Families are being encouraged to get hands on with a new outdoor installation ‘Brown at Work’ and become landscape designers at a National Trust property near Pershore.
Children can grab a spade and get stuck in being wildly creative to experience building their very own landscape at Croome.
Although it looks completely natural, the parkland at Croome was actually created by one visionary, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. As part of Brown’s 300th anniversary year, visitors will have the opportunity to experience how it feels to shift soil and shape land on the same site where Brown worked his magic for the 6th Earl of Coventry in the 18thcentury.
“I hope that ‘Brown at Work’ helps people understand that Croome is not a natural landscape and even the river is man-made, dug by hand over 250 years ago,” said Katherine Alker, Croome’s Garden and Park Manager. “‘Capability’ Brown carefully placed trees and buildings in very specific locations to conceal and reveal certain views in his design, building hills in some areas and flattening other areas.”
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown had the ability to envisage and create an entirely new landscape with the talent to anticipate how it would look in the future. The fact that Brown could do this without the modern aids of 3D modelling, Google maps and digital surveying still captivates and fascinates both landscaping professionals and the visitors 300 years after his birth.
‘Brown at Work’ aims to encourage children to be creative, think out of the box and above all have fun. The project hopes to inspire children to create their own landscape by digging up the miniature landscape, which is located near the house, to make their own hills, river beds and placing cut out props of bridges, buildings, trees and statues.
The project, funded by Trust New Art, was a collaboration between artist Kathrin Böhm and a team of Croome volunteers. Together they devised ‘Brown at Work’ which showed visitors how the men would have worked with ‘Capability’ Brown to produce a landscape in a fun and interactive way.
“We hope it will engage and entertain people on their visit to Croome 300 years after the birth of the talented Mr Brown.” said artist Kathrin Böhm.
“This has been a fantastic collaborative process between staff, volunteers and the artist Kathrin Böhm,” said Kiki Claxton, Croome’s Creative Programmes Co-ordinator. “This is a very different experience for our visitors to engage with and a great way to learn about the impact that ‘Capability’ Brown had on Croome’s landscape.”
Visitors can experience ‘Brown at Work’ between 23 July and 21 August 2016. Croome is open throughout the year. The park and lakeside are open from 10am until 5.30pm and Croome Court is open from 11am to 4.30pm every day. Normal admission applies.