Monthly Archives: August 2013

Using Rechargeable Batteries on Broadway

This post comes to you from the Broadway Green Alliance
by John Curvan and Danielle Heckman

Backstage at BILLY ELLIOT on Broadway.

Backstage at BILLY ELLIOT on Broadway.

As of October 2008, the Broadway company of WICKED switched from using regular alkaline batteries to nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeables in all of their wireless microphones.  They alternate between two sets of rechargeables to allow sufficient time for recharging.  These two sets of rechargeables generally last for ten months.

There are many ‘green’ benefits from using these batteries. With the old alkaline batteries, they used 38 AA’s per show. This resulted in 15,808 used batteries per year.  Now they only need to dispose of 96 NiMH batteries each year.  This will reduce, over the next five years, 78,560 batteries from entering the waste stream.  That works out to 3,959 lbs of solid waste – just a bit less than two tons!

The new batteries are also mercury-free, cadmium-free and lead-free.  They are in compliance with the European Union’s stricter RoHS standard (the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment).

The last green benefit is money.  They pay 29¢ for each alkaline AA battery.  That works out to $4,742 every year. The NiMH batteries are $2.65 per cell, and require five rechargers for $66.97 each.  Rechargeables cost $589.25 the first year and $254.40 each subsequent (each year they need new cells but not new chargers); this will save $22,103.15 over five years.

Julie’s Bicycle reports that rechargeable batteries have 32 times less impact on the environment (global warming, air & water pollution) than disposable batteries throughout their lifecycle, and that one rechargeable can replace 93 disposables.  The end result, of course, is that finite natural resources are reused, and the release of harmful chemicals (such as lead, mercury and cadmium) from improper disposal is prevented.

Add up the benefits – reliability, cost savings, greener profiles, and less pollution and waste – and it’s easy to see why better batteries is one of the wisest sustainability choices a production can make – and why theatres from as far away as Australia are reaching out to the BGA for information about how they too can go greener.

For more information, please look at our website BroadwayGreen.com, or email green@broadway.org with specific questions.

Broadway Shows Using Rechargable Batteries: 

The Broadway Green Alliance was founded in 2008 in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is an ad hoc committee of The Broadway League and a fiscal program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. Along with Julie’s Bicycle in the UK, the BGA is a founding member of the International Green Theatre Alliance. The BGA has reached tens of thousands of fans through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other media.

At the BGA, we recognize that it is impossible to be 100% “green” while continuing activity and – as there is no litmus test for green activity – we ask instead that our members commit to being greener and doing better each day. As climate change does not result from one large negative action, but rather from the cumulative effect of billions of small actions, progress comes from millions of us doing a bit better each day. To become a member of the Broadway Green Alliance we ask only that you commit to becoming greener, that you name a point person to be our liaison, and that you will tell us about your green-er journey.

The BGA is co-chaired by Susan Sampliner, Company Manager of the Broadway company of WICKED, and Charlie Deull, Executive Vice President at Clark Transfer<. Rebekah Sale is the BGA’s full-time Coordinator.

Go to the Broadway Green Alliance

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Aquatopia

This post comes to you from Cultura21

UTAGAWA-KUNIYOSHI-The-Spirit-of-Sanuki-in-Saving-Tametomo-from-Suicide-oban-size-nishiki-e-triptych_The-Rescue-of-Minamoto20 July–22 September 2013, The Imaginary of the Ocean

Deep, Nottingham Contemporary, UK

Aquatopia is a major exhibition of contemporary and historic art and artefacts that explores how the ocean deep has been imagined across cultures and through time to the present day. The exhibition and the accompanying book reveal how human cultures have projected their sexual desires, their will to power, and their fear of difference and death onto the ocean’s invisible depths and the life-forms it sustains. The deep in Aquatopia is a dream-state, akin to the unconscious. At the same time, its mythologies allegorise far-reaching historical processes—globalisation, colonisation, slavery, expropriation, subjugation, patriarchy.

Aquatopia’s utopic and dystopic depths are inhabited by ancient monsters and sirens, shipwrecks and submersibles, militarised gill-men and dolphin embassies, sperm whales and giant squids, water babies and horny octopi. The deep and its species are represented by major pre-19th-century artists such as JMW Turner, Andrea Mantegna, Odilon Redon, Francis Danby, Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and major figures in 20th-century art such as Marcel Broodthaers, Oskar Kokoschka, Barbara Hepworth, Edward Wadsworth, Hannah Wilke, Ana Mendieta and Lucian Freud. Contemporary artists include Christian Holstad, Mark Dion, Spartacus Chetwynd, Juergen Teller, The Otolith Group, Shimabuku, Mikhail Karikis, Simon Starling, Sean Landers, Mati Diop and Wangechi Mutu. Scrimshaw (sperm whale teeth carved by sailors), antique diving equipment, elaborately carved shells and coral, and the glass models of marine species of Rudolf & Leopold Blaschka are amongst the artefacts also featuring.

