Wetlands is an art project inspired by the powerful metaphor of a possible memory retained and preserved by the waters.  

Initiated by 5 visual artists in 2015 during their last year at the University of Kent, Medway.  They went above and beyond the requirement of their Bachelor Degrees, moving their shared practice outside of the educational institution. Similar interests and questions were found in their artistic practice which they used to pique the driving force of Wetlands. What kind of relationship do we share with our surroundings? How do our identities and past recollections effect the perceptions we have of these places? Medway, and in particular the Hoo peninsula, has always possessed a connection with the water. Humans are beholden to the sea, perhaps as much as the land, and even though this relationship maybe more fractured now, the people in this area still share a symbiotic bond. It is lived on, used for sustenance, ever present.

Wetlands was forged after the collective won the Student’s Project Grant from the University of Kent, and have further gone on to secure the support of other local organisations.

The project offers now an open platform for students and alumni of the University of Kent to involve and interact with local communities living in proximity of waters, recreating a dialogue between them, their maritime history and the wetland landscape.