Monthly Archives: October 2013

Buy, Sell or Trade New or Used Arts & Craft Supplies with Creative Resale

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Creative Resale is a Michigan-based company that offers a website to sell, buy, trade, or donate new and used arts and craft supplies for a wide variety of subjects. Most artists, of all fields (and also people who have inherited supplies through family) have items that sit in boxes that take up valuable space. Maybe we thought we might actually use them someday, or we just did not like the media. Or you have considered donating to an organization that would put the material or equipment to good use.

The focus of this company is upcycling – the cousin of recycling. Upcycling makes a dent in the larger issue of waste. It makes a difference that unused items are resold or donated to organizations instead of landing up in a landfill. Creative Resale caters to artists, crafters, students, and people who have inherited supplies from deceased or living acquaintances.

via Buy, Sell or Trade New or Used Arts & Craft Supplies | Creative Resale.

Imagine a different future: the arts shaping a sustainable Scotland

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Image: Suzy Glass for Trigger’s Detour’s project, http://www.nicgreen.org.uk/#!__future

Image: Suzy Glass for Trigger’s Detour’s project, http://www.nicgreen.org.uk/#!__future

On the 4th November Creative Carbon Scotland will host Imagine a different future: the arts shaping a sustainable Scotland. Two years ago we held the first of our very successful open meetings, when around 70 key people from the arts in Scotland gathered to talk about carbon management in the cultural sector. We’re now widening our focus to consider the role of the arts in growing a sustainable Scotland and hope the interesting thinkers and doers from throughout Scottish society will join us for the event.

We believe that low carbon thinking has the potential to drive innovation and creativity towards a more sustainable society overall – combining environmental, social and financial aims. In the arts and cultural worlds there are examples of people are finding exciting artistic opportunities and refreshing their organisations by thinking about sustainability. This high level workshop, aimed at artistic and cultural leaders, senior managers and policy-makers, will hear compelling stories from a Scottish festival management company about using a robust environmental sustainability policy to win new contracts, from leading theatre artist Nic Green about how sustainability drives her artistic work, and from Kenneth Fowler about Creative Scotland’s developing carbon policy.

We are holding the meeting at the newly opened Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, a partnership of Edinburgh’s universities and itself a marker of both the importance of this issue and the opportunities that it can bring. ECCI Director Andy Kerr will introduce the event and place the cultural sector’s work in the wider context of how low carbon thinking is driving innovation. We need your ideas and thoughts, so short presentations will be followed by time for questions and discussion. The event will take place from 2 – 4pm on Monday 4th November and is free to attend. Tickets can be reserved here.

The post Imagine a different future: the arts shaping a sustainable Scotland appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

 

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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Naomi Klein on indigeneity and the renewal of the public sphere

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Credit: Ed Kashi

Credit: Ed Kashi

This interview with Naomi Klein calls out the big green organisations on their compromises and their buy-in to ecosystems assessment and natural capital. She argues that it stems from a fundamentally misplaced viewpoint,

What I call the “astronaut’s eye worldview” – which has governed the Big Green environmental movement for so long – and by that I mean just looking down at Earth from above. I think it’s sort of time to let go of the icon of the globe, because it places us above it and I think it has allowed us to see nature in this really abstracted way and sort of move pieces, like pieces on a chessboard, and really loose touch with the Earth.

Klein’s focus is on indigenous and place-based activism,

…I’ve taken a huge amount of hope from the emergence of the Idle No More movement, because of what I see as a tremendous generosity of spirit from Indigenous leadership right now to educate us in another narrative.

In her analysis the renewal the public sphere is critical,

The book I am writing is arguing that our responses to climate change can rebuild the public sphere, can strengthen our communities, can have work with dignity. We can address the financial crisis and the ecological crisis at the same. I believe that. But I think it’s by building coalitions with people, not with corporations, that you are going to get those wins. 

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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BEDLAM THEATRE WINS VENUE SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE AT INAUGURAL TECHNICAL THEATRE AWARDS

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Charlotte_Hodge_Tim_Atkinson_Rick_FisherBedlam Theatre has taken the :entertaining sustainability Award for Venue Sustainability at the inaugural Technical Theatre Awards, presented at a ceremony held on Tuesday evening at the annual PLASA London live entertainment technology show at the ExCeL.