The exhibition is curated by Alex Farquharson, Director of Nottingham Contemporary, in dialogue with Martin Clark, Artistic Director, Tate St Ives. It travels to Tate St Ives in October, and is a partnership between landlocked Nottingham Contemporary and oceanic Tate St Ives. It features over 150 loans from a great many museums and private collections, in particular Tate, Victoria & Albert Museum and National Maritime Museum.

For more information about the exhibition : click here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Expanding Plastics

This post comes to you from the Broadway Green Alliance
Expanding Plastics

Mayor Bloomberg at the press launch of Broadway Goes Green.

Mayor Bloomberg at the press launch of Broadway Goes Green.

by Noah Aberlin

Get ready to add all rigid plastics to your recycling bin-

NYC has expanded the residential recycling stream.

On April 24th Mayor Bloomberg announced that NYC will now recycle all rigid plastics. These newly included items go in the same clear bag or blue bin where all glass, metal, aseptic packaging (juice boxes, soy milks), and plastic bottles currently go.

Rigid plastics include yogurt cups, toys, hangers, cookie tray inserts, plastic cups, food containers, and more. Bloomberg said at a press meeting, “Starting today, if it’s a rigid plastic – any rigid plastic – recycle it…This means that 50,000 tons of plastics that we were sending to landfills every year will now be recycled and it will save taxpayers almost $600,000 in export costs each year.”

This announcement coincides with the development of the new recycling plant being built by the Sunset Park waterfront in Brooklyn, which will be the largest household recycling plant in North America. Because it takes 70 percent less energy to make plastic from recycled plastics instead of raw materials, it’s going to help further reduce the city’s carbon footprint. New York City will not only become more sustainable but will also create 100 jobs at the new plant. Plus, it will be powered by one of the largest solar installations in the city.

Keep a lookout for new recycling decals and posters that should be mailed to residences soon and remember it is recommended that New Yorkers should rinse out all containers before sorting them in recycling bins. While these new rules do not effect commercial recycling (i.e.: at the theatres) they do include the new Solar Big Belly public recycling bins that have been sited around town. There are 30 in the Times Square area so please seek them out and use them.

To recycle plastic bags, many supermarkets and drug stores have special collection bins. Film plastic (plastic wrap) does not recycle.

For more information and a detailed list of all recyclable materials visit http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/home/home.shtml

 

The Broadway Green Alliance was founded in 2008 in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is an ad hoc committee of The Broadway League and a fiscal program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. Along with Julie’s Bicycle in the UK, the BGA is a founding member of the International Green Theatre Alliance. The BGA has reached tens of thousands of fans through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other media.

At the BGA, we recognize that it is impossible to be 100% “green” while continuing activity and – as there is no litmus test for green activity – we ask instead that our members commit to being greener and doing better each day. As climate change does not result from one large negative action, but rather from the cumulative effect of billions of small actions, progress comes from millions of us doing a bit better each day. To become a member of the Broadway Green Alliance we ask only that you commit to becoming greener, that you name a point person to be our liaison, and that you will tell us about your green-er journey.

The BGA is co-chaired by Susan Sampliner, Company Manager of the Broadway company of WICKED, and Charlie Deull, Executive Vice President at Clark Transfer<. Rebekah Sale is the BGA’s full-time Coordinator.

Go to the Broadway Green Alliance

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Art and Ecology?

This post comes to you from Cultura21

LogoMay 17-8 September 2013, Make active choices. Art and ecology : How? , Museum of Modern Art

Freiburg is particularly  involved  in ecological issues; as a “Green city” it  takes part in current discussions about sustainable development. In this dynamic, artists can bring new ideas : by getting involved, infiltrating, polemicising, reinterpreting and offering alternatives.For the exhibition Make active choices. Art and ecology : How? national and international artists are taking part the reflexion. With the active involvement of the visitors, the interaction between man and the environment becomes a concrete experience.

