The brand new TreeStory.me website is now live!
Trees are the perfect vehicle through which to tell a story of the region. Open Eye Gallery and dot-art started inviting the public to create a history of Liverpool through its trees, using personal stories and photography, during the pandemic in 2020, as we all began to value our local green spaces more than ever.
Now they are developing the project further and looking for new TreeStories to collect with a specially dedicated website – TreeStory.me.
This has been funded through a generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which saw the team engage schools (Rainhill High School, LIPA Primary, Egremont Primary, Northwood Primary and Wirral Hospitals’ School), community groups (Growing Sudley, Faiths4Change, Rimrose Valley Friends and The Spider Project) and the general public across the Liverpool City Region over the last 12 months, exploring natural heritage by investigating, documenting and celebrating locally and personally significant trees, as well as planting new ones in partnership with the Mersey Forest.
This work has led to a series of fantastic free activity books for families, schools and community groups to download, full of activities and ideas to inspire and stimulate creativity in people of all ages!
Everyone is now invited to celebrate trees that are significant to them, pinning images and stories to a specially commissioned interactive online map. There’s an easy How To Guide to help: make some images of the tree, write or record the story (a history, a poem or just a personal memory), use the map to locate the tree and submit your entry.
The team will review it and publish. There’s also a video guide and FAQs. Get inspired by the existing TreeStories, study the history of Liverpool through its trees and submit your own #TreeStory!
Uploading your TreeStory is a fantastic way of connecting to your neighbourhood and community, of creating your own personal history and of sharing your love and gratitude to nature in the urban areas. It’s also a great opportunity for an early career photographer / writer or photography / creative writing student to get their work seen by not just the general public but also Open Eye Gallery and dot-art.
Share your story here!