An East Lothian-based art therapy charity’s unique participation in this year’s Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show has been highlighted in a motion tabled at the Scottish Parliament by Martin Whitfield MSP.

Teapot Trust is the only Scottish charity to have won the opportunity to display a garden at the show, which gets underway on Monday 22^nd May.

The charity’s Elsewhere Garden guides children and young people living with the pain and stigma of a chronic health condition to a safe space where their minds go ‘elsewhere’.

All plants and features have been carefully chosen to help tell the charity’s story. Visitors to the garden – and the digital experience online – will be immersed in rich and vibrant planting, sculptures, water features and references to non-verbal communication through soundscapes.

Art in the garden reflects the art tools that Teapot Trust uses to take a child’s worrying thoughts ‘elsewhere’, with unusual, anthropomorphic-like trees contributing to an atmosphere of fantasy and imagination within the garden.

After the show, the garden, made possible by a generous grant from Project Giving Back and designed by garden design firm Semple Begg, will be relocated to its permanent home at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children where Teapot Trust has been working in partnership to support families in need over the last decade.

Sarah Randell, CEO of Teapot Trust, said:

“Having a show garden at RHS Chelsea gives us a national platform to increase public understanding of how chronic illness impacts young lives and why art therapy is such an effective clinical intervention. Ultimately, it’s about widening our reach so that we can support many more children and families in need.

“The key parallel between our “Elsewhere Garden” and our art therapy is the ‘escape’ they both give children, taking their minds to a place of creative freedom.”

Martin Whitfield MSP said:

“I was delighted to be able to highlight Teapot Trust’s success as the only Scottish charity exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show and recognise the importance of its “Elsewhere Garden” with this motion at Holyrood.

“The charity does wonderful work and this display at such a prestigious event is a fantastic opportunity for a wider audience to learn about their vision for all children and young people living with chronic health conditions to have access to transformative art therapy.”

The full text of Mr Whitfield’s motion is as follows:

That the Parliament congratulates Teapot Trust on being the only Scottish charity exhibiting at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show 2023; recognises what it sees as the opportunity that this will give the charity to promote its vision of allowing all children and young people living with chronic health conditions to access transformative art therapy without barriers or costs; commends the imaginative design of the Teapot Trust’s Elsewhere Garden, which, it understands, guides children and young people living with the pain and stigma of a chronic health condition to a safe space where their minds go “elsewhere”, representing a child’s imagination as it blossoms in response to the creative freedom gifted by art therapy, and understands that, after the Chelsea Flower Show, the garden will move to a permanent home at Glasgow Children’s Hospital, which serves areas of social need where chronic illness in children is more than two and half times more prevalent, providing an inclusive safe space to help overcome barriers to accessing healthcare, and where all patients and visitors will be welcome.

Find out more about Teapot Trust and their display at RHS Chelsea Flower Show at www.teapot-trust.org/teapot-trust-elsewhere-garden.