Two projects, featuring birds, art, the environment and a human-sized nest, offer an opportunity for the public to explore the possibilities for collaboration within Lancaster University’s emerging culture innovation agenda.

This month Morecambe Bay and Lancaster will host two artistic commissions that redefine how we think about sustainability, migration, and ecology.

Elizabeth Clough’s HARBINGER and Henna Asikainen’s Lintukoto/Haven explore the fragile balance between nature and human experience, using artistic research to engage communities in pressing environmental conversations.

Both projects contribute to Lancaster University’s Culture Innovation agenda, demonstrating how artistic methods can act as tools for environmental inquiry, knowledge-making, and social engagement.

HARBINGER: Reimagining the Sound of the Future

HARBINGER is funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Acceleration Accounts and developed as part of research by Dr Nathan Jones, Dr Jen Southern and Professor Carlos Lopez Galviz.

The commission is led by Deco Publique and The CoLab, exploring how artistic research can shape new ways of thinking about place and sustainability in Morecambe Bay.

Taking place from March 21 to March 24 March at the Beach Café on Marine Road West, Heysham, Morecambe, HARBINGER is a new installation by Elizabeth Clough that combines sound, sculpture, and drawing to question the loss of birdsong and its wider ecological impact.

Clough describes the work as an expression of both reverence and grief, stating: “I have used my voice and my hands to make this work. Birds are part of our world, our food systems, and our environments. What happens to them is happening to us.”

By blending sensory experience with environmental research, HARBINGER aligns with Lancaster University’s approach to cultural innovation—where artistic practice serves as a form of environmental knowledge production.

The opening celebration will take place this Friday (March 21) from 6pm to 8pm at the Beach Café. Attendance is free. Places must be reserved by contacting hello@decopublique.co.uk.

The exhibition will be open to the public from March 22 to 24 between 11am and 4pm with no booking required.

Lintukoto/Haven: A Living Research Space

Lintukoto/Haven is presented by Lancaster Arts and funded by Arts Council England and the Finnish Institute, building on a 2024 commission in partnership with national network We Live Here.

It runs from March 24 to 16 May 16 at the Peter Scott Gallery at Lancaster University,

This presents a snapshot of an ongoing artistic project that explores the intersecting issues of environmental destruction, migration, belonging, and grief.

It invites us to consider the possibility of finding, or creating, sanctuary in the current moment of crisis. Is it possible to find belonging in these conditions? Can the natural world offer us different ways of thinking?

The installation transforms a gallery space into a participatory environment where migration, belonging, and resilience take shape through collaborative making.

Inspired by the Finnish myth of Lintukoto, a haven where birds retreat for winter, the work invites audiences to engage in a collective act of creation.

At the heart of the exhibition is a human-sized nest, constructed from natural materials, evolving over time through public participation. Visitors will have the opportunity to contribute to its formation, echoing the way birds adapt to their environments.

And on 22 March 22 from 11am to 4pm, the public is invited to a nest-building event, working alongside the artist in shaping this evolving installation. The process itself becomes an act of cultural research, bridging ecological adaptation with the ways humans create spaces of belonging.

Art as a Method for Change

Both HARBINGER and Lintukoto/Haven illustrate how culture innovation at Lancaster University extends beyond traditional arts programming, embedding artistic practice into interdisciplinary research and public engagement.

These projects challenge conventional sustainability narratives, positioning art as a research method that fosters new perspectives on environmental change, community resilience, and the non-human world.

With a focus on birds as ecological indicators, symbols of migration, and creative engineers, these commissions invite reflection on what humans might learn from nature—not simply to conserve it, but to reimagine our future alongside it.

By situating these works within Morecambe Bay and Lancaster’s cultural ecosystem, the commissions also contribute to wider conversations around culture-led regeneration, place-making, and the role of universities as drivers of creative and environmental futures.