Culture Club: How Can We Raise the Voice of Fungi?
Join us to explore how we can use our creativity to get more people excited about these colourful and fascinating species.
Come to a place where art and fungi meet.
Whether you’re an artist, scientist or somewhere in-between, we invite you to join a community of creative and curious minds exploring the fascinating world of fungi together.
No rules or expectations – just a relaxed space where you can chat, type, sketch, listen or simply soak it all in. You can join Plantlife’s Culture Club however feels right for you.
So, what do fungi mean to you and your life?
So much of the world of fungi happens below the ground, but they’re fundamental to all life on Earth. Popping their heads above the ground in reds, yellows, and pinks – these unassuming little organisms do so much for wildlife and society.
Join us to explore how we can use our creativity to get more people excited about these colourful and fascinating species.
You’ll discover the compelling complexities of fungi; look at ways creativity can help them and explore what protecting these vital organisms actually looks like.
With the autumnal fungi displays all around us, now is the time to come together as artists, mycologists or just fungi fans to collectively celebrate and protect our precious fungi.
Facilitators
Cass Crocker – Senior Arts and Culture Officer at Plantlife (Host)
Cass Crocker is Senior Arts and Culture Officer at Plantlife. With a deep interest in both art and nature, she uses creative practice to open up access to environmental narratives. Working through cross-disciplinary partnerships, she questions whose experiences are treated as universal and embraces the arts as a means for curiosity and play.
Lara Goodband – Contemporary Art Curator & Programmer at RAMM (Facilitator)
Lara Goodband has over 25 years’ experience as an art curator. She is curator of Living Labyrinths: Art and Fungi currently showing at RAMM in Exeter until 21 February 2027. Lara also curated Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape in 2024/ 2025 and Earth Spells: Witches of the Anthropocene, in 2023 which continued her focus on the interconnected climate and ecological crises. Before moving to Exeter, she co-curated the exhibition Offshore: Artists Explore the Sea for Hull 2017 UK City of Culture.
Speakers
Jason Singh – Sound Artist
Jason Singh is a sound artist, composer and performer whose practice explores rhythm, resonance and the transformative potential of listening. Drawing on biosonification, field recordings, improvisation, electronics and global musical traditions, he creates immersive works that blur boundaries between contemporary composition, club culture and experimental sound. His performances are energetic, exploratory and deeply responsive to place and audience. Singh’s work invites listeners to experience sound as a physical, social and constantly evolving force.
Jane Lawson – Artist
Jane Lawson’s practice draws on her previous lives as a knitwear designer, climate activist and writer-researcher for Ethical Consumer magazine. In 2023 she completed the MA in Art and Ecology at Goldsmiths, where she focussed on bringing people close to fungi through as many senses as possible. She is Artist Environmental Lead at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, where co-ordinates the SPARK network of artists wanting to intervene in the trajectory towards climate breakdown.
Aileen Baird – Senior Conservation Officer-Fungi
Aileen is Senior Conservation Officer for Fungi at Plantlife, working on fungal conservation projects across the UK. She has worked in mycology for 9 years, with particular interests in the impacts of climate change on fungi, grassland fungi, rainforest fungi, and community science. Aileen’s work covers a diverse range of projects, including the new UK Network for Fungal Conservation, the community-science project Waxcap Watch, and on-the-ground conservation of threatened fungi. In her spare time, Aileen enjoys fell running, cycling, knitting, and teaching her toddler about the world of mycology!