Plant Cultures

Plant Cultures will create a website that gathers together a wide range of information about plants from South Asia. The project draws on an innovative partnership of museums, libraries, botanical experts and local communities to gather information about the significance of plants in all aspects of our lives.

Plant Cultures uses the plants of a particular region as an entry point to many aspects of that region’s culture – food, superstition, religion, fashion, cosmetics and art – as well as furthering the public understanding of science.

Taking the communities of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) as a starting point, the site will use oral history, fine arts, and demonstrations of arts and crafts to bring to life the different ways in which plants are used in different communities.

The website will be linked to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and the project will be led by Kew Gardens, in partnership with The Museum of London, Leicester City Museums and National Museums Liverpool. All of these organisations will work with local community groups to create web-based content that reflects the diverse ways in which South Asian families use plants in their everyday lives. The website will be aimed at a broad spectrum of users and be rich in learning opportunities and resources.

At least 1500 images of rare prints, paintings and artefacts, many never exhibited before, will be made available on the website. These will come from the rich collections of the Kew Library, the Asia Pacific & Africa Collections of the British Library, the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine and the India and South East Asia Collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Partner museums will run events and workshops to introduce participants to the Plant Cultures project. Workshops will include visits to botanical gardens, and handling sessions with museum objects. Working with these communities, the Plant Cultures project will gather anecdotes, folklore and examples of art and crafts that are becoming less accessible as attitudes change and generations grow up surrounded by other cultures.

This material will be used by Kew, and a variety of other botanical gardens and local museums, to create a series of trails and other activities that relate to the themes of Plant Cultures. Trails will reflect the nature of individual collections and the communities with which they have been working.

The first elements of the Plant Cultures website will be available in November 2004 with the full site online from Spring 2005. Design and production of the Plant Cultures website is being undertaken jointly by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and NYKRIS.