Edible East

What We Do

Create, discover, grow - fun, inclusive activities for health and for nature!

Our workshops and projects combine art, science and horticulture to promote dialogue for a healthy planet and healthy people.

Participants can be involved in the creation of exhibitions and art trails and gardens.

Contact Jennie Pedley at Edible East for more information. Previous events are here and previous art trails/ exhibitions here. Find out more about our team here

Mix art and horticultural activities, with science too!

Creative activities - to explore ideas about food, health and nature

Shadow Theatre Workshops - such an exciting way for participants to take on a variety of roles such as director, performer or scenic artist to explore a variety of themes.
These backlit improvisation sessions allow people to appear as silhouettes within imagined worlds which are made up of their own imagery or of our collections of pressed plants, prints, silhouettes and drawings.

Performances can be captured as reels or photographs which can be edited into a variety of final outcomes such as content for social media, art exhibitions or films.

Shadow Sign - is an exciting mix of visually recognisable signs of British Sign Language (BSL) with shadow theatre performance techniques. These workshops are for d/Deaf or hearing people alike, working well for people who are interested in, or use BSL.

The workshops were developed by Jennie Pedley with Deaf creative consultant Jean St-Clair and Deaf communities.

'BSL 'hand shape stencils' are also available to create large drawings.

Make mini shows and animations in model theatres!

Mini Shadow Theatre Kits

Build your tiny theatre by folding the card then paly with the sliding panels and explore combinations of foregrounds and backgrounds. These are great for all ages from three years up. Make new content for your theatre and explore how to make an animation and film it on your phone.

Vintage Model Theatres - make your own scenes using drawings and a variety of materials within a vintage toy theatre! Capture your work with photos and film. Or make your own theatre form cereal packets. See below.

Cereal Packet Theatres - make your own scenes in your own cereal packet theatre!

Window Art - windows are a great way to illuminate art work using existing light from the outside or in the evening from inside using no extra light.

Small individual window display workshops using recycled card with coloured tissue torn to explore natural forms.

Larger window installations, the effects are stunning and can use simple shapes to great effect. The first ones Jennie made with school children were inspired by the paper cut outs of Henri Matisse.

Printmaking Workshops - led by artist Tara Sampy who has a passion for printmaking. Many related food, health and environmental themes can be explored.

Gelli plate printmaking with plants - enjoy rolling up soft gel plates to mix primary colours with artist Tara Sampy. Place your selected plants and flowers onto the ink and press down your paper ontop to make a print. This simple process soon becomes addictive as you add more layers to your prints and chat about colour and the shape and nature of the plants themselves.

Prints can be made on translucent surfaces to be used in window art or projects. Books can be made or greeting cards.

Printmaking with found objects - such as lego and sponges we used this idea in our event Norwich a City in an Orchard to build simple imagery of the city.

Printmaking with letters; these could explore theses such as imagery in food packaging and advertising , protest posters, nutrition and vitamins or even working with science educators to explore the DNA code of the plants we eat!

Art Trails - we can create bespoke art trails with local communities, local artists and with scientists.

The Edible East Art Science Trail about the Future of Food was a Norwich wide art trail created with local artists and with scientists from Norwich Research Park and many cultural partners in Norwich during lockdown. It began with online meetings with scientists from NRP hosted by us with John Innes Centre and SAW Trust. It was funded by the Peoples Postcode Lottery. Scroll down this page Edible East to explore the ambitious trail.

The trail is featured in the book Seeds to Solutions from the Incredible Edible Network.

Creative activities - linking food, health and microbes - all activities link to research and are combined with discussions or text and links for installations, they were developed by Jennie Pedley as part of her Art of the Gut residency with the Quadram Institute - funded by Arts Council England.

Hang your Hopes for Health on the Microbes - this can be a workshop or an interactive installation

Paper Cut - a workshop to create flower - like windows inspired by the 'villi' of the gut lining

Doodle Diets for Your Microbes - a workshop using a large outdoor doodle 'gut' blackboard

The Art of Re-Use

Re-use food packaging before you recycle - bring a bottle!

The Art of Re-use is an inspiring new book is coming out later in 2024 by our very own designer Adrian Draigo. It is full of inspiration to make wonderful things from ordinary household waste.

Working with your plastic milk container and lids, select the workshop that you would like:

Pin wheel, flower, car or sports utility vehicle, ship, you can make various styles of lampshades if you bring enough containers (not pictured).

Horticultural Activities - with creative elements from our artists directors.

A wide variety growing workshops:

What's that plant? - plant identification walks and talks

Can you eat that plant? - foraging walks and talks

Plant parts - dissect and study the anatomy of plants

Sprouting seeds and pulses - no need for a garden, all year round you can grow your own salads and sprout pulses to save energy on cooking. Reduce plastic waste and food bills and have fun!

Survey and Re-imagine your Green Spaces - a course which can be adapted for all audiences and time available - page coming soon

Grow your own forest garden - the way forward to grow food and improve an area for nature, while creating a calming beautiful place.

Gardeners question time - bring your own questions

All about trees - identification, selection and care in a changing climate and of course food from trees

Horticultural Projects to Create Gardens in Towns or Green Spaces - led by our horticulturalist with creative elements from our artist directors.

Nik is an experienced garden designer who can led a longer term horticultural project to create a new garden for towns or green spaces working with communities as appropriate. For example he can create:

Container garden trails in towns with themed planting to explore particular ideas. Ideally this is integrated with art.

Forest gardens - have you own forest garden, an exciting sustainable way to grow food and to support nature. The many layers of a forest garden provide habitats and the use of perennial plants, avoidance of digging and the leaf litter enable the soil to become more fertile.