FREE EVENT, no need to book - Drop in from 11:00am - 3:00pm

SCAR – cutting through the land exhibition and free creative programme.

From 11:00am - 12:00pm, Take the opportunity to create a unique and traditional nature print using the Japanese method, Gyotaku with SCAR Artist, Nanette Madan. Gyotaku is created by inking a fish and taking a print with rice paper.

From 11:00am - 3:00pm, Drop in any time to explore Earth from Space! Using the European Space Agency Sentinel-2 mission data, images from the Copernicus Browser showing land, ocean and atmospheric monitoring detail can be viewed. SCAR Artist, Clare Parker will guide you through the Lake District from above as you embark on a creative journey translating the images onto watercolour paper using Florence Paintmakers Pastels and water brushes. No experience necessary!

11 artists working in Cumbria have been commissioned to produce new work and a programme of free activities responding to the theme of ‘SCAR – cutting through the land’ to be held at Florence Arts Centre from 16 November to 22 February 2026.

Some of the artists came together to cocreate the theme, thinking of natural scars in rock or carved by rivers and the scars humans have made across or even below the land like roads, railways and mines. Artists also thought more broadly about the damage we do to the land with litter, erosion and climate control. Artist perspectives vary enormously from images from outer space to human emotion and memory, looking at scars across time from glacial remains to the future of nuclear waste.