Charlotte Hodge, Bedlam’s Theatre Manager, collecting the Award on behalf of the student-led venue in Edinburgh, said, “Receiving this award is a huge honour for Bedlam. We feel that sustainability is so important to the future of theatre as a whole. We have many ideas on how to improve but as a student-run theatre company we don’t necessarily have the professional experience or the funds to know where to make a start on them. That is why this award is so important to us: it rewards our enthusiasm and our drive to make changes with the resources we have. This award will help us in our mission to make Bedlam Theatre a more sustainable venue for future members.”

Hodge continued, “Thanks must go to Edinburgh University and the Edinburgh University Students’ Association for their support; to Creative Carbon Scotland and Harry Giles of Festivals Edinburgh for their advice; and to the many Bedlam members who have got us to this point, in particular Luciana Miu, Adam Alton, Bryn Jones and Ruth Luckins.”

Tim Atkinson, Technical Director of :entertaining sustainability, the award sponsor, said, “Bedlam Theatre’s team demonstrates once again that it is perfectly feasible to present uncompromising and exciting live entertainment whilst continually innovating and experimenting to reduce the residual impact of its operations”.

Atkinson went on, “By experimenting with initiatives such as electronic programmes, and collaborating with organisations such as Creative Carbon Scotland, Bedlam repeatedly pushes the envelope of what is achievable within their parameters. Most importantly, the team communicates their work with their audience – a crucial engagement – and with so many patrons at each performance, their message spreads quickly beyond the walls. Huge congratulations to them all.”

The Technical Theatre Awards has been established to recognise the achievements of backstage staff in production, and was given considerable industry support, not only by its host, Tony and Olivier Award-winning lighting designer and former chairman of the Association of Lighting Designers, Rick Fisher, but by the industry sponsors who supported each award.

The full list of winners is: Paul Arditti, dBS Award for Outstanding Achivement in Sound; Tim Routledge, Philips Entertainment Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting; Ben Philips, AVW Award for Outstanding Achievement in Automation; Jonathan Hall, StageBitz Award for Outstanding Achievement in Prop Making; Chris Layton, PRG Award for Outstanding Achievement in Education; Megan Cassidy, IOGIG Ltd Award for Outstanding Achievement in Wardrobe; Adam Searle, Load Cell Rental Award for Outstanding Achievement in Flys and Rigging; Stefan Musch, The Theatres Trust Award for Outstanding Achievement in Wigs and Makeup; Sadler’s Wells, Spotlight Accounting Award for Receiving Venue of the Year; Autograph Sound, AdVision Hire Company of the Year Award; Janet Williamson, Triple E Award for Outstanding Achievement in Building and Set Construction; Richard Bullimore,  Lighting and Sound International Award for Outstanding Achievement in Production Management; Bedlam Theatre, :entertaining sustainability Award for Venue Sustainability

For more information visit www.entertainingsustainability.com

Julie’s Bicycle Autumnal Update

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It’s been a busy few months at Julie’s Bicycle. Below is a selection of news and events from the arts sustainability world as well as an update on all our latest goings on.

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Green Arts Marketplace at Showman’s Show

We will be hosting the Green Innovations Hub at Showman’s Show 2013 to coincide with the launch of our new Green Arts Marketplace, an online directory listing suppliers of green goods and services to the creative industries. All Showman’s Show exhibitors can apply for advanced accreditation through the Green Arts Marketplace and successful candidates will be marked out as ‘green’ suppliers at the event. Further details on the Green Arts Marketplace will be announced soon. If you are interested please contact chiara@juliesbicycle.com for more information.

Industry Green Certification Update

The Industry Green process is providing ever more organisations with the evidence to shout about their environmental successes. Since our last mailer, these organisations have achieved Industry Green status: congratulations to them all.

An outstanding 3 stars have been awarded to Glyndebourne and Lyric Hammersmith both for the second year in a row and they have been joined for the first time by Battersea Arts Centre.

