If you haven’t yet caught the amazing spectacle inside the old STAR Leisure Centre, today’s your last chance!
The projection exhibition all about the importance of trees and canopy cover will run Saturday 27th June from 10am to 4.30pm and is in the old sports hall at the back of the building. The film is 15 minutes long and will run on a loop all day.
There’s plenty of parking (through the gates on Railway Street opposite A1 Tyres) and the Splott Community Volunteers centre will be open to provide a cuppa or a soft drink.
If you head there between 1pm and 3pm today and take part in a climate and cost of living consultation, you’ll be entered into a free raffle for a chance to win an air fryer!
Treescapism brings together stories and artworks created by members of the community.
Created with the Splott community in Cardiff the exhibition invites visitors to imagine a greener, healthier future for one of the UK’s most tree-deprived urban areas.
Curated by artistic collective Rewired Life, the immersive exhibition reimagines Wales’s urban future: one in which trees, green spaces and their benefits are available to everyone, regardless of where they live.
The exhibition follows a new warning from Coed Cadw, the Woodland Trust in Wales, that communities across the country are living in “tree deserts”, where a critical lack of urban tree cover is leaving people more exposed to air pollution, extreme heat and poor physical and mental health.
While trees are often seen as attractive additions to towns and cities, Coed Cadw says they should be treated as essential infrastructure. Urban trees can help to clean the air, reduce flood risk, provide shade during periods of extreme heat, boost biodiversity and improve people’s wellbeing.
However, trees and green spaces are not distributed equally. The Tree Equity Score tool, developed by the Woodland Trust, shows that residents of Splott have some of the lowest access to trees anywhere in the UK and are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards including heat and pollution.
The exhibition will explore what a greener Splott could look and feel like, placing the voices and ideas of local people at the heart of the conversation. During a previous heatwave, thermal-imaging research commissioned by the Woodland Trust recorded surface temperatures beneath an urban tree in the neighbouring community of Adamsdown that were up to 20°C cooler than the surrounding area in direct sunlight.
Jacinta Challinor, tree equity lead for Coed Cadw, said:
“Everyone should be able to experience the benefits that trees bring to our everyday lives, but at the moment, those benefits are not shared equally. In some communities, a lack of trees means hotter streets, dirtier air and fewer opportunities to spend time in green spaces.
“Treescapism is about looking beyond the statistics and asking people in Splott to help imagine something better: a greener, healthier and more resilient neighbourhood, shaped by the community that lives there.
“Trees in our towns and cities are not decorative extras. They are vital infrastructure, and access to them should not depend on your postcode.”
Angela Bullard, founding member of local charity Splott Community Volunteers delivered a passionate speech titled ‘Green Spaces in Splott: A Community Concern ‘ at the launch of the exhibition on Thursday. In it, she said:
“I love Splott. I love its people, its grit, its sense of community. But there’s something that’s bothered me for a long time — something I notice every time I visit Splott. It doesn’t have enough green space. And I think it’s time we talked about what that really means for all of us.
When kids want to play outside, where do they go? The street. When you need five minutes of quiet and fresh air after a long day, where do you find it? I don’t believe you do, really. Not easily. Not close by. Roath Park is lovely, but it takes effort to get there — and not everyone has that time or energy after a shift, after the school run, after everything life throws at you.
I’ve watched children grow up on these streets with no grass under their feet, no trees to climb, no little patch of nature to call their own. And that hurts. Because I know what green space does for you. It calms you down. It gives you room to breathe — literally and emotionally. Studies back this up, but honestly, you don’t need a study. You just need to remember how you feel the moment you find yourself somewhere green.
And it’s not just us. The birds, the bees, the foxes quietly threading through our back lanes — they’re struggling too. Without green corridors and wild patches, urban wildlife has nowhere to go. We’re all squeezed out to We gether.
Splott is being talked about. There’s investment coming, development on the way. And I’ll be honest — that worries me as much as it excites me. Because development without green space just means more concrete for a community that already has too much of it.
So I’m asking — let’s make some noise. Let’s tell our councillors, our developers, anyone who’ll listen: Splott needs trees. Splott needs somewhere for its children to play and its wildlife to survive.
We are not asking for a park the size of Roath. We are asking for recognition that Splott’s residents — its children, its elderly, its families in flats with no gardens — deserve the same relationship with green space that other Cardiff communities enjoy as a matter of course.
Give us the tools, the permissions, and the partnership, and we will do the rest. We always do. “
So pop to the back of the STAR Centre today if you have the chance and experience something powerful. It’s not every day that something like this comes to Splott.
The exhibition is free to attend, and visitors do not need to book in advance. Under-18s must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
- To find out more about the exhibition, visit here.
- Check the Tree Equity Score for your neighbourhood here.
- To find out more about the research done in Cardiff visit here.
