Guided Walk: If You Could Speak to the World #2

If You Could Speak to the World… is a site-responsive audio-based walking trail through our 160-acre green space in Oldham.

Developed over a series of participatory workshops led by artist Phillip Davenport and co-produced by people in recovery from Oldham, the work brings together poetry, music and field recordings. It invites audiences to foster deeper connections, with wellbeing, each other and the natural world through walking, listening, memory and place – positioning nature and nurture as art.

Across September, the audio trail will be activated via a month-long programme of guided walks led by the people who created it and as part of Northern Roots celebration when it opens the doors to a brand-new Welcome Building this September.

Audiences are invited to move through the landscape with these voices as companions: listening, pausing and encountering Northern Roots through stories of resilience, memory and connection. The walks offer an intimate, embodied way to experience art outside of the gallery, where personal histories and ecological attention conjoin in shared acts of listening.

Post September, the audio trail will remain as a lasting community resource, freely available for visitors to experience  independently. Each return offers the possibility of a different encounter and to discover something new. Walking becomes a way of navigating life’s pitfalls and, like the landscape itself, is continually evolving.