Monthly Archives: June 2012

Do you wish to breathe life into an unused open space within your Glasgow neighbourhood?

June 29, 2012ecoartscotlandClements, Community Groups, Curators, Edge Research, Education Arts, Exhibition Space, Football Pitches, Fremantle, Glasgow City Council, Gov Uk, Hard Copies, International Football, Outdoor Education, Outdoor Exercise, Planning Service, Point Of Contact, Research Associate, School Of Art, Sculpture Exhibition, Theoretical Texts, Urban Beach

Jamie Clements in collaboration with Christian Cherene, â€˜Site 001â€², 2012, multimedia, Photo by Pavel Douseck

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Ever thought of using an unused open space in Glasgow for a:

green gym/ play/ outdoor exercise
pop up sculpture
exhibition space
outdoor education
arts project
event space
urban beach
pop up park
growing space
or any innovative idea

Glasgow City Council now invites applications for the Community Support for Stalled Spaces fund.

Funding is available from a minimum of Â£1,000 to a maximum of Â£2,500.

Closing Date for applications: 27th of August.

Proposals should follow the guidelines/criteria as laid out in the following link which also contains inspiring examples and a first point of contact for anyone who wishes to apply for funding:

www.glasgow.gov.uk/stalledspaces

Proposals must take place within the Glasgow City Council Boundary. Â Development & Regeneration Officers can assist community groups to complete their applications. Â Hard copies of application forms are available on request.

Last year the initiative assisted 42 projects resulting in over 15 hectares of land being brought back into temporary use (the equivalent of 22 international football pitches) and supporting groups to attract match funding totalling approx Â£500,000

Stalled Spaces
Planning Service â€“ Development Plan
Development & Regeneration Services
Email: stalledspaces@glasgow.gov.uk
0141 287 8618

2nd. Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro â€“ June 28th to July 14th, 2012

June 28, 2012Cultura21Animated Films, Berlin Germany, Copenhagen Denmark, Cozzolino, Dangers Of Radioactivity, Educational Organization, Film Festival, Film Library, Francesca, Global Event, Global Societies, Independent Documentaries, Kagan, Kajsa, Koefoed, Mexico City, Nuclear Fuel Chain, Nuclear Issues, Nuclear Waste, Oleg, Paris France, Profit Institutions, Rana, Rio De Janeiro, Sacha, Uranium, Uranium Exploration, Uranium Mining, Vitality

This post comes to you from Cultura21

The Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro is a global event with satellite festivals in other cities and countries. The Uranium Film Festival is a project of the Yellow Archives.

The goal of this Film Festival is to inform global societies about the nuclear fuel chain, the dangers of radioactivity, and the environmental and health risks of uranium exploration, mining, processing and also about nuclear waste. The festival stimulates the production of independent documentaries, movies and animated films about nuclear issues.

The Yellow Archives, the presenting organization of the Uranium Film Festival, is a cultural and educational organization and it is the first-ever film library in Brazil and Latin America dedicated to films about the whole nuclear fuel chain and radioactivity. The Yellow Archives hopes to increase public information about the nuclear power, about nuclear waste, uranium mining and radioactivity in general. Schools, universities, non-profit institutions will have access to the Yellow Archives. The films shall be used only for non-profit, educational and research purposes.

For more information about the Festival, the Films and schedules, please visit http://www.uraniofestival.org

Conference â€œCultural Dimensions of Climate Change and the Environment in North Americaâ€

June 27, 2012Cultura21Arctic North, Berlin Germany, Canada Climate, Changing Climate, Climate Change Impacts, Climate Science, Contradictions, Copenhagen Denmark, Cozzolino, Deep South, Deniers, Emitters, Essen Germany, Francesca, Global Problem, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gases, Human Dimensions, Humanities, Kagan, Kajsa, Koefoed, Mainstream Politics, Mexico City, Mitigation Efforts, North America, Oleg, Paris France, Political Beliefs, Rana, Regional Level, Sacha, Science Institutions, Symbolic Representation, Vitality

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The Conference will take place at theÂ Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) in Essen, Germany (June 28-29 , 2012)

Climate change is an inherently global problem. However, climate change impacts as well as mitigation efforts are always perceived and dealt with locally and in a culture-specific way. Global warming interacts in multiple ways with North American ecological and social systems. On the one hand, the U.S. and Canada belong to the worldâ€™s largest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, the Arctic north of the continent as well as the Deep South is already heavily affected by a changing climate. Despite the USâ€™s and recently also Canadaâ€™s rejection of international binding climate targets, on the local and regional level, some of the worldâ€™s most ambitious climate initiatives can be found in North America.

Striking about the symbolic representation of climate change in the USA is a relatively huge cultural variety. While in Europe climate change deniers are largely marginalized and without influence on mainstream politics, American views on climate change and the environment become increasingly polarized according to political beliefs. And whereas the U.S. hosts some of the worldâ€™s leading climate science institutions, religious explanations of why global warming is or is not happening, repeatedly have found supporters in media and politics, too.

How can these contradictions be explained? The participants will deal with these questions in the course of the conference that focuses on the human dimensions and cultural representations of climate change and the environment in North America.

