Roots in the City is a community heritage project celebrating Sunderland’s shared natural spaces and the diverse stories that grow from them. Across the city, people from many places and backgrounds come together in parks, gardens and streets where nature continues to thrive spaces that belong to everyone.

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Through a programme of heritage walks, planting sessions, creative workshops and oral history activities, the project explored how green spaces shape identity, memory and belonging. Participants from the wider public and community groups, including the International Community of Sunderland (ICOS), contributed personal experiences—from favourite local parks to plants connected to their home countries, and childhood memories of nature in the city.

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Guided walks through the city centre, including Fawcett Street, Mowbray Park and historic landmarks such as the Elephant Tea Rooms, traced how Sunderland’s green spaces have evolved from the Victorian era to today. Alongside this, hands-on activities—such as seed paper making, natural dyeing, bug hotel building, watercolour painting, and lino and gelli printing—encouraged participants to connect with urban wildlife and the everyday plants that sustain city life.

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This project is part of a wider effort to support the re-greening of Sunderland, encouraging people to reconnect with local nature and take small, meaningful actions to support biodiversity in their everyday lives. Through workshops, creative activities and shared learning, it explores how art and environmental awareness can come together to inspire positive change in our communities. From creating ceramic bug houses to learning about pollinators like butterflies, participants have contributed to a growing understanding of how even small spaces can become valuable habitats for wildlife.

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Oral histories, planting sessions and collaborative zine-making captured hidden and changing stories of shops, celebrations and gardens, revealing how both natural and social landscapes shift over time.

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This exhibition brings these experiences together, showing how Sunderland’s environment and its communities grow side by side. Parks, streets and overlooked corners become living heritage—places where past, present and future take root. By paying attention to and caring for these shared spaces, we help ensure the city continues to flourish: sustainably, creatively and together.