Radical Roots Society, at the time called '​Eden Art', began as a market stall in the North–West of England in January 2014. Later that year we decided to take it bigger and in a new direction, focusing on creativity as a universal and vitally important part of life. We began running community exhibitions, promoting other creatives with positive values and selling fair trade clothing.

 

Here are our aims:

 

 

• To convey the idea that creativity is innate to EVERYBODY. It is not as simplistic as relating to artistic skill, but relates more generally to the creation of new ideas and the exploration and expansion of the mind. The sciences, for instance, are highly creative fields involving the creation of ideas and illumination of thinking.                        

We hold a strong belief in the value of creative expression, its relevance to every human being, as well as the powerful effect and therapeutic nature it brings.

We seek to encourage all people to explore their own creativity, believing it to be a fundamental element of life. 

 

• Promote the values of POSITIVITY, HOPE, CREATIVITY and EQUALITY, and spread the message of our FAITH. This may be through street and online promotion, exhibitions, projects, creative work or our fair trade clothing range.

 

• Love extravagantly. Van Gogh himself spoke the famous words, ‘There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people’ and this idea shapes a lot of what we do and our motivations for doing it.

We believe in the power of radical, extravagant love and our aim is to demonstrate this through everything we do. A lot of our work is community based and interactive, as we strive to enrich both our online and local community.

 

• Found all we do on our belief in a creative divinity. For us this is God, but for others it may be something different. Either way, we believe creative expression allows us to connect with something that is inherent yet bigger and more significant than ourselves. Our faith inspires everything we do as an organisation and we absolutely love working with other faiths and encouraging interfaith relationships. We're aware that Christians have a bad wrap, but we want to demonstrate that not all Christians are like the ones you hear about on TV, or even those you've encountered. We want to show that the real message of Jesus is love and compassion. 

 

• We're big on taking care of the enviroment, we aim to be pioneers in this and tackle lack of love for the earth and it's beings. 

 

• Focus on promoting other independent individuals or organisations that are promoting positive themes and values through their work. We do this via our ‘Introducing’ section on our website as well as through other means of promotion.

 

• Build a community! Our name had to change from the original ‘Eden Art’ because we wanted to ensure people felt a part of what we do. Being a ‘society’ of sorts seemed a great way to do this. Several times a year we take on voluntary interns from the UK and across the world. This allows people to get involved in the work that we do and be part of something that – we hope, is radical in both its values and feats. If you’re interested in volunteering with us just hit ‘Contact – Volunteer’, and fill in the form.

We also strive to build strong connections and partnerships both in the community and online. If you’d like to connect or work with us in any way, do get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

 

 

Radical Roots Society consists of artist Becky Emery and writer/poet Georgie Treneary.