Freiburg theatre is taking part in the project by holding a symposium and an experimental game called “Regiodrom”. In front of the museum itself, urban gardeners work together with interested visitors to create green spaces. Moreover, the documentary “Earth”, directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, reveals insights into the natural world – providing a starting point and incentive for sustainable activities.

For more information click here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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A New Social Action Holocaust Memorial Project

This post comes to you from Cultura21

the-vienna-project-300x110October 2013 – May 2014, The Vienna Project, Austria

The project is to be situated on the streets of Vienna and along the Danube Canal. Forging a dynamic relationship between different disciplines: art, video, typography, web design, street theater, sound art, history, archival research, and Holocaust education, The Vienna Project is envisioned as a “living” memorial based on a participatory model of engagement.

Developed through dialogue as a citizen-led initiative, The Vienna Project is a “process-based” expression of remembrance. The Vienna Project marks the 75th anniversary year of the Anschluss in 1938, when racial persecution officially began in Austria; it will conclude on V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day). The memorial project unfolds over the course of six months as a dynamic series of performative events, dedicated to stimulating fresh conversations in novel formats regarding the Holocaust and National Socialism.

For more information about the project : click here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Culture’s role in environmental change

This post comes to you from Culture|Futures

The British newspaper The Guardian asks: What have the cultural and creative industries got to do with climate change?

guardian-culture-network

“Climate change is not just about the climate – it will have huge knock-on effects on human rights, economics, democracy, equality and social and civil justice landscapes.The cultural and creative industries already make work that reflects implicitly and explicitly on these issues listed above. We already stir the imaginations, minds, emotions, spirits and souls of audiences on these subjects. So why is environmental sustainability the topic so often missing from the list? The window for averting climate change is narrow. If we want to choose our own path, not have one forced upon us, we need to take responsibility and act now. We must have the courage to programme much more work about environmental issues…”

Guardian Culture Professionals Network – 15 July 2013:
Culture’s role in environmental change The live and digital work of the cultural and creative industries is key to a low carbon transition and future, says Hannah Rudman

Guardian Culture Professionals Network’s Facebook page

Newsletter from The Guardian Culture Professionals Network
Date: 16 July 2013
Subject: Culture’s role in environmental change | Sustainability should be at the heart of our artistic vision 

What have arts and culture got to do with climate change?

“As a sector we are a powerful collective imagination and a trusted voice” – so starts consultant Hannah Rudman in her piece for us on the role the culture sector must play in making positive environmental change. “We must tell stories of hope and warning about what the future holds.”

There’s no doubt about the capability of the arts to create life-changing experiences — and life will change quite significantly if we don’t look after our planet.

The facts and figures might speak for themselves, but the arts can make them speak louder. “Our disruptive, audacious thinking can get people engaged,” adds Hannah. “Our stories about ecological sustainability and greener living will be essential to preparing us all for a new ecosystem. Statistics cannot motivate us in the same way stories can.”

And for more stories on sustainability in the arts, read these from director of Julie’s Bicycle, Alison Tickell: why sustainability should be at the heart of our collective artistic vision; and

why reporting data will give the arts confidence to act.

Matthew Caines | Journalist | matthew.caines@guardian.co.uk

What’s new this week

Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

Go toThis post comes to you from Culture|Futures

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Two sustainable art shows

This post comes to you from Cultura21

August 3nd – October 30th, Arte SusteMobile, Hamburg / RE-ART t(W)oo, Otterndorf (Germany)

Arte SusteMobile  is an art and design exhibition which focuses on sustainable traffic and mobility. Some of the themes exhibited are : art in public transport, innovative means of public transport, human powered vehicles, flying and driving with hydrogen and solar power, solar airships, bionic structured airplanes, one world transport, energy efficient and noise reductive technologies and much more… In total over 70 artists, designers and university teams from 20 nations are involved.

RE-ART t(W)oo – shows art and design in the context of recycling, waste and social development. 55 artists from 15 nations exhibiting their works made from all kind of waste and scrap plus other positions pointing onto social and ecological problems and challenges.

Both exhibitions are curated by Samuel J. Fleiner.

For more information about the project : click here and here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Open Call: ARTIST IN RESIDENCE – ARTIST OR CREATIVE PRACTITIONER

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

8df8320eb783c6a5d259974c943f0f91

Corgarff, 2013, Photo: Chris Fremantle

This has a deadline of 10 August 2013

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE – ARTIST OR CREATIVE PRACTITIONER

The Forestry Commission is inviting tenders for ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’ which will see two artists or teams of artists appointed to support the development of a new woodland park encourage local residents to get involved, get active and be inspired by their local woodland green space.

