Community Art: Red Squirrel Community Woodland Project  

Client: Argyll and Highlands Enterprise, The Forestry Commission

 

The project objective was to raise awareness of environmental and conservation issues about the habitat and activities of the Red Squirrel.

 

This project involved the creation of Red Squirrel woodland trails such as the Cormonochan Community Woodland Trail and

the Strone Brae Garden in Argyll and the Loch Lomond National National Park.

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Neil's role was to design and illustrate interpretation panels which would feature along the routes. In addition to this his brief also

required the coordination of various parties involved in the project including the Forestry Ranger Service, who helped organise

workshops and provided much of the technical advice, local school children who provided poems and pictures produced at workshops ,

the commissioning of a local wood sculptor who created the red squirrel themed wood sculptures and the sub contracting of a sign

company who produced the information panels. Neil utlised a creative writing education tool he has developed, 'The Discovering Poetry Project' to help encourage children  to express themselves at the workshops, and the images and poems collected were integrated into the artwork. A selection of the panels are shown below along with pictures of the panels and wood sculpture.

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