invited others to be part of a set of curated thoughts, ideas, artist product listings and memories online.
Celebrating the Sycamore Gap Tree.
Poetry book by author Kate Fox.
A book for everyone who knew the famous silhouette of the tree that stood at Sycamore Gap.
For those who took shelter, saw its branches against the sky or heard the leaves dance; for all the picnics next to it and the proposals under it. For anyone who feels the strength of silent roots and the quiet promise of the turning year. For any of us who measure time in rings and wait for green leaves to grow again.
For everyone who felt a loss when the gap was just a gap once more, these are words that grew in the space, the hope that shoots like seedlings.
Grown against the wide sky of Northumbria, at a place of borders where ancient history meets our modern lives, the tree that stood for so long still has much to say.
This is a book of growth, loss and renewal, a song from soil to soul, about how we all live where the earth meets the sky.
Published by Harper Collins, you can purchase this beautiful book here.
Last chance to visit Sycamore Gap: One Year On exhibition.
The temporary exhibition has been open at The Sill: Northumberland National Park since Saturday 28th September and closes this Sunday.
In response to the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, artist Charlie Whinney and Creative Communities CIC, created the Sycamore Gap: One Year On exhibition. The exhibition offers space for contemplation of events and features the largest remaining section of the original tree. The work seeks to transform the loss of the tree into a symbol of hope and resilience, finding meaning and beauty in the wake of a senseless act.
As part of the exhibition, visitors are invited to make promises to the nature, which will be incorporated into the second and final phase of the commission, set to open by Easter 2025.
As part of the exhibition Sarah Fae worked with a group of school children to make a replica Ghost Tree and created a series of written works around “The Gap”. Find out more.
Find out more and perhaps make time to visit this weekend?
Baltic Art.
It isn’t just Northumberland honouring the tree either, artists from all over the country have been creating pieces of artwork.
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, have an exhibition from print maker Shona Branigan, sharing five bespoke prints from the tree’s own trunk. Each print, commissioned by the National Trust, captures the almost heart-shaped trunk of the Sycamore Gap tree. Find it on level 5 until the 26th January 2025. Find out more about Heartwood.
Funded by North East Combined Authority and developed in collaboration with the National Trust, Northumberland National Park Authority, Hadrian’s Wall Partnership and Historic England, Heartwood is the first official artistic response created in memory of the much-loved fallen Northumberland tree.
Join the conversation and share your own work.
If you have also created something in memory of the Sycamore Gap Tree, then please share with us either by commenting below or emailing us at hello@culturenorthumberland.co.uk
We would love to see what you have been busy working on!