Saffron Walden Museum is launching a new community art project to explore the topic of migration and belonging.

Artist Janetka Platun is working with the museum and community groups across Uttlesford to focus on the voices of people who have not traditionally been recorded in the museum’s records.

The Lost Language of Nature Project, which has received funding from Essex Cultural Diversity Project and the Saffron Walden Museum, aims to empower participants to connect and explore their heritage and is inspired by the global taxidermy bird collection at the museum.

Charlotte Pratt, the museum's learning and outreach officer, said: “The Lost Language of Nature project is a new way of working for the museum, and we are thrilled that Janetka is joining us for the project.

"We are looking forward to working with her to creatively form new relationships with communities across the district, discover and share new stories and to help transform the way the museum thinks about the items in its collections.”

The museum and Janetka will launch this on Wednesday, August 17 at the Lost Language of Nature Family Fun Day.

This day will include an opportunity for those attending to help shape the commission, and take part in wildlife hints, nature-based storytelling, a falconry display and children's craft activities.

The Family Fun Day aims to help connect people to forgotten or hidden stories and words and traditional beliefs to explain wildlife and the natural world.

The project involves creative workshops, encounters and discussions that are inspired by the global taxidermy collection, the project’s starting point.

Janetka Platun, said: “I’m delighted to be working on the Lost Language of Nature Project at Saffron Walden Museum.

"Some of the most interesting experiences in my career have involved the opportunity to view extraordinary museum objects that trigger surprising and unexpected creative responses with the public and in my own work.”

Janetka Platun incorporates sculpture, film and installation into her work. Her work aims to question our relationship with our surroundings. She is an Artist Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.

The commission will run until the end of 2022.