Across the road from GWL is a new temporary orchard for people to acknowledge grief and imagine peaceful futures. Three artists respond to the themes of trees, hope and healing across this arbour and within the library space. Reiko Goto Collins has created a fruit tree nursery and a forum for discussion, learning, reflection, and imagination that centres the value of nature in neighbourhoods. Working with local communities, Reiko’s work evokes the powerful capacity trees have to positively affect ourselves and our threatened environment. At the heart of this arbour Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, 1996/2024, creates a focal point for people to express wishes and needs.

During Glasgow International Festival the garden is activated by a series of performances and facilitated discussions by Reiko and the Library team. These events are programmed in harmony with changing daylight conditions, from sunrise gatherings to conversations in the dusk – the differences in time and light reflecting Reiko’s responsive interactions with trees. The orchard arbour is a site where visitors can acknowledge sadness, share stories, and consider trees as living markers for memory.

Inside the library and in a flag work created for the Glasgow Women’s Library building façade, artworks by Yoko Ono address violence on different registers acknowledging deeply personal harms experienced by individuals and calls for political resistance to global conflict through her enduring earth peace practices. Yoko Ono’s participation reflects the Library’s intention in its work since 1991 to honour the long trajectory of feminist artists and activists, advocating Peace is Power.

Starting from experiences as a neurodivergent, queer survivor, Zana’s installation speaks to the other tree and peace themed works that populate our building and outdoor space. Exploring the healing role and soothing energy of trees, in relation to experiences of trauma, the sculptural works use touch, a deep focus and repeated movements to soothe inner dysregulation and raise awareness of unseen conditions. The artworks point to our relationship with trees, and their capacity to produce places of wisdom and safety.