"I’ve always been a massive nature geek"
What Steven asked Tim Harrison, artistic director of We Live Here
Rochester Cathedral is hosting Nature Connects, a celebration of nature, food and music, on Saturday 10 October. Steven met artistic director Tim Harrison to ask how his son's football match brought him to Medway, whether you really get nature, music and food for just £5, and how he knows Mehmet Ali Alabora.
What is your official occupation?
Oh God, I'm artistic director of We Live Here, which is now an entity rather than just me.
What does that role entail?
I created this organisation called We Live Here. I've been using it as an umbrella for my independent curatorial and producing work, doing projects around the relationship between art, nature and communities. I've been operating as We Live Here for about four years now. A few months back, we finally became a company, so I can start to grow and access more funding. My job is to come up with ideas.
I work closely with a variety of communities. I like connecting not just with other artists and artsy types, but with communities and different experts. In the past, I've done projects with healthcare professionals, charities and academics, and all these bring different perspectives.
I like projects that bring those different views together and talk about themes and issues that connect us. Then once I've had an idea, I need to figure out how to manage it, deliver it, pay for it, all that stuff. It's quite varied.
Do you have any additional roles, paid or unpaid?
Yeah, I work for Medway Council, delivering their Creative Health Place Partnership Programme. It's all around the connections between arts, creativity, health and wellbeing.
You've got an event coming up?
The main thing coming up is a concert of music and spoken word at Rochester Cathedral… and food. There tends to always be a lot of food in my projects, whether it's picnics and walking, or in this case, the main part of the event weaves together music from different cultures, communities and parts of the world, inspired by nature, with text, myths and stories.
We've got four fantastic chefs from different cultures who are creating a feast for us. It's an intercultural harvest festival.
What music can people look forward to?
We've got Faris Ishaq, who is an internationally renowned Palestinian Ney Master. A ney is an ancient reed instrument like a flute that's been around for thousands of years. He travels around the world and composed a new work for this. He’ll be doing several pieces.
Then we're working with Adrian Bawtree, who is bringing along the Rochester Choral Society to perform something from the Christian tradition. We've got Karen Reeves-Toppin and Medway Can Sing, who are going to be doing some fantastic, maybe more popular songs.
Then we've got a Mexican flamenco musician, a Bulgarian vocalist. It’s all mixed up, putting things next to each other that you don't normally hear next to each other.
When is this, where is this?
The event is on Saturday 10 October at Rochester Cathedral, from 5pm until 7.30pm.
How much are tickets?
Just £5. Very cheap for such an amazing array of musicians and stories, and food into the bargain.
Five pounds gets you food as well?
Yeah, it's worth it just for the scran.
Why bring nature, art, food and different communities together in the first place?
Register for free to continue reading about Tim’s thinking behind Nature Connects, his 43 years of birdwatching, how We Live Here began, and the unlikely football kickabout that eventually brought him to Medway.
