SPARROW KEEPERS

Community Outreach Project for the SPARROW KEEPERS Sculptures

To shape the new SPARROW KEEPERS artworks, Kerry led a cross generational letter writing project across Great Western Park that celebrated the much loved yet endangered House Sparrow and strengthened local nature connection.

Each group held a distinct role in this collective act of care:

- The nursery children became the Sparrow Explorers

- The teenagers became the Sparrow Techs

- The older participants became the Sparrow Guardians

Sparrow Explorers and Sensory Encounters

The youngest participants began with bespoke sparrow postal kits, inventing curious and imaginative questions about the daily lives of birds. They then joined a creative digital session, using small cameras to photograph GWP from a sparrow’s eye view. Alongside this, they gathered finds for a shared nature table.

Sparrow Guardians

These natural finds formed the basis of a Nature Connection sensory workshop at Oxford Manor care home, inviting residents to explore memories of sparrows through scent, touch and sound. The following day, residents at Poppy Meadows wrote short, handwritten responses to the children, each letter voiced as if written by a sparrow.

Throughout Autumn 2025, adults from across GWP were invited to join the project as Sparrow Guardians by composing their own letters from a sparrow to a nursery child. These interwoven voices created a tender and imaginative archive of local reflections on bird life, childhood curiosity and community care.

The final letters, children’s drawings and project photographs were shaped into a booklet for all participants and also presented as a projected slideshow at Cornerstone Arts Centre. To view the final booklet please view HERE

Sparrow Techs

In Spring 2026, local young people from TRAIN Youth Club, National Trust Saturday Club and Foundation Students from Abingdon and Witney College advised on the digital content for the SPARROW KEEPERS QR trail, scheduled for installation in 2027.

CLIENT: Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire District Council

COLLABORATOR - Photo & film credit: Emma Brown

PROJECT MENTEE: Julie Grose

COMMUNITY GROUPS: Bright Horizons Didcot Day Nursery and Pre-School, Oxford Manor, Poppy Meadows, TRAIN Youth Club, National Trust Saturday Club and Foundation Students from Abingdon and Witney College

THANKS TO: Age UK Oxfordshire, Geocaching Oxfordshire, Dr Emma Gardner, RAW, SOHA, MyVision, Williams Place, Teresa Atkinson Association University of Worcester, Alzheimer's Society, Lopemede Farm

(Photo and film credit: Emma Brown Photography)