You can help dot Art create a history of Liverpool through the city’s trees

dot Art is inviting the public to create a history of Liverpool through its trees, using personal stories and photography.

Lucy Byrne from dot-art said:

“Trees are the perfect vehicle through which to tell a story of Liverpool – they share its resilience, strength and its diverse and fascinating story.

In these times of global crisis, we all benefit from taking a step back and seeing our own experiences in a wider historical context. The city and its trees have survived war, disease and many other hardships; this pandemic is just the most recent.”

Councillor Laura Robertson-Collins, Cabinet Member for Environment & Sustainability at Liverpool City Council said:

“We hope the project will encourage all of us to engage with and be more aware of the trees and green spaces that enrich our lives, particularly the Urban Greenup interventions currently being introduced to enhance the city centre”.

dot Art started by asking a broad cross section of people, from historians to tree professionals to family members, to share a story about a tree that was important to them. Eight of these were selected and Open Eye photographer Andy Yates was commissioned to produce images of these important Liverpool trees. These photographs show trees from a few years old to over 1000 years old – so already we are starting to build a picture of the trees that have affected us and our city region as it was founded, has grown, thrived, declined and thrived again. Take a look here.

Sarah Fisher from Open Eye Gallery said:

“We want to celebrate your stories of trees & they will become stories of this place we live and work in. Please take a moment to share a picture of a tree that means something to you, along with a few words about what makes it important.”

Send these to andy@openeye.org.uk and your story becomes a collection

As the weather gets colder, we all find it more difficult to get outside for our daily walk, run or cycle. Why not make finding and photographing your favourite tree a fantastic reason for the whole family to get outdoors, especially while we are in lockdown. Spending time in parks or green spaces has huge benefits for our mental health, stress levels and general wellbeing.

The Story of Liverpool Through its Trees is being delivered by Open Eye Gallery and dot-art, with support from Liverpool City Council and Mersey Forest.

dot-art and Open Eye Gallery are committed to tackling the climate emergency in practical and accessible ways and have recently achieved “climate positive workforce” status by working with Ecologi to plant hundreds of trees every year and offset the carbon footprint of our activity as organisations.