UNSW Linkage grant for Environmental Aesthetics study

Dr Prue Gibson, Professor Marie Sierra, and Dr Sigi Lottkandt (all Chief Investigators from UNSW) have been awarded a $296,370 ARC Linkage grant for ‘Exploring Botanic Gardens Herbarium’s value, via Environmental Aesthetics’. The project aims to aesthetically redefine engagement with the plant collection at Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium (RBG) in Sydney and to communicate its artistic, cultural and heritage value to the public through a Public Program of creative arts case studies. It is expected that new insights will arise from an environmental art methodology utilising the digitisation of the Herbarium specimens, currently underway for its 1.4 million specimens, so that audiences can interactively experience the plant archive through narratives that activate plants as underpinning ecosystems. Communication and positioning of the collection’s significance through engagement with creative practice will benefit the partners RBG, Bundanon Trust and Open Humanities Press, and will expand audience engagement with the Herbarium at RBG and Mt Annan.