How do urban and rural environments meet, embrace, and transform one another? How do these meeting points reshape common understandings of nature and culture, and connect communities human and nonhuman?

To mark the launch of Ecotones: Where the Urban and Rural Embrace, in partnership with Hauser & Wirth, we invite you to explore connections between urban and rural environments, with particular attention to Spike Island as an ecotone – where the river and the city meet, embrace, and transform one another.

Join us for a creative and participatory evening, with contributions from Engagement Fellow Florence Fitzgerald-Allsopp, artist Andrew Sanger, and community organisation Room 13 Hareclive. This informal gathering will introduce the themes of the year-long engagement programme, and begin delving into them through playful, collective exchange.

FLORENCE FITZGERALD-ALLSOPP

Florence Fitzgerald-Allsopp (PhD) is a Bristol-based writer, curator, and producer. Her recent Techne-funded doctoral research considered the ethics of interspecies relations in contemporary art and performance from an intersectional perspective. Fitzgerald-Allsopp has curated and produced projects across visual arts and performance for cultural organisations including Cove Park, Scotland; DAS, Amsterdam; CCA, Glasgow; Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam; and In Between Time, Bristol. She is the recipient of the 2025-2026 Spike Island and Hauser and Wirth Engagement Fellowship for South West-based Curators.

Fitzgerald-Allsopp’s book Interspecies Performance, co-edited with Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca, was published in 2024 by Performance Research Books. Her writing has been commissioned by artists and galleries internationally, including SLQS Gallery, London; Co-Prosperity, Chicago; Handmark, Australia; and K-Gold Temporary Gallery, Greece.

Visit Florence Fitzgerald-Allsopp’s website

ANDREW SANGER

Originally from Michigan, Andrew Sanger is a lecturer, researcher, artist, and activist working across dance, anthropology, and ecology in the UK. He completed his PhD in Anthropology from University College London and is currently a Lecturer in Dance and Contextual Studies at The Place | London Contemporary Dance School teaching on the MA Dance: Performance programme. Alongside teaching and research, he has been a company dancer with Jody Oberfelder Projects, and Vatic Theatre touring in the USA, the UK, and Germany. Sanger’s research explores the development of environmental sensibility through dance practice, performance, and protest in the UK and is currently developing an ethnographic performance project on the River Wandle in collaboration with the UK River Summit at Morden Hall.

ROOM 13 HARECLIVE

Room 13 Hareclive encourages creativity, independent thinking, collaboration and voice in children. They are rooted in their local community in Hartcliffe and connect with arts, culture and ideas in our city and beyond. Their creative journeys start with children’s interests, concerns and ideas and end with their voices, work and dreams going out into the world. Through their collaborations, Room 13 offer a different way of working with children where they are seen and heard. Their studio is a creative hub where transformations – material, ideas, personal and community – have been taking place since 2003. Room 13 were recently awarded the Wild Spaces public art commission by the University of Bristol, for which they will create a series of temporary artworks and activities with a focus on the River Avon.

Visit Room 13 Hareclive’s website

ECOTONES: Where the Urban & Rural Embrace

Ecotones is a year-long programme of events and activities as part of Spike Island’s Engagement programme, kindly supported by Hauser & Wirth.

In ecology, an ecotone is where two different environments meet, embrace, and transform one another. This year-long programme explores the ecotones between urban and rural environments from an intersectional and inclusive perspective. Questioning pervasive assumptions about urban and rural spaces as divided and disconnected, the project aims to unearth the layers of relationality and connectedness between them.

Working alongside interdisciplinary artists, this programme invites young people and local communities to explore notions of belonging, untold histories, and relationships with the more-than-human world, producing alternative modes of connection with their localities.

Partners and Supporters

In partnership with Hauser & Wirth