Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's On
  • Visit
  • Art
    • Discover Art
    • Artists
    • Artworks
    • Stories
    Stories
    Stories

    Watch, listen and read

  • Learn
    • Schools
    • Tate Kids
    • Research
    • Activities and workshops
    Tate Kids
    Tate Kids

    Games, quizzes and films for kids

  • Shop
Become a Member
  • Tate Britain
    Tate Britain Free admission
  • Tate Modern
    Tate Modern Free admission
  • Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
    Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Free admission
  • Tate St Ives
    Tate St Ives Ticket or membership card required
  • Families
  • Accessibility
  • Schools
  • Private tours
  • Discover Art
  • Artists
  • Artworks
  • Stories
  • Schools
  • Tate Kids
  • Research
  • Activities and workshops
Tate Logo
Become a Member
Tate Modern Workshop

Voices of Water

6 September 2025 at 14.30–17.30

Voices of the River, © Tate (Oliver Cowling), 2025

Explore the rights of rivers, oceans and bodies of water through artistic practices

‘Across the Rights of Nature movement, which is an evolving framework, legal custodians play a vital role in fostering care and respect for nature, taking action on behalf of nature, and ensuring a duty to protect across generations. Yet, how does one represent, respond with care and carry out duties – how can we become custodians of the ocean?’  Excerpt from Rights of the Deep, Emma Critchley and collaborators

This event brings together artists, community initiatives and custodians engaged in the growing movements for the Rights of Nature globally. Rights of Nature advocates call for the legal recognition of ecosystems, allowing entities such as animals, bodies of water or mountains to obtain their own personhood. The roundtable will connect with transnational conversations on the rights of rivers and oceans as well as reflect on how to rebuild celebratory connections and kinship with land and waterways. Together we will explore how to meaningfully include and represent the voices of bodies of water – from small streams to the global Ocean – in human assemblies.  

This event includes Carolina Caycedo, Emma Critchley, Love our Ouse and Anne Robertson, who will share glimpses into their collaborations with diverse bodies of water, from the Yuma River in Colombia, to the Ouse in Sussex.

Carolina Caycedo

Carolina Caycedo is a Colombian artist born in London and living in Los Angeles. Her works are gateways into larger discussions about how we treat each other and the world around us. Engaging with issues of water and land stewardship and food sovereignty she enquires into ways of being on Earth that foster sustaining and caring relationships. She invites viewers to consider the unsustainable pace of growth under capitalism and how we might embrace resistance and solidarity.  

Emma Critchley

Emma Critchley uses water as a formal material property within a range of media including film, photography, sound, installation and dance. Her work explores the underwater environment as a political, philosophical and ecological space. Her work has been shown extensively nationally and internationally in galleries and institutions. Her current project Soundings, explores how to connect with the deep ocean to help foster the meaningful connection needed to inspire care for the deep sea and its ecosystems.

Love Our Ouse

Love Our Ouse is a community initiative linking people to celebrate, raise the profile of and upscale positive action for the Sussex Ouse from source to sea. They believe the river has the right to support a rich biodiversity and a thriving riverside community. Love Our Ouse led the creation of rights for the Ouse, with local stakeholders and community consultation, which recently saw the first council formally support a River Charter in the UK.

Anne Robertson

Anne Robertson is an environmental scientist with interests in Freshwater Biodiversity- and in particular the biodiversity of groundwaters. The impact on freshwater ecosystems of disturbances such as climate change and emerging contaminants including microplastics. Monitoring and conservation of groundwater ecosystems.

She is increasingly interested in developing interdisciplinary approaches to address complex problems such as poor river quality. She is working with lawyers, philosophers, economists and social anthropologists to discover how a Rights of Nature approach might improve the current poor water quality of UK rivers. Her work is supported by a variety of funders including the Leverhulme Trust, UKRI, Environment Agency and British Council.

All Tate Modern entrances are step-free. You can enter via the Turbine Hall and into the Natalie Bell Building on Holland Street, or into the Blavatnik Building on Sumner street.

There are lifts to every floor of the Blavatnik and Natalie Bell buildings. Alternatively you can take the stairs.

  • Fully accessible toilets are located on every floor on the concourses.
  • A quiet room is available to use in the Natalie Bell Building on Level 4.
  • Ear defenders can be borrowed from the Ticket desks.

To help plan your visit to Tate Modern, have a look at our visual story. It includes photographs and information about what you can expect from a visit to the gallery.

Download Tate Modern map PDF

For more information before your visit:

  • Email hello@tate.org.uk
  • Call +44 (0)20 7887 8888 (daily 10.00–17.00)

Check all Tate Modern accessibility information

Tate Modern

East Room

Bankside
London SE1 9TG
Plan your visit

Date & Time

6 September 2025 at 14.30–17.30

Pricing

Free with ticket

This event is organised by Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational

Find out more

In partnership with

Hyundai

In cooperation with

We recommend

Left Right
  • Exhibition

    Gathering Ground

    Explore the power of art to inspire change in today’s ecological crisis

    Tate Modern
    Until 4 Jan 2026
  • Two people standing in front of an artwork by Emily Kam Kngwarray
    Exhibition

    Emily Kam Kngwarray

    Encounter the monumental Aboriginal art of Emily Kam Kngwarray, in Europe for the first time

    Tate Modern
    Until 11 Jan 2026
  • Workshop

    Abbas Zahedi: Begin Again

    Join us every month for the Begin Again support group

    Tate Modern
    1 Nov 2025, 6 Dec 2025
Artwork
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact
© The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, 2025
All rights reserved