Richmond Arts & Ideas Festival is communities coming together through dance, music, outdoor experiences, theatre, visual art, discussion forums and imagination.  

An expansive, collaborative, interdisciplinary programme across 40 partners, 2 weeks and 70 experiences and  events, will fill the borough with arts and ideas for its  second outing, the first joyous success that last look place during the Summer of 2023.  

Building on the colour and energy of past festivals, this year’s, in June 2025, takes on the theme of Cultural Reforesting, and asks the question: how can we renew our relationship with nature? 

RuptureXIBIT’s artists in residence are welcome to read the prompt of Cultural Reforesting against the grain, presenting work which responds in unexpected ways. Please reflect your impulse in your proposal.

Cultural Reforesting is a collective, artist-led response to ecological crises and energises action through a range of interdisciplinary experiences and voices, allowing the imagination to  give hope and every day new ways of being.  

Past responses have taken on subjects such as food and agriculture, climate crisis, plant  blindness, more-than-human agency, environmental justice, well-being, and youth voice. All create and tell evolving stories, intimate stories, soaring stories of our place as part of  nature, built on the knowledge of many.  

Backdrop:  

Culture is now seen as an imperative in responding to the ecological crisis, with international organisations stating a cultural shift is required for long-term change – this is where Cultural Reforesting sits, what does this shift look like, feel like, and who does it involve (everyone, including the more than-human world), and how can it reverberate through our every day. 

LBRuT declared climate emergency in 2019, what does this mean in practice?  

2025 is halfway through the decade scientists have declared as the time we need to act. What does this action look like locally; how might it resonate globally? 

Richmond is a land of parks, rivers, high streets, homes - vibrant ecosystems – we are custodians of these places, sharing them with a huge array of international species – how might cultural experiences in these places renew a relationship held deep within every human animal that brings to life how we might comprehend looking after our planet, and with it ourselves? 

There is a lot of work to be done."

• Environmental justice 

• Biodiversity, ecology and botany    

• Climate Emergency    

• Indigenous knowledge and perspectives    

• Local solutions    

• Imagination and creativity    

• Well-being    

• Ecocentrism 

• Education   

Click to read more about the Festival

Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival is an event that takes place across the borough of Richmond (and beyond). The festival is a celebration of arts, culture, and community building.  

Inspired by a theme, events fill venues and streets over two weeks in June. There are moments that provoke noisy ideas, thoughts, and discussions as well as moments for quiet reflection. What unites this festival is the opportunity to seek a more positive future though art and culture.  

The festival was established in response to Culture Richmond’s 10-year framework and instigated by the Richmond Arts Service. It is developed and co-produced by partners across the borough. This includes Richmond’s public libraries, arts organisations, theatres, universities, schools, charities, and a wide range of local partners. Through these partnerships Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival is a collaborative, adventurous, thought provoking and inclusive festival. 

Read more at the official Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival website.

Taking residency from 3rd - 30th June, Zhiming Xing will be showing alongside Kate Howe and Sally Minns who will also be responding to the theme of Cultural Reforesting.

Cultural Reforesting: How can we renew our relationship with nature?

“My project explores the interaction between boundless ecological environments and bounded exhibition spaces. I intend to use materials such as clay, construction debris, and found natural objects - substances that carry both physical weight and symbolic memory. These materials will be shaped, placed, and organised to reveal how natural energy can be “folded” into and “migrated” across human-defined spatial systems.” - Zhiming Xing!

Zhiming Xing - @xing.zhiming

“Beginning with a personal investigation into my existing relationship with nature, I will respond to what arises from my sensory observations; questioning whether renewing our relationship with nature concerns renewing our relationship with ourselves, each other, and creating a new social vision and social ethic. Whether forming deeper connections with the natural world, and viewing ourselves as part of it, rather than controlling it and other people, would better support the future existence of our planet and us.” - Sally Minns

“I realised that to me, cultural reforesting is only possible if first we reforest culture - planting seedlings of possibility for new ways of organising as a society, moving toward valuing contributions which create a sense of connectedness and well-being before valuing contributions based on immediate economic bottom line impact. My work will examine enhancing the visibility of traditionally “non-productive” moments; moments that enhance and create a sense of restoration, creating fertile zones for culture to be reforested within ourselves.” - Kate Howe