What We Leave Behind
Date & time
28 October - 29 October 2026 | 18.00-21.30
Event format
Attend event in person
Event type
Exhibition
Event topic
Environment, Health and wellbeing, My local area
Audience
All
Academic discipline
Climate and Atmospheric Science and Science Communication
Venue
University of Leeds
What's on offer?
Swirling in and around delicate greenhouse-like structures, holographic videos of dancing leaves hover, suspended in the air. The leaves represent the soil’s capacity to heal itself when we provide space, shelter, a helping hand, and ongoing care.
Artist Lou Chapelle's work is a poetic response to Gair Wood, a Leeds ‘woodland of the future’ where 60,000 trees have been planted by University of Leeds researchers to create a living laboratory, dedicated to ecological research and renewal.
A choral soundtrack, recorded with Opera North Young Voices and Youth Chorus, sings the new woodland into being as a future home for hundreds of plant and animal species.
What's it about?
What we Leave Behind explores how people can interact with a woodland that will only be mature for future generations of animals and humans. It encourages visitors to engage with the hope and wonder of Gair Wood’s potential future while we also think about our own environmental legacy. A new access route across the edge of the woodland opened in 2026 enabling people to visit the woodland for themselves!
As part of the University Zone at Light Night Leeds, What we Leave Behind will appear as part of a large programme of engaging and immersive installations and performances.
Who's leading the event?
Lou Chapelle- artist
Jo Nockels- Curator University Zone Light Night Leeds
Open to
All
Of particular interest to
Everyone
Event Booking details
Drop-in event
Scheduling information
28th and 29th October 6-9.30pm
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