As part of the Creative Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage funding for Year of Natural Scotland 2013, Forestry Commission Scotland has been awarded funding to support two unique Artist In Residence opportunities which will form part of an exciting project to develop a new inner city woodland park as part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games Legacy.

A Breath of Fresh Air will see two artists or teams of artists, with a passion for the natural environment, appointed to support the development of a new woodland park and raise awareness within the local community of what benefits access to woodlands green space can bring.

The artists will work closely with staff from both Forestry Commission Scotland and Clyde Gateway to understand the aspirations of the project and with local residents and organisations to ensure the works produced reflect their views.

There are two contracts available. Contract 1 will require the contract holder to:

  • Organise and deliver a range of interactive / participatory workshops with local community members from across the city linked to the Commonwealth Woodlands Games Legacy project.
  • Create a range of concept proposals (Minimum 4) for two permanent installations and a series of linking sculptural interventions, including models and visual representations where appropriate, inspired by those communities and the partner organisations ethos and ambitions for the project.
  • Produce a public display of the options to allow feedback on the preferred option.
  • Work with the project board to identify the preferred option for development,
  • Work with the design and construction team to develop tender documents and installation requirements to allow the chosen works to be fabricated and installed as part of the wider project (to be funded out with the residency).
  • Ensure that the proposed installations are designed in a way which is durable, requires minimal ongoing maintenance and reduces the opportunity for vandalism or miss-use

Contract 2 will require the contract holder to:

  • Organise and deliver a range of interactive / participatory workshops with local community members and identified groups.
  • Create a range of temporary works which are inspired by the local community.
  • Showcase the work of both the artist themselves and those who contributed to the workshops in a range of locations which will draw attention to the project and raise the profile of the benefits of access to woodland green space.
  • Both residencies must relate their works to the unique offering of the new Cuningar Woodland Park as a flagship Commonwealth Woodland and the role access to woodland green space can play in encouraging healthy lifestyles.

The estimated total value of the contract is around £8k for contract 1 and around £6k for contract 2. This excludes t&s costs which will also be paid to the successful bidders.

The anticipated contract start date will be:

Contract 1: 1st September to be completed by 1st January

Contract 2: 1st November to be completed by 1st February

For further enquiries regarding this contract please contact Tom Wallace no later than 10th August 2013

To express your interest and to request more information please contact Tom Wallace no later than 10th August 2013 with submission by 14th August @16:00hrs

Tom.wallace@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Or

Cuningar Loop, Clyde Gateway URC, Bridgeton Cross, Bridgeton, Glasgow Deadline for submissions: 4pm, 14th August

Artist Brief: finalairbrief

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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100 Thousand Poets for Change

This post comes to you from Cultura21

September 28th 2013

100-Thousand-Poets-for-Change-logoPoets around the USA, and across the planet, gathered in a celebration of poetry to promote serious social, environmental, and political change : ” The first change is for poets, writers, musicians, artists, anybody, to actually get together to create and perform, educate and demonstrate, simultaneously, with other communities around the world.”

The idea is to change how people see the global society : ” We have all become incredibly alienated in recent years. We hardly know our neighbors down the street let alone our creative allies who live and share our concerns in other countries. We need to feel this kind of global solidarity.”

It appears that transformation towards a more sustainable world is a major concern and could be a global guiding principle for this event.  There is an increasing sense that need to move forward and stop moving backwards : “Together we can develop our ideas of the change/transformation”. Each community group will decide their own specific area of focus for change for their particular event. 100 Thousand Poets for Change will organize “participants” by local region, city, or state, and find individuals in each area who would like to organize their local event.

For more information about the event : click here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Seminar : “Cities, culture and future”

This post comes to you from Cultura21

September 2-6, 2013, in Buenos Aires, Argentina

culture21-logo-300x100The city of Buenos Aires, co-president of the Committee on culture of UCLG, organises an international seminar to discuss and to update the conceptual bases of our work. The seminar considers the current contents of Agenda 21 for culture, and will analyse the challenges laid out by the global community: the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Declaration of Hangzhou (UNESCO) on culture and sustainable development, Habitat III in 2016. The seminar will develop the following subjects :

1. The pillars of sustainable development and Agenda 21 for culture

2. The basis of local, regional and international cultural development

3. Local governance as key for sustainable development.

4. Territory, identity and social inclusion

5. Creation, creativity and local cultural production

 For more information : http://www.agenda21culture.net/index.php?lang=en

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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