Make a Forest is a global, collaborative art and design project that brings sustainable awareness and creativity together in a way never seen before.

From Amsterdam to Seoul, Exeter to Chengdu, Gothenburg to Santa Cruz de la Sierra and many places in between, in 2011 cultural institutions all over the globe will make an artificial tree together with artists, designers, students and other creatives. Each tree adds to a worldwide artificial forest that grows and grows on www.makeaforest.org. All tree making activities are supported by local research and lectures on foresting and deforestation.

Why? Simply because forests needs our attention. United Nations has announced 2011 the International Year of Forests. We have to rethink ways of sustainable forest management, locally and globally. Artificial trees connect us with nature and at the same time awaken creative thinking. Make a Forest is a creative response to the need to preserve and protect forests and a very visible way to explain and support the United Nation’s cause. But Make a Forest is also a tribute to the diversity of our forests. It is a testimony on its everlasting source of inspiration, and its connection to a sustainable future.

Trees have been a source of inspiration for many artists over a long period. Designers and architects continuously paint, sculpt and photograph trees, making use of all kinds of materials and playing freely with the connotations trees have in certain cultures. All are insertions of creativity that have the potential to change the way we think about nature and our relationship to it. Make a Forest thrives contemporary artists, designers and the public from all over the world to create artificial trees that function as a manifest for maintaining the earth’s treasures.

We invite you to imagine an artificial forest as diverse as our natural forests and follow it growing on this website: leaf-by-leaf, tree-by-tree. Each tree-making activity "big or small" is announced, reported and made visible through this platform. This way a small local project will add up to a bigger global one and reach an ever-bigger audience. Please feel free to browse this website, add inspiration and check the calendar to attend one of the many activities.

Together we will make a forest that unites, stimulates and enforces the thinking on this important matter.

Open Invitation

This project is an open invitation to any cultural institute that wants to Make a Forest with us. Just send an e-mail to office[at] makeaforest.org

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This opportunity came via LabforCulture (Thanks!)
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