CAST is developing a new programme of arts and science workshops for local primary schools, led by artists Lucy Grant and Kate Turner.

The first ‘art lab’ workshops will take place in June. For The (Surprising) Adventures of the Rhododendron, the acclaimed Victorian botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker will accompany the children in spirit on a botanical expedition, to collect precious specimens and seeds of knowledge on a long and arduous journey of danger and delight, from the distant Himalayas of the Raj to the wild woods and valleys of present day Cornwall.

Bringing together colourful strands of history, geography, culture and imagination, the workshops will take the wild rhododendron as a familiar starting point, guiding  the children back in  time and place through both domestic and stately English gardens all the way to Kew Gardens (the Eden Project of its time) and from there to the origins of the species in the Himalayas of Northern India and Nepal.

CAST’s new programme of arts and science workshops for primary schools is funded by the Garcia Family Foundation.