You can read the program here.

Negotiating Routes: Ecologies of the Byways III February â€“ June 2012

June 26, 2012Cultura21Abstract Reality, Anxieties, Berlin Germany, Byways, Coexistence, Collectives, Copenhagen Denmark, Country Artists, Cozzolino, Disciplinary Approach, Flora Fauna, Francesca, Home Remedies, India, Infrastructural Development, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, Kagan, Kajsa, Koefoed, Local Knowledge, Mexico City, Mythologies, Oleg, Ongoing Projects, Organic Movement, Paris France, Priya, Rana, Rathore, Reflection, Sacha, Visual Perspective, Vitality

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Negotiating Routes: Ecologies of the Byways is a project inviting reflection by artists on the anxieties embodied by the rank infrastructural development across India and its uncomfortable coexistence with local ecologies.

Now in its third year, the project has invited artists, collectives and other professionals to develop projects that are site-specific and have an inter-disciplinary approach. Mapping various sites across the country, artists and communities have come together to discuss the regeneration of the environments they inhabit. The project encourages the archiving of local knowledge and mythologies, flora, fauna, home remedies, stories and folklore as integral to the specific artistâ€™s intervention.

This years ongoing projects are:

NR 9: Akshay Rathore and Flora Boillot (Aulinjaa Village, Madhya Pradesh)

Abstract Reality: A Visual Perspective on the Organic Movement in Madhya Pradesh http://aulinjaamp.blogspot.in/

NR 10: Priya Ravish Mehra (Najibabad, District Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh)

Making the Invisible Visible: The Darning Tradition of India

http://rafoogari.wordpress.com/

NR 11: Uma Ray (Domahani, District Jamshedpur, Jharkhand)

Where the River Meets its People

http://wheretherivermeetsitspeople.blogspot.in/

Â For more information about the event and the ongoing projects , please click here.

Eden and the overburden

June 25, 2012Ashden DirectoryBenevolence, Climate Change, Earthly Treasure, Eden Project, Education Projects, Francis Bacon, Game One, Miners, Normalizing, Novum Organum, Open Cast Mining, Open Pit, Phrasing, Public Image, Rio Tinto, Robert Butler, Robert Newman, Supporting Education, Surface Layer, Twitter

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Wallace Heim writes:Â

The partnership between the Eden Project and Rio Tinto has been billed as supporting education projects about sustainability and research into post-mining regeneration. This was a working partnership, not merely a “social license to operate” – the creating of a benevolent public image for corporations such as BP, Shell, Rio Tinto, through their association with cultural institutions, and now the Olympics.

One of the education projects of this partnership is a pop-up childrenâ€™s book, Earthly Treasure, full of pictures of dazzling jewels and brightly coloured pages showing how modern life can only exist through minerals that must be mined.

Thereâ€™s a page showing a huge open pit mine, a sombre, near-monochrome dug-out bowl. You can slide trucks to take away the “surface layer” and “pull down the tab and blast away the top layer of earth, called the overburden”.

The “overburden”. The infinitely complex soil that makes life possible is merely a weight, a waste to remove to get to the riches below. The phrasing harks back to Francis Bacon who wrote in his Novum Organum in 1620 that miners were the new class of man who would interrogate and alter nature. Nature could be “forced out of her natural state and squeezed and molded”.

But now, the soil holds no more secrets. Itâ€™s only the burdensome surface layer.

This normalizing of open cast mining and mountain top removal is given to children as if a game, one more gem to absorb in their education. Many reasons may lie behind using that phrasing, but the license it condones is not merely cultural benevolence.

h/t: Robert Newman in the Guardian

Good Pitch Europe 2012 â€“ GPEU12

June 24, 2012Cultura21Alliances, Berlin Germany, Community Activism, Copenhagen Denmark, Cozzolino, Documentaries, Documentary Filmmakers, East Jerusalem, Financial Crisis, Foundations, Francesca, Freedom Of Speech, Great Britain, International Filmmakers, Kagan, Kajsa, Koefoed, Lgbt Rights, London Uk, Mexico City, Multinational Companies, Nonviolent Protest, Oleg, Outreach Campaign, Paris France, Pitch, Plight, Raft, Rana, Royal Institution, Sacha, Social Entrepreneurs, Social Issues, South Sudan, Vitality, War Crimes

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Good Pitch is an innovative model bringing together the skills of documentary filmmakers with NGOs, foundations, social entrepreneurs, brands, governments and media around leading social issues to expand the resources aimed at maximising the impact of social-issue documentary.

Good Pitch Europe will be held on 25th of June at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London, UK. Eight filmmaking teams pitch their film and its associated outreach campaign to the assembled audience with the aim of creating a unique coalition and campaign around each film in order to accelerate its impact and influence and form alliances.

The final pitch is immediately followed by a Networking drinks event where nearly 100 filmmakers and around 300 participants can exchange ideas and contacts with broad discussion encouraged around the issues and challenges involved.

