outside it is beautiful is a huge new community digital audio stories artwork set on the Bentham train line (Leeds-Morecambe) supported by Arts Council England through its National Lottery Project Grants programme. It's a celebration of what can be seen out of the train window - the wildlife, the landscapes and the communities - which are often unknown and even invisible to the traveller.
In late 2025 communities up and down the Bentham line will come together and work with us to create a huge tapestry of words, stories and sounds about the places they live in and the natural landscapes and wildlife around them. They will create a huge tapestry of sound which will ping onto passenger's phones via GPS triaging as they travel the Bentham line.
outside it is beautiful is also supported by Northern. Our ambassador is Dr Amy-Jane Beer, a biologist and writer and winner of the 2023 Wainwright Prize with her book The Flow.
Research & development
We are taking part in research and development in October working with communities up and down the Bentham line from Morecambe to Leeds. We will be meeting with people living with dementia, young people, climate activists, vulnerable groups, farmers, the Forest of Bowland National Landscape and the general public.
We are inviting groups and individuals, schools and colleges to get involved.
We want to create an exciting, beautiful and experimental experience which will encourage passengers to engage on a deeper level with the places, landscapes and communities they are travelling through. We hope the project will promote a greater sense of shared identity, bring inhabitants, landscapes and visitors closer together and encourage a greater sense of responsibility for the world we live in by creating a lifelong artistic legacy on the Bentham line.
Please contact us using the form below if you want to find out more.
Thank you!