Nine arts companies have been successfully awarded the 2 star rating – Live Theatre, Northern Stage, The Sage Gateshead, Tyneside Cinema, Seven Stories, Greenwich Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Soho Theatre, Young Vic.

1 star certification goes to twelve organisations across the UK – BALTIC, Centre for Life, Dance City, Theatre Royal, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Glasgow Film Theatre, Almedia, Bush Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Royal Court, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Tricycle, Norwich Theatre Royal.

You can learn more about Industry Green here.

Sustainable Production Guide Launched

A new free resource joins our extensive suite of guides. The Sustainable Production Guide provides up-to-date, comprehensive information on how to embed environmental sustainability at the heart of your production process. Featuring profiles of environmental best practice in production, key resources and hands-on actions, the guide provides production professionals with all the tools they need to place the environmental alongside financial and artistic considerations. You can download your copy of the guide via the Julie’s Bicycle website. There are more guides coming soon so keep an eye out.

TANJA BEER – ACTIVIST IN RESIDENCE

Fresh from her stint at World Stage Design 2013 and giving an inspiring introduction to her work at our event on Sustainable Design for the Arts in September, Tanja Beer is currently working with Julie’s Bicycle as Activist in Residence.  A leader in ecological design practice and PhD candidate Tanja will be offering an insight into her practice, as well as supporting and feeding into our programme. Keep an eye out for blog posts and comment from Tanja over the next three months.

New Projects

The team at Julie’s Bicycle has been working on a wide range of different projects. Here are some highlights:

GREENING THE ARTS OXFORD
We are pleased to be working with Oxford City Council on an exciting new project bringing together ten cultural venues, organisations and events with the aim of making them as environmentally sustainable as possible. The twelve month project which kicked off with a half-day workshop last Friday.

MANCHESTER SUSTAINABLE EVENTS
This Autumn we will be supporting Manchester City Council’s new Sustainable Events Working Group as they develop five pilot ‘green events’ including Bonfire night, Christmas market and Chinese New Year celebrations.

CREU CYMRU
Julie’s Bicycle will be supporting Creu Cymru in an ambitious sustainability project over the next year, involving eighteen theatres and arts centres from across Wales. Our input will include a series of events and a bilingual sustainability toolkit. Read the full story here.

Long Horizons II

Extending the scope of our last, at times whimsical piece of forecasting Long Horizons, we are embarking on a six month project gathering the thoughts, ideas and activities of the UK arts community. Working with our partners BOP, Technology Strategy Board and Meteos, we are exploring how new drivers and values are altering what we do. We want to come up with a practical response to these overarching influences and get a clearer view of our long horizon. More to come on this project…

IPCC – Our Response

Like the rest of the sustainability world we have been following the build-up and release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report on the state of the world’s climate closely and soaking up all the facts, figures, debate and conflicts. Read our response to the report’s findings on the Julie’s Bicycle blog.

GIS and Wild Land

ecoartscotland

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Tim Collins highlighted an interesting and useful critique of the use of GIS to suggest that one can objectively identify Wild Land in Scotland.  Check out Fraser Macdonald’s blog What’s wrong with the SNH map of ‘core wild land’ | Modern Lives Modern Landscapes | Fraser MacDonald. 

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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Meet Our New Off- Broadway Committee

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This post comes to you from the Broadway Green Alliance

This summer the BGA launched a new off-Broadway committee to inspire, educate and motivate the off-Broadway community to get greener.

The committee includes George Forbes, President of the off-Broadway League;  Tony Award-winning set designer Donyale Werle; Frances Black from the Alliance of Resident Theatres/NY; Ariel Dupas from the Pearl Theatre; Darren Bluestone from New World Stages ; James Cleveland and Chasmin Hallyburton of Production Core; Jonathan Zautner from the York Theatre; green lighting expert James Bedell; and Jeffrey Shubart and Nancy Beer from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.  And we are happy to welcome Izee Figuroa from the Public Theater to the committee as of this week.<

So far the committee has committed to circulating the new off-Broadway Green Captain kit and to identify a few theatre venues and small companies as early adopters to put the kit into practice.  The kit is based on our successful Broadway Green Captain kit but with additional resources for smaller theatres and with a dual focus on both venue greening and theatre company greening including green hints for offices.