The eight selected projects are the work of a raft of international filmmakers, featuring stories from across the globe. These documentaries explore the European financial crisis, the plight of freedom of speech in the face of resistance from multinational companies, state-building and the emerging democracy of South Sudan, the fight for LGBT rights in Uganda, nonviolent protest and community activism in East Jerusalem, civil war crimes in Sri Lanka, surviving a devastating stroke, and the 21st century revolution in Egypt.

To know more about the event and the selected projects, visit http://goodfilm.org/

Backstage Sustainability Workshop, Roskilde Festival 2012

June 24, 2012Culture FuturesCreative Cities, Creative Industries, Cultural Values, Decision Makers, Dissemination, Ecological Age, Financial Motivations, Futures, Guided Tour, International Collaboration, July 3rd, Mediums, Necessary Transition, Preconceived Notion, Research And Development, Sustainability Culture, Sustainable Solutions, Viden, Vision Of The Future, Way Of Thinking

This post comes to you from Culture|Futures

Roskilde Festival and Backstage invites you to Backstage Sustainability Workshop on July 3rd fromÂ 10:00-14:00. Get a guided tour of the festival ground and experience quirky experiments, green installations and sustainable solutions.

For registration, see:

http://roskildegruppen.dk/raadgivning_viden/backstage/backstage_2012/sustainability/

Dear Mother Nature: Hudson Valley Artists 2012

June 23, 2012Cultura21Bard College, Berlin Germany, Chandler Gallery, Compensation For Damages, Copenhagen Denmark, Cozzolino, Crutches, Dear Mother, Entreaty, Francesca, Guest Curator, Hudson Valley Artists, Kagan, Kajsa, Koefoed, Linda Weintraub, Love Letter, Mexico City, Mid Hudson Valley, Mother Nature, Museum Exhibitions, Museum Of Art, Newpaltz, Oleg, Paris France, Rana, Sacha, Samuel Dorsky Museum, Samuel Dorsky Museum Of Art, Sustainable Planet, University Of California Press

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The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art presents its annual exhibition of work by artists from the mid Hudson Valley.

The exhibition will run from June 23 to November 4, 2012 in the museumâ€™s Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery.

This yearâ€™s exhibition titled Dear Mother Nature: Hudson Valley Artists 2012 is organized by guest curator Linda Weintraub. Ms. Weintraub served as the first director of the Edith C. Blum Art Institute at Bard College where she originated 50 exhibitions and published over 20 catalogues. She is the author of several books about contemporary art including To Life! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet, to be published by the University of California Press in 2012.

For Dear Mother Nature: Hudson Valley Artists 2012, Ms. Weintraub invited artists to send something to Mother Nature that expresses their relationship to her and their feelings about her. What would it be? Love letter? Care package? Medal of honor? Bill for unfulfilled promises? Payment for services rendered? Prayer for guidance? Crutches for support? Bouquet of praise? Compensation for damages? Reward for effort? Entreaty for forgiveness? Pledge of devotion? Summons for misconduct? Condolences? Advice? Warnings?

You can read an interview with the curator here.

For more information about the exhibition, you can go to http://www.newpaltz.edu/museum/exhibitions/exhibitions_6.html

Arts education for transformation

June 20, 2012Cultura21Arts Education, Berlin Germany, Copenhagen Denmark, Cozzolino, Debates, Democratic Communities, Drama Theatre, Education Association, Francesca, International Drama, Kagan, Kajsa, Koefoed, Mexico City, Nurture, Oleg, Paris France, Rana, Sacha, sustainability, Sustainable Futures, Vitality, World Congress

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On the way to the forthcoming Rio+20, we would like to share with you this video byÂ IDEA (International Drama Theatre and Education Association), which celebrates the 2010 World Congress on Arts Education. This video is one of the contributions of the Brazilian Network of ArteducatorsÂ (ABRA) to debates taking place on Culture and SustainabilityÂ in the PeopleÂ´s Summit during Rio+20. The 2010 Congress was created by artists and arteducators from 60 countries to share pedagogies that nurture empathy,Â solidarity, creative humanity, cooperation and democratic communities for sustainable futures.

Edinburgh’s greener Fringe

June 20, 2012Ashden Directory, FringeAssociate Editor, Bevy, Climate Change, Consumerism, Ecological Themes, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Japanese Earthquake, Macbeth, Nuclear Leak, Oil Spill, Remarkable Number, Robert Butler, Sensibilities, Silent Prayer, Six Ways, Theatre Pieces, Twitter, Urban Architecture

Fukushima – A Silent Prayer of Poetry

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Wallace Heim writes:

Among the bevy of shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe about Hitler, adolescence, Macbeth and stage spiritualists, there is a remarkable number of dance and physical theatre pieces with ecological themes. Consumerism and happiness, oil and politics, the Japanese earthquake, undercover policing, urban architecture and fear of the woods are among the ideas and sensibilities these shows are expressing.

Theatre shows number highly this year, too, with around 70 that have ecological themes varying from the strongly activist to the bucolic. Shows about animals, food and an apocalypse always feature. This year, there are three shows walking to Edinburgh; shows about abattoirs, about the Deepwater oil spill and the Fukushima nuclear leak; and shows about a swamp, plastics, population and the price of milk.