Join us to celebrate the opening of our new exhibition, to meet the young artists and the people behind them, and to learn more about how to be involved in future “Search for the Hedge Witch” events around Cambridge over the next year.

You can book your free ticket for the opening via here. The exhibition will be open Monday to Friday.

“Search for the Hedge Witch” is a two-year art-and-ecology project bringing together young minds from across Cambridge to co-create a new environmental myth. In this work-in-progress exhibition, we showcase the drawings, models, writings and visions collected and created so far, working with students from Teversham Primary, St Andrews Church youth group, The University of Cambridge, and The Bartlett UCL.

The words “witch”, “hag” and “hedge” all come from the same old English word. Located on the border between civilisation and wilderness, the hedge was lawless and unruly, and the witch who lived there possessed knowledge, mysticism and healing powers beyond scientific rationale. In today’s era of climate and biodiversity flux, we now find ourselves looking beyond science toward the greater wisdoms of the land, its plants and animals, witches and wylds.

In our search for the contemporary Hedge Witch of Cambridge, we ask, what clues can ancient folklore provide for future environmental thinking? How can stories help us to grow a healthier, greener, wylder future? And how can we work collaboratively to better care for our environment and for one another?

Join us to see and celebrate the works created so far, and to contribute your own stories, ideas and visions to the exploration. The exhibition includes a reading area where you are welcome to sit, stay, slow down, and immerse yourself in tales of old.

There are lots of opportunities to get involved with the project as it continues to grow, including a harvest celebration and ecology walk in Cherry Hinton this September, and hedgerow planting and maintenance workshops in autumn and winter. For more information or to be kept in the loop with upcoming events, contact tom@wayward.co.uk and kirstybadenoch.com. The project is made possible through Bellway Homes, in connection with Springstead Village Public Art Programme.

Kirsty Badenoch is an artist-researcher and educator. Her work explores and re-connects fragile and disturbed landscapes, communities, and ecologies. She teaches at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL and University of Cambridge, and curates Microscope, an ecological-arts space in East London.

Wayward is a London-based landscape, art and architecture practice – an award-winning collective of designers, artists and urban growers. As Associate Director, Tom Kendall has worked with people and plants for over a decade, and teaches at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL.