The Hive 2009

Emily Tracy was commissioned by The Thames Festival in partnership with The Co-Operative, to produce a participatory arts project for 145 London Primary schools which focussed on Bees. The result was ‘Hive’ which was installed on The SouthBank and then used as the centrepiece for ‘The Night Carnival,’ which is a highlight of The Thames Festival. The piece was 4 metres high and was mounted on an electric wheel- base. It was lit internally.

With the artist, each child made a detailed observational drawing of a bee. Each drawing was copied and reduced to life size. These were mounted to create a honey- comb panel made by each school. The project looked at the importance of bees to our environment and their current decline.

In addition to this project two other projects were run in conjunction. These were ‘The Bee Project’ with Gayhurst Primary school, funded by The City Of London, and A Thames Festival project at Lilian Baylis Technology School. These projects produced lanterns and a large bee puppet to accompany ‘The Hive.’

Vehicule and structure: Mike Pattisson.
Lighting: John Varah, SameSky.
Workshop artists: Sophie Charalambous, Chloe Edwards, Ella Ritchie, Ian Simons.