Internationally acclaimed artists, Ackroyd & Harvey, are inviting local people to join them for a visually impactful ceremonial planting of Thamesmead’s new oak circle, as part of the Night Visions Festival in Bexley.

The final oak will be planted in Crossway Park, SE28 8HA, on 29 January at 5.30pm, completing the town’s 18-metre diameter ecological artwork.

The artwork is part of a project, Beuys’ Acorns, which Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey have been working on for 18 years.  Thamesmead is one of 17 locations in the UK chosen for the oak circle. Other destinations include the Goethe-Institut in Kensington, Twickenham Common and the Eden Project in Cornwall.

The Thamesmead oak circle has been commissioned by Peabody, who are leading the long-term regeneration of the town. A key partner in the Bexley Culture Network, Peabody is delivering an ambitious cultural strategy and programme to make culture part of everyday life in Thamesmead.

Renowned for creating visually impressive living artworks that combine ecology and art, the artists have grown all seven Thamesmead oaks from acorns. The pair gathered the acorns from some of the 7,000 oak trees planted by artist and environmental activist Joseph Beuys in Germany between 1982 and 1987. 

As part of the Thamesmead project, the artists have hosted workshops with school children at Jubilee Primary School, close to Crossway Park.

The oak circle will be strikingly illuminated during the event, while the last oak is lowered from a great height into place. The planting will be accompanied by live singing from the Thamesmead Community Choir. 

Councillor Cafer Munur, Bexley’s Cabinet Member for Place Shaping, said:

The Beuys’ Acorns project is another great example of how inclusive and interesting the #Celebrating Bexley and Night Visions programme has been.

The planting of the final oak tree in this special circle promises to be a memorable experience. It is great to be working with Peabody as a key partner in growing culture in Bexley".

Artist Heather Ackroyd said: 

It will be a visual and musical ceremony celebrating the planting of the seventh oak tree and the completion of Thamesmead’s new oak circle.  We’d love people to come along and be a part of this”.

Dan Harvey, the other half of the artistic duo, added: 

This ceremonial planting is about giving ownership of the oak circle to the people of Thamesmead.

We’ve already done workshops with Jubilee Primary School. Any young child who comes along to the planting event may still remember the night in 30 years. The children will grow and the trees will grow. Whenever they see the trees, we hope it will create a connection to the planting”.

Thamesmead Community Choir, which will provide the soundtrack to the ceremony, is led by former Jubilee Primary School pupil Jecoliah ‘J Cocoa’ Frimpong.

Heather added: 

People are familiar with seeing a sculpture carved out of a dead tree, but we see trees as sculptures in their own right. Working with living materials means the artwork improves and gets more beautiful with age.

If they stay healthy, the Thamesmead oaks will be part of the community for hundreds of years to come”.

Night Visions is a festival of light-art themed events that has been made possible by £100,000 of investment from Arts Council England in London Borough of Bexley and its partners in Bexley Culture Network. 

Adriana Marques, Peabody’s Assistant Director of Cultural Programming and Strategy, said: 

This special tree-planting ceremony celebrates the connection between people and planet, reminding us of our collective responsibility to care for the natural world. We look forward to seeing this beautiful living artwork take its place in Thamesmead, and watching it mature over the years. 

I want to say a massive thank you to Ackroyd and Harvey for brilliant work with the community, and to Bexley Council for supporting the oak circle through the fantastic Night Visions Festival”.

The planting event forms part of #CelebratingBexley, a year-long programme of arts, culture and entertainment marking key local anniversaries, including 60 years of the London Borough of Bexley, 160 years of Crossness Engines and 500 years since the closure of Lesnes Abbey.