Community Events
Do you run nature-focused community events?
A geologist’s perspective can help connect your work with the bigger, global, deep time perspective.
Let’s explore how a geologist-storyteller’s perspective could complement your work
I would love to hear from you and collaborate!
“Mathilde played a significant role in organising Portishead Salt Marshes Day in 2021 and again in 2022. Mathilde’s input and feedback was particularly valuable when it came to creating user friendly displays and interpretation boards in the run up to the event. On the day Mathilde fascinated and inspired the audience with her talks.”
FLOW Exhibition - Summer 2023
Steps in Stone is working with artist Sara Dudman RWA on an exhibition for the Somerset Rural Life Museum - FLOW - on display at the museum in Glastonbury from 20th May until 6th September.
It’s a rich collaboration between a geologist and an artist, in conversation about our different perspectives on the landscape of the Somerset Levels.
Past Events
Steps in Stone ran walks for the University of Bristol’s European Society of Environmental History conference. The walks provided the perfect opportunity for the attendees to explore Bristol in a way that was closely linked to the conference aims. The walks gave participants a deep time perspective of the city, and revealed how the involvement of humans with the local landscape and geology through the city's history influences the city today.
“If you want to understand Bristol in deep time, this is the walk for you! Mathilde took us from the depths of the Carboniferous to contemporary times. Her passion for geology and the life forms that we can only know from rocks is delightfully infectious.”
Steps in Stone has collaborated with the Friends of Portbury Wharf in Portishead near Bristol for two consecutive years on their Salt Marshes Day.
The 2022 event helped raise awareness of the fragile habitat of the saltmarshes in Portishead, and the better understanding of this previous environment has led to the installation of new posts and protected areas on the saltmarsh.
Steps in Stone gave a talk "Beneath the marsh, a hot desert...” revealing the deep history of the rocks beneath the saltmarsh. Scott Gudrich (marine biologist) provided information on the marine science of the saltmarsh. Storyteller Michael Loader wove together our stories in a tale of rewilding. We were also joined by, Somerset Wildlife Trust, WWT Steart Marshes and Clifton Arts Club who put on a exhibition of saltmarsh and coastal art.
Steps in Stone collaborated with artist Sara Dudman on a community event at Brean Beach on the Somerset Coast in 2021, offering mud-painting sessions with locals and tourists using earth pigments collected along the coast. This way of engaging with the beach led to much creativity from participants, and many conversations around our interaction with the fragile ecosystem of the beach and broader climate crisis conversations.
Read this blog post for a description of the day: Mud Painting on Brean Beach