Art,
horticulture,
community.
1026hPa
↑ 2mph
Clouds
UV3.1
55%
☁ 9ºc
× 51°44'10.3"N 1°13'17.8"W
06:55 19:25
About this website
The current design of this website is determined by an algorithm. It uses live weather and astronomy data from our location in Oxford, UK to create a unique & unrepeatable composition.
Wind
The wind speed is 2mph, so the typography is a little bit distorted.
Time
It's 12:28 – this determines the primary colour and the position of the gradient, and because it's daylight the colour is light rather than dark. Today's date, the 27th of March 2023 causes the contrast to shift and the gradient is rotated too. The gradient is also affected by sunrise at 06:55 and sunset at 19:25.
UV
The UV index is 3.1 so the colours are very saturated.
Weather
The condition is Clouds so the composition is partly obscured by light coloured gradients. There's a 40% cloud layer to match the sky.
Credits
This website was designed by Jake Dow-Smith Studio.

What we do

FIG is a new project in Oxford that brings art, horticulture, and communities together.

Based between the two sister sites of Elder Stubbs Allotment and Makespace Central, Fig works with artists, writers, designers, horticulturalists and communities to support the development of innovative new work.

Latest projects

Project Greenspace & Us A picnic bench and shelter designed by Greenspace & Us, a local young women’s community group, in collaboration with RESOLVE Collective, as part of a project exploring how to create more inclusive greenspaces.
Nor Greenhalgh, Elder Palette, 2021
Project Elder Vernacular Nor Greenhalgh Elder Vernacular is a research project compiling an artist's palette of materials grounded in the East Oxford landscape.

Q&A

For Fig’s first year, 2021, we focussed on the development of two projects: JC Niala’s 1918 Allotment and Eleanor Greenhalgh’s Elder Vernacular. The projects both used growing sites on the Elder Stubbs Allotments and were linked by a shared interest in the history of the site, and the contemporary resonances of the allotment and outdoor space in the context of COVID-19 and climate change. See project pages and the journal for more info.

We will be announcing our programme for 2022 later in Feb >> sign-up to the mailing list and @Fig_Oxford on twitter and insta to keep updated!

Fig’s establishment and inaugural commissions have been supported by an Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant.

Fig launched in June 2021 and we will be having public events from August, including poetry readings by JC Niala at Elder Stubbs Allotments and a new mural and temporary installation in Florence Park by Eleanor Greenhalgh. Plus, exhibitions and publications later in the year! Follow the Journal, sign-up to the mailing list and Twitter and Instagram to keep up-to-date.

Fig was established by artist and curator Sam Skinner as an experiment in supporting emerging creative practices which have ecology, horticulture, and community at their heart. Sam combines experience in the arts, with a BA and MA in art history, a practice-based PhD, and working for and developing projects with a wide variety of cultural organisations, with a fledgling! horticultural knowledge, cultivated through work on organic farms, community gardens, and studying with the RHS. Thus Fig is a work-in-progress, an experiment in beginnings and transitioning, driven by an interest in exploring alternative models of creative production. How, for example, a cultural organisation may nurture and offer fertile soil and a biologically diverse environment for artists and audiences to engage with, and what that may enable.

Groundwork for Fig was developed during the Fusion Arts Research Lab 2021.

Follow the Journal and @Fig_Oxford on Instagram and Twitter to see how the project evolves!

Latest from the journal

Fig's Journal is a space for sharing the research and development of our projects and providing insight into Fig’s wider activities and interests.

See all entries
Article — May 2022 JC Niala – Reading & Interviews – Videos
Article — May 2022 1918 Allotment Book Launch & Discussion Event – Videos
JC Niala with 'Portal: 1918 Allotment' publication at the Old Fire Station, Oxford, March 2022.
Article — March 2022 Growing Connections
by JC Niala
Seedling pots made from pages of 'Portal' book in window of the Old Fire Station, Oxford.
Article — March 2022 Sowing the Seed
by JC Niala