The Lake District is the setting for the 1977 Richard Adams novel "The Plague Dogs". Adams' knowledge of the area offers the reader a precise view of the natural beauty of the Lake District. The story is based at a fictionalised version of the remote hill farm of Lawson Park, overlooking Coniston Water. The base of contemporary art commissioner and residency base Grizedale Arts since 2007, Lawson Park now hosts artists' residencies, opens to the public on occasion, and has developed a significant garden that includes art works alongside extensive plantings. Grizedale Arts has produced many internationally significant cultural projects and has proved instrumental in the careers of several Turner Prize-winning artists, making Laure Provoust's winning installation 'Wantee' at Lawson Park, and bringing the exhibition to Coniston's Ruskin Museum in 2013. It also supported the refurbishment of the historic Coniston Institute and developed an Honest Shop there (opening in 2012), an unstaffed shop stocking local crafts and produce.