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


Q&A
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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.
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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.
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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.
