Chelsea Physic Garden recruited its first Youth Panel in spring 2022. The Panel was made of around 10 people, aged 16-24, who represent a broad range of youth voices. The Panel helped Chelsea Physic Garden ensure that young audiences were actively considered and engaged.

Examples of what the Panel worked on are volunteer recruitment methods and ways to engage younger people digitally.  Additionally, the Youth Panel delivered two Takeover Days at the Garden in October 2023 and June 2024, which featured youth-led tours, creative workshops, a panel discussion, and food! In return, the Panel learned how a botanic garden operates, what challenges charities and businesses face, and the various roles in heritage young people can aspire to have.

In late 2024, the Youth Panel was collaboratively rebranded as the Young Producers, to concentrate on delivering creative and youth-led outputs that are attractive to younger audiences.

Meet some of our Young Producers

Mattie

Mattie joined the Youth Panel in April 2023. They are an ecological designer, curator and writer exploring how we can live better together on our fragile planet. They are currently training to be a Landscape Architect and their work is centred around questions of climate justice, materialities and queer ecologies. They are a Creative Gardener for Cultivate Create, an edible growing project with ACAVA for families in North Kensington, delivering art and gardening activities and transforming the space into a biodiverse haven. In their spare time they like wild swimming, baking, and learning everything about plants, fungi, and lichens.

Patrick
A member of the Youth Panel from 2023, Patrick is currently studying BA (Hons) Film Practice at UAL: London College of Communication after attaining a distinction from the London Screen Academy. During a gap year, he interned at two production companies: Altitude Film Entertainment and Revolution Films and recently has been on a placement with Almeida Theatre in Islington. As part of the Chelsea Physic Garden Youth Panel, Patrick would like to contribute ideas to help the garden transform into a creative and nurturing environment for young talent and provide routes for people to get more involved with the natural world. In his spare time, he enjoys developing creative projects and travelling.

Tymon
A member of the Youth Panel since April 2022, Tymon is a Polish composer recently graduated from the Royal College of Music. This year he is working as Students’ Union president at RCM. Tymon has always been interested in environment and nature, having realised a project about pollinators while at school which resulted in sowing a flower meadow in one of the parks in Warsaw. He is also a keen vegetable gardener, home cook and baker.