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Derby QUAD announce that We Feed The UK, a national storytelling campaign grown by The Gaia Foundation pairing photographers and poets with inspiring food producers, is the next exhibition to feature in the Montage Gallery space. The exhibition will officially open Saturday 9th May following a launch event at 2pm.
EXHIBITION OPEN: 9 May – 4 October 2026
LAUNCH: free to the public from 2pm on Saturday 9 May, featuring:
We Feed The UK features work by artists Arpita Shah, Johannah Churchill and Sophie Gerrardcommissioned for this nationwide arts and agroecology alliance and covering themes of existence on earth: climate, culture, ecology, justice, wellbeing and connection.
It is a gentle defiance against the dominant perspective of big agribusiness and a joyful celebration of working the land in a way that heals people and place. With 75% of our isles tended as farmland, it is time for transformation. The regenerative practices celebrated in this exhibition, already thriving from fields to urban spaces, are the root of our future resilience.
The inspiration behind the collection of work is the fact that ‘food forms us’. We share in this fact with every other living being. The food web is the web of life and,if food forms us, it matters how we form food.
This begs the question: how do we find our way back to this humbling, empowering connection with our food system, even as it is unravelled by industrial forces bent on commodifying life? Stories are how we have evolved to understand the world and our place in it. We Feed The UK features stories of tide turners, grain rebels, and soil sisters leading a quiet resistance across these isles. Through photography and poetry, we can disrupt dominant narratives and seed new possibilities of adaptability, recovery, and resilience. When doom jostles gloom for media headlines, these positive examples are how we might realise the potential of our food system to re-form us for the better.
Featuring:
FOOD JUSTICE: SERVED FRESH FROM COMMUNITY FARMS
Photography by Arpita Shah in collaboration with Photo Fringe
Poetry by Zena Edwards in collaboration with Hot Poets
Inspired by Black Rootz and Go Grow With Love in London
Two growing projects are tending to injustices in the food system. Sandra Salazar D’eca founded Go Grow With Love in Tottenham and Enfield, to support women of African and Caribbean heritage in nurturing a reciprocal relationship with local land. In doing so, they are increasing community resilience and food security in London.
In Haringey, Paulette Henry, Pamela Shor and their team are empowering communities to grow their own. Black Rootz is the UK’s first multigenerational, Black-led growing enterprise, reconnecting Londoners with seed, ancestral knowledge and earth.
This holistic approach cultivates more than crops; by rooting BPOC people to the land, Sandra, Paulette and Pamela are growing grassroots solutions for racial equality, land reparations and food sovereignty.
Photography by the acclaimed Arpita Shah reflects her own migratory experience in a series she has called ‘Sankofa’, while the poem ‘Tincture’ was written by African-Caribbean-British poet Zena Edwards.
CULTIVATING EQUALITY: WOMEN WORKING WITH LAND
Photography by Sophie Gerrard in collaboration with Street Level Photoworks
Poetry by Iona Lee in collaboration with Hot Poets
Inspired by Lauriston Agroecology Farm and Grampian Graziers in Scotland
Sons inherit Scottish farms in 85% of cases, yet over half of UK family farm workers are women. The Scottish government’s own Women in Agriculture Taskforce concluded that their contribution can be “undervalued, downplayed or simply unseen”.
In Edinburgh, Lauriston Farm is run by a majority-women workers cooperative, who are drawing on the power of local people to restore a 100-acre urban growing site. Over the hills, Nikki Yoxall runs Grampian Graziers, embracing the ability of other beings – pasture and tree-fed native cattle – to revive the species-rich grassland that is in decline across Scotland.
Across many Indigenous cultures, women were custodians of seed, farming and food, before colonial, patriarchal and industrial domination pushed them to the field margins. It is from those verges that transformation stems, blooming beyond boundaries.
Sophie Gerrard’s photography will be exhibited alongside Iona Lee’s poem ‘Seed Kist’.
UNEARTHED: SOIL RESTORATION IN NORTHUMBERLAND
Photography by Johannah Churchill collaboration with North East Photography Network
Poetry by Kate Fox in collaboration with Hot Poets
Inspired by West Wharmley Farm in Northumberland
Soil is fundamental to sustaining life on earth. Beyond growing food, it filters the water we drink, captures more carbon than all terrestrial plants on the planet, and supports biodiversity. Despite being irreplaceable, 12 million hectares of agricultural soil are lost globally every year. Incentivised by the increasing cost of artificial fertiliser, Stuart Johnson started to naturally restore the soil on his family farm in Northumberland. By brewing up compost teas, introducing mob grazing, and planting over 250 in-field trees, Stu has reduced the use of chemicals by 90%, and won Soil Farmer of the Year 2023.
“Our approach had to be fluid and adaptive, observing how the land responded. A lot of us have been taught to farm a certain way and spent a lifetime doing it, so it’s a difficult pill to swallow at first. Using chemicals was a big experiment to increase production. And it did. But at what cost? Slapping all these inputs on just creates problems further down the line.
To farm regeneratively has meant stepping out from this norm and really getting to know how the soil behaves.”
Joannah Churchill’s photography will be exhibited alongside ‘The Soil Speaks’, a poem from BBC Radio 4’s Kate Fox.
The show will feature in QUAD’s Montage Gallery from Saturday 9th May, located on the staircase from the ground to first floor along with the first floor mezzanine and aims to shine a light on biodiversity through a variety of mediums as audiences follow the flow of both the exhibition and its stories as well as the QUAD building.
The launch event on Saturday 9th May will begin at 2pm and feature various activities including a Photographic Portrait Booth with Ayesha Jones, family friendly activities, a wormery workshop and a live poetry performance with world-record-breaking beatboxer Testament. The event is free with no RSVP or ticket required.
QUAD Curator Jodi Kwok says:
“ We are thrilled to welcome We Feed The UK to QUAD. This exhibition brings together photography, poetry, and the stories of regenerative food growers to explore the connections between land, soil, and communities. It is a unique opportunity for QUAD’s audiences to engage with urgent conversations around climate, biodiversity, and social justice, while experiencing creativity and vision. Hosting this project aligns perfectly with QUAD’s commitment to presenting environmentally focused, research-driven work that inspires reflection and participation.”
Ally Nelson of We Feed The UK Project Lead, The Gaia Foundation says:
“We Feed The UK shines a light on the growers and communities already leading the way in restoring soil, biodiversity, and local food systems. Through the powerful combination of photography and poetry, these stories are brought to life—shifting the narrative from one of crisis to one of possibility. We’re especially pleased to bring this work to new audiences in Derby for the first time, and to share it at QUAD. We hope it deepens understanding of the vital relationship between food, land, and community.”
For more information on the upcoming exhibition, including the launch event on Saturday 9th May, visit the QUAD website.
QUAD is a registered charity.
