Horti'Cultural' Learning Festival receives 10k of funding...

Fens Forward at Fenscape, Springfields, along with partner organisation Springfields Horticultural Society has been awarded £10,000 of the Governments new Transformation Fund for informal adult learning, to run a Horti'cultural' Learning Festival.

Fens Forward came up with the idea for the Learning Festival and approached the Horticultural Society to partner them in the bid for funding. The events will begin in October of this year and will be free for members of the public to access although there will be a limited places at each event so it will be on a first come first serve basis.  The bid also included support for Parents who might struggle to access learning opportunities due to lack of affordable childcare.  Parents can take advantage of a Nursery Voucher Scheme with a local registered nursery. They can book a place in advance of the learning event, collect their voucher and use it at the nursery and then come along and attend the lecture or demonstration.

The Horti'cultural' Festival will include 18 events in total, with demonstrations, practical sessions and lectures, covering a range of subjects from Garden Design to Botanical Drawing and Poetry to Flower Arranging.  All the events will have a Horticultural theme and take place in the Festival Gardens or the David Bellamy Room at Fenscape (also located in the Festival Gardens).

Posters and leaflets will be produced shortly to advertise the events and leaflets will be available in the local Tourist Information Centre and other places within the District.  Alternatively, people can contact Fenscape by phone Tel: 01775 764800 or email fenscape@bydesign-group.co.uk or look on the Springfields Gardens Website at www.springfieldsgardens.co.uk

"We were absolutely thrilled to hear that we were successful with our application and can’t wait to get the events under way.  It’s a great way to get adults involved in informal learning and the subjects are bound to be of interest to residents of South Holland.  Horticulture plays such an important part of many people's lives in the district and so it will be great to explore other aspects of it further in an enjoyable and relaxed way." (Nicola Carr, Fens Forward Manager)

"This is great news, we are really pleased to be a part of the Learning Festival as one of our long term goals has been to encourage people to use the Gardens as a learning resource and with this grant, it opens doors to do just that." (Andy Boyton, Head Gardener at Springfields)

"NIACE is very happy to be supporting the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the management of the Transformation Fund to fulfill the recommendations of the Governments Learning Revolution for informal adult learning."  "The hundreds of bids we have received have displayed high standards of quality, highlighting the vast breadth of projects that are out there with an adult learning focus. The innovative nature of the winning projects is sure to transform the way adults learn, improving well-being and building confidence along the way.  The projects have the potential to not only help individuals, but to benefit communities as well." (Claire Robinson, Transformation Fund Project Manager on behalf of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE)) 
 

16th September 2009