QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS
9 May 2026
14:00 – 17:00
Free event
We’re pleased to present the latest leg of the We Feed The UK touring exhibition, opening at QUAD on 9 May 2026 with a free launch party full of delights for eyes, ears, hearts, and souls.
Three stories — of women in Scotland reclaiming the custodianship of seed, farming, and food that they hold in most Indigenous cultures; of Black-led collectives in London sharing soursop, watermelon, and cane, ripened in glasshouses with the expertise of 80-year-olds who carried agroecology to these isles from their ancestors; and of the soil inhabiting collaborators of Northumberland, restoring the diversity of vitamins and minerals underground that nourish life above — will be on display for five months, until 4 October 2026.
We warmly invite creatives, growers, and curious minds into this celebratory space. We Feed The UK is a project to energise and connect, animating existing regional networks with fresh hope and inspiration. The launch party reflects this current. Live poetry will cascade down throughout the building, enhancing the stories told on and between the walls.
You’ll have the opportunity to meet some of We Feed The UK’s photographers, poets and growers and take part in the many joys on offer.
Live poetry performance of The Lig by Hot Poet Testament (14:30 – 14:45)
Highly acclaimed writer, rapper and Guinness World Records-breaking human beatboxer, Testament, spent time in Cumbria with regenerative farmer James Robinson for our Agri-culture story. His resulting poem, The Lig, walks us through three lifetimes of tending the biodiverse hedgerows of Strickley Farm.
Free portrait booth with We Feed The UK photographer Ayesha Jones (open 14:00 – 15:30)
Ayesha is an award-winning artist and producer in the West Midlands, working with photography and film. Her stunning We Feed The UK photographs tell the story of Neville Portas’ community allotments in Walsall, No Diggity Gardens.
Wormery workshops courtesy of Neville Portas from No Diggity Gardens
Through founding zero-waste community allotments that follow no-dig methods, Neville has sparked a new relationship with the land in Walsall, keeping carbon in the ground with the earthworms he works alongside.
Meet the faces of agroecology in our Pop-Up Portraits travelling exhibit by Louis Little
Featuring dozens of the grassroots revolutionaries resisting corporate food production’s takeover, their portraits hung from pegs on garden twine, our touring mini showcase reflects this incredible community back to itself in a rare moment of celebration while raising awareness more widely of the changing face of farming.