The committee has also planned an off-Broadway Green Design Round Table for October 29th at ART/NY.  The round table will include as panelists set designer Donyale Werle, lighting designer James Bedell, and costume designer Andrea Lauer. Please see the BGA website for more details.

If you or someone you know is interested in joining the BGA off-Broadway Committee please email green@Broadway.org.

 

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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Call for creative practitioners to devise and lead their own creative actions for trees during National Tree Week

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

We received a request to highlight Treeage from Bridget McKenzie.  It’s a call for creative practitioners to devise and lead their own creative actions for trees during National Tree Week 23 November to 1 December.  Treeage might take the form of three levels of remedial action: A&E, the Funeral or the Maternity Unit.

She suggested the image, and you can find more about the project here.

To share your plans and activities, you can choose to:

  • sign up to the Facebook event for Treeage week, and/or the event page for Remembrance Day for Lost Species on 30th November
  • join the Treeage Flickr group to post photos
  • use the Twitter hashtag #treeage
  • Use the National Tree Week posters and post an event on their event map

This is a joint idea devised by Beuysterous (Bridget McKenzie) and Feral Theatre (especially Persephone Pearl).

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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Ask A Broadway Green Captain: Adinah Alexander of Kinky Boots

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This post comes to you from the Broadway Green Alliance

Adinah Alexander at the opening of Kinky Boots.

Q: When did you first hear about the Broadway Green Alliance?

A: I first heard about the Green Alliance when my PSM sent an email out saying the company was looking for a Green Captain.  I just thought, sure…and then after my first meeting I realized how little I actually know and how much I can do, in my small way, to make things better in my small part of the world.

 

Q: Did your current theatre already have any greener practices set in place?

A: I believe The Hirschfeld Theatre had green practices already in place.  There are recycling bins throughout the building.  The sound department recycles batteries and I know that Jujamcyn is committed to a greener theatre environment.  The company was given a reusable lunch bag with a water bottle and food containers as a welcome gift when we started our run.

 

Q: What things would you like to do in your everyday life that are “greener”?

A: When I went to my first Green Alliance meeting, I realized that I have only the most rudimentary knowledge of recycling practices.  I was awed by some of the other Green Captains and the extent of their understanding of what can and can’t be recycled.  I would like to get my company to be more conscious about using disposable water bottles, coffee cups and plastic utensils.

 

Q: What specifically interests you about being “green”?

A: I became more interested in being green when I realized literally how much garbage I was creating.  I made a personal commitment to be more aware and use fewer prepackaged foods, etc.  I discovered a website called “reusit.com”  I purchased all kinds of reusable, washable items to replace disposable items and I stopped buying packaged foods.  I bring my own cotton bags to the grocery store, buy in bulk and always have real utensils, food containers, cotton bags, etc. on hand so that I don’t have to rely on disposable items.

 

Q: What is the most frustrating thing about being a Green Captain?

A: The most frustrating thing about being Green Captain is getting people to step out of their comfort zone, just a bit, and literally walk those extra few steps to put garbage in its proper place.  Also I watch people come in every day with coffee and food that they have purchased.  It only takes a few extra minutes to prepare your own food in a reusable container and to carry your own coffee container, mug, water bottle.

 

Q: What is the best thing about being a Green Captain?

A: Well..the best thing is that I am learning so much about what is possible in terms of recycling.  I volunteered at the e-waste drive in Duffy Square and was amazed at what was recyclable. I learned that there are many things that I have been putting in the trash that can be recycled. I am also excited about the upcoming Textile Drive.  I can donate all my old clothes and linens and not just throw them away…I had no idea that was possible.

 

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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Near Now launch Internet of Growing Things Commission

ecoartscotland

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Thanks to James Brady for sharing this,

Near Now are delighted to announce the launch of Internet of Growing Things, a collaborative research opportunity for two individual UK based practitioners to develop new work focused on food and future agri-cultures.

Deadline Monday 11 November 2013

Near Now launch Internet of Growing Things Commission – Near Now.

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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