The Lost Gardens of Stoke-on-Trent

In 2008 Anna Francis began researching the National Garden Festival of 1986, which took place in Stoke-on-Trent, representing the biggest culture led regeneration project the city had ever seen. 2016 marked the 30th Anniversary of the Festival. To mark this, Anna Francis approached the Artcity Consortium with the idea of curating a large scale public art festival, to celebrate the legacy of the event, and to explore what might happen if Stoke-on-Trent were successful in bidding to become city of culture in 2021. A successful Arts Council England bid, as well as the project funding provided by Esmee Fairbairn via the Artcity project resulted in a weekend long public art project, at Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent