PLANT FETE - starts this week in Wolverhampton as part of OFFSITE9

Charlotte Dunn’s community plant swap event hopes to inspire a love of nature and togetherness in Wolverhampton this April.

Artist Charlotte is inviting people along to a Victorian inspired community Plant Fete in the heart of Wolverhampton during April.

Over 100 years ago fetes took place in the city’s West Park to help raise money for its amenities, and saw members of the public coming together in different ways to improve the look and feel of the space. 

Charlotte is recreating the idea of the floral fete at both West Park and the School of Art in an effort to bring people together through the actions of a plant swap. The five-day project has been commissioned by Creative Black Country and is part of the city-wide Offsite9 project which has been running since January.

The park’s crowning glory, the conservatory, was built in 1896, with the proceeds of the town’s Floral Fete, held every year in the park. The large floral fete was then held in West Park between 1889 and 1939 and provided a place for people to exchange plants they had grown their own to raise money for the park and created a community event for everyone working within the area.

Charlotte said: "It got people from industrial communities to begin to appreciate nature by coming into the park for a community event, but also gave them a sense of belonging as they all came together to raise funds for a space that could provide healing within the community.

Inspired by the form of the traditional fete stand, elements of the park and what it means to the community, myself and members of the public will create a stand structure that will then be host to the plant swap in. Members of the community from across Wolverhampton can drop off and pick up any plant of their choice."

Part of the fete stand will be made up of contributions of images, drawings, paintings and photos of plants from across the community celebrating nature in many forms that Charlotte has been collecting since January.

People are welcome to go along and bring a plant to the live plant swap at Wolverhampton School of Art on the 31st March, 1st April and the 4th and 5th of April 10am-3pm. The swap will also be at West Park, Wolverhampton on the 2nd April 10am-2pm.