Following a vast amount of work from all of the Rewilding Sussex team, our friends and superb collaborators, we have now come to the end of a very very successful show at ONCA.
We thought we would share some of the highlights with you here! And don’t worry if you missed it, we are going to be producing a short publication with all the best bits of the show and the workshops, on its way to you soon!

ONCA gallery, opening night (photo: Lianne A Williams)

Blockbuilders oculus rift takes visitors into a virtual rewilded Brighton (photos: Lianne A Williams, Claudia Gray)

Seed-dispersing frisbees, part of a new Wild Games – a tournament that, through being played, can rewild and restore abandoned land (Photo: Claudia Gray)

Trash Fox Sculpture highlights the role foxes play in recycling our waste. Pine marten and Squirrel head pieces from the Wild Games, designed to teach participants about how the native pine marten would predate on grey squirrels and could help the red squirrel recover (photos: Lianne A Williams)



Posters illustrated by the talented Dan Locke, with text written by the students, explain every idea (Photos, Lianne A Williams, Claudia Gray)

Nature viewing bench encourages you to sit and look at parts of the environment you might not have noticed before, with QR tags to tell you what you are looking at (Photo: Lianne A Williams)

Beautifully crafted foraging basket you can use to collect tasty wild species (Photo: Lianne A Williams)

Picnic Blanket depicting a range of natural species to the UK (Photo: Lianne A Williams)
Thought wall – full of the students’ sketches and thoughts left behind by visitors to the gallery. Feel free to add more as a comment on this post!
We are incredibly thankful to:
All the Ecology and Design Students – Katie Barton, Tom Blackburn, Tara Cox, Theo Dyer, Evan Reinhold, Syd Foster, Naomi Gann, Tylor Garrett, Alice Gray, Karolina Gurjazkaite, Bethan Hall, Jake Hardiman, Megan Holm, Emma James, Charlotte Kay, Tim Kay, Maria, Max Pannett, Marco Parin, Claire Reboah, Joshua Rodrigues, Indigo Rumbelow, Jack Scott, Piotr Szota, Harri Tan, Vega Tankun, Kate Vogiatzis, Alice Weatherll-Toms, and Max Withey – who came to our design workshops and/or spent their summer developing wonderful ideas and making some brilliant creations.
The
team at Onca, Lauren, Perse, Laura, Alice, Aurelie and all the volunteers, who welcomed the idea from the very beginning with such warm enthusiasm, provided so much support and advice and have made the exhibition stunning and professional.
The team from Brighton University, Nick Gant, Stefano Santilli and Jim Wilson, who have hosted us, guided the development of the projects and hung the exhibition.
Carlos Peralta and the Design Futures students – Marco Parin, Francesca Kirkland, Chloe Mills and Keenan Casey. Thank you for getting the project off to a brilliant start by spearheading the interdisciplinary collaboration.
Josh & Jake for doing a great job designing the posters on top of being part of a design team.
Jim Mayor and Rich Howorth for their support during the workshops and throughout the project.
Joe and Megan at Block Builders for running the minecraft session during the workshops and providing the Oculus Rift so people can see a virtual reality rewilded Valley Gardens using minecraft in the
exhibition.
Tom Wood for running the bioblitz and sharing his wealth of knowledge
Mark ATM for painting the beaver that has been a superb attention-grabbing star of the show
The Heritage Lottery Fund for providing the finances to make this ambitious project a reality. They’ve been really supportive, helpful and enouraging, especially with this project being focused on young people.
Harri Tan and Piotr Szota for incredible enthusiasm bringing together the ecology and design teams, bringing the pieces to life, hanging the show, making the games wild, and for ongoing passion to rewild Sussex.
Dan Ingram, for helping develop the whole idea, editing all the text to go on the posters, and helping to organise and make the workshops run smoothly.
Dan Locke, for boundless positivity, for turning a pub-chat into a “we can do this, get money for it, and make it a massive success”, and for creating all the stunning cartoons depicting the students’ ideas.
And of course all of you for your support of Rewilding Sussex!
We couldn’t be happier with how it has worked out and are looking forward to the next one!
Chris and Claudia