The second edition of the Trellis exhibition by University College London (UCL) will be online from April 15. However, one of its artworks will create a legacy that could last for decades in Newham.

In Mulberry Tree of Plenty, artists will plant saplings of historic mulberry trees at the site of the new UCL East campus in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford.

Overall, the second cycle of the Trellis exhibition is a celebration of this new campus and brings together the work of UCL researchers, artists and community co-creators.

Stratford-based curator Rosie Murdoch answers a few questions about this project:

How did you become curator of this exhibition?

It is a really exciting opportunity for me, as a local resident, to work with a global university. I believe this model is quite unusual and I have been part of shaping how Trellis has grown since 2018, thanks to the flexible and dynamic way UCL approaches public art.

What is special and unusual in Trellis is providing a structured and funded way for artists to meet academic researchers and have paid time to develop ideas – this allows them time to explore new ways of creating artwork and that is really important to me as a curator.

How was the process of guiding the work of six researchers and seven artists?

Trellis begins with hundreds of artists and researchers expressing an interest. Through processes of introducing them to each other we asked them to jointly apply to the next stage: the final selection of five projects, made up of at least one artist, one researcher who will be working at UCL East Campus in the coming years, and local community groups who are brought into the conversations between artist and researcher at an early stage.

The collaboration progresses have regular conversations about ideas for artworks. This year, these took place online, but usually we would be meeting at different locations and often we would metaphorically walk around the ideas and experiences the artists and researchers are having with their participating community members and beginning to think of locations where the artwork could be exhibited.

We consider the impact of the artwork, how passers-by will experience this and how the community participants will feel to have the artwork celebrated publicly. Each project is so unique. Five challenging artworks that come from the hearts and minds of people who have experienced lockdown just like all of us but decided to be part of Trellis and create art together.

How did you recruit 95 east London based co-creators and what was their role?

The communities are identified entirely by the artist and researchers. It is an organic process led by the fantastic individuals we commission – but not a part of the process I can take any credit for. Without exception, artists will carry out research in their work, and although they don’t always work with communities in their practice, we see curiosity about lived experience come through in all of these art works.

The works that have come out of this extraordinary year are really powerful, passionate and eye-opening. They tell the stories of our neighbours that we might never hear otherwise, and reveal things about our neighbourhood that we might never have known.

The programme includes film premieres, artists in conversation and more, and all of it is free, so I really encourage everyone to join us for these fantastic events.

Did you influence the choice of topics or did the researchers come forward to participate introducing issues they were already working on?

The research areas are discovered during the match-making phase. Artists and researchers bring objects to discuss in the context of their work and through those sometimes oblique references to their own academic research or the art they make.

They often find surprising interest in common and that is where something wonderful happens. It is magical to read an application and hear these ideas.

For more information about this exhibition, visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/culture-online/trellis-festival

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