We were able to run this Community artwork thanks to the funding by KCC and The Priory Shopping Centre.

The concept of the Tree of Life was to create a Community Artwork using recycled boxes from the shopping centre and using an Art activity encourage the people of Dartford to tell us “What do trees mean to you?” 

We held 4 workshops in total. The first was with students from the Dartford Science and Technology College, as part of their Community Day. The other workshops were held in the Priory Centre, Dartford, and open to the general public. 

The Lead Artist (Nicola Claxton) was mainly involved in the construction of the tree with other members of DAN chatting with the general public and encouraging them to experiment with designs for leaves and bark to add to the sculpture.

We interacted with many residents and hopefully grew into enlightenment together, with the roles that trees can play in our lives, creating the Tree of Life in the process.

The types of things that people spoke about were: carbon capture, clean air, mental wellbeing, renewable resources, wildlife, food, noise blocking, recycling, flood defence, slope stabilisation, shade/cooling of urban areas, not to mention the uses of timber etc…

The Mayor of Dartford (Councillor Perfitt), together with the Mayoress, opened the Exhibit on the 20th August 2019 in Market Square Priory Shopping Centre.

The Tree of Life was initially displayed with an information board explaining the reason for the sculpture, plus peoples thoughts on what trees mean to them. The Tree of Life sculpture was meant to be exhibited only until Christmas 2019, but ran until Sept 2020 in the Priory Shopping Centre.