Credit: Supplied/RHS Garden Bridgewater
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Staff Writer
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April 20, 2026
We love our green spaces here in Manchester, and one that’s particularly lovely especially this time of year is RHS Garden Bridgewater in Salford. Aside from having the UK’s largest walled garden and a ton of idyllic plant life, the royal garden is also home to some of the most innovative exhibitions and events in the calendar. Now, another one of those is heading our way, this time in the form of OFFSHOOT, headed up by artist and photographer Dr Yan Wang Preston.
Running from 24 April 2026 to 28 February 2027, the RHS presents OFFSHOOT – the first site-specific and contemporary art commission across its portfolio of five gardens, marking a significant development in the gardening charity’s creative and cultural programme, as the RHS cultivates new ways to spark curiosity and fresh perspectives.
What to expect at OFFSHOOT RHS Garden Bridgewater
Credit: Supplied
Visitors are invited to explore RHS Garden Bridgewater from new perspectives, with artworks installed across a variety of locations throughout the garden, from woodland to historic potting sheds.
The programme brings together new work by internationally acclaimed artist and photographer Dr Yan Wang Preston, alongside socially engaged photography developed in collaboration with community groups.
The artists have been invited to work with RHS Bridgewater Garden over an extended period of time, positioning the landscape not simply as a backdrop, but as an evolving site of research and creative production and is cultivating a new approach to the way gardens can be experienced.
Credit: Josh Kemp Smith/Supplied
At the heart of OFFSHOOT is Dr Yan Wang Preston, a multi-award-winning visual artist whose practice is rooted in long-term, immersive engagement with landscape, who presents a new site-specific installation.
Known for major works such as Mother River, in which she photographed the entire 6,211km Yangtze River, Wang Preston brings a similarly sustained and reflective approach to RHS Garden Bridgewater. Her residency has allowed her to explore the site in depth, engaging with horticulture, history, and the layered narratives embedded within the landscape.
Her work contrasts to much of modern-day living – it is rooted in long-term observation, slowing down, returning to the same places repeatedly over months and years (tracking environmental and cultural change across entire landscapes), her durational practice questions how environments are shaped and understood.
About Yan Wang Preston
Credit: Supplied
Wang Preston was born in Henan Province in China in 1976, to a family of medical doctors. She gained her BSc in Clinical Medicine at Fudan University, Shanghai, in 1999 and subsequently qualified as a practising anaesthetist. She emigrated to the UK in 2005 and changed her career to photography.
In 2009 she gained an MA in Visual Arts from Leeds Beckett University. In 2018 she was awarded a PhD in Photography by the University of Plymouth. Alongside her artistic career, she lectures at the University of Huddersfield, and lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and daughter.
She has won many prestigious awards, including the First Prize, Professional Landscape category, Sony World Photography Awards (2019) and the First Prize, Syngenta Photography Award (2017).
How to make sure you see OFFSHOOT at RHS Garden Bridgewater
Just make sure you’ve booked standard entrance to RHS Garden Bridgewater here, and you’ll be able to access the OFFSHOOT exhibition from 24 April 2026 to 28 February 2027.
📍 You can find RHS Garden Bridgewater at Occupation Road, Worsley, Salford, M28 2LJ.
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