This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

As a newcomer to the Edinburgh creative crowd, Gayfield Creative Spaces has already made its name known as a leading gallery/studio space/showroom in the city. Their summer creative programme offers proof that there is plenty going on in the green arts world to base an entire season’s programme on these artists and discussions.

Showing in the creative hub’s “Whitespace” gallery, India Street is a multipart exhibition inspired by The Bombay Sample Book held in the National Museum of Scotland’s collection. The Bombay Sample Book contains fabric designs from Scotland’s bygone Turkey red dye industry. The exhibition’s title comes from the India Street in the Vale of Leven, the former location of one of the largest Turkey red dye fabric factories. India was the largest export market for this business, linking the Indian and Scottish markets for many years.

Lokesh Ghai for India Street

The ideas included in the India Street exhibition reflect the social, environmental and political climates from 1800 to modern day. The artists in the exhibition were asked to respond to pieces in The Bombay Sample Book, making modern interpretations of the patterns. The pieces produced in the exhibition range from arrangements of chilli peppers- an essential ingredient in the Indian, and now British, kitchen- to a scene depicting Ghandi’s visit to Darwen in 1931.

The themes discussed at India Street reach beyond environmental sustainability, falling under categories of social and economic sustainability as well. Part Two of India Street will see the artists in the exhibition travelling to India to learn from local producers and craftspeople, eventually culminating work for another textile exhibition. Lokesh Ghai, co-curator of India Street, anticipates the designers will respond differently after learning from the Indian craftspeople, implementing handcraft skills much more than the digital techniques present in Part One of the exhibition.

Aside from the excellent craft displayed at India Steet, the entire Gayfield Creative Spaces venue is an excellent example of sustainability, as ‘upcycling’ and creative reuse are at the core of the creative hub. Gayfield Creative Spaces founder Dr John Ennis converted the former tyre depot building into the multipurpose space that it is today, repurposing much of the material left from the building’s tyre depot days for the current needs of the building. Ennis explained to us that his interest falls within design and well being, using ideas from case studies of creative hubs in Holland and America to shape the space.

Beyond India Street, Gayfield Creative Spaces is also showing work from artist Carol Sinclair in Fragments, as well as Piet Hein Eek, Laura Spring, Geoffrey Mann and Timorous Beasties in Garden Party. The entire Summer 2014 Creative Programme at Gayfield is incredibly rich and shows much promise for the future of this venue.

India Street runs Thursdays to Sundays from 2 August to 11 September 2014. The exhibition is nominated for the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award.

The post #GreenFests Highlights: India Street at Gayfield Creative Spaces appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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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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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

On 14 August 2014, a room of festival organisers, arts administrators and creatives gathered at Fringe Central to share their insights into the concept of festivals and the role of festivals in today’s society. Festivals Edinburgh and Creative Carbon Scotland hosted the event, attended to maximum occupancy.

First, we heard from Di Robson, who delivered fantastic provocations from her extensive global experience organising festivals. For Di, festivals act to re-enchant audiences with the role of place in our lives. One of many significant points from her experience includes her involvement with Mayfest– a theatre, music, dance, and visual arts festival in Glasgow that celebrated “the vast and glorious cultural riches of Glasgow.” Di asserted that Glasgow’s title of the European Capital of Culture in 1990 changed the city, increasing the relevance of Mayfest and engendering the creative energy emanating from the city today.

Moving onto a strand of much more specific social and economic regeneration in her work, Di spoke of the organisation process of the Jaipur Heritage International Festival in Rajasthan. Many artisans’ livelihoods had recently dried up in the area; the festival helped in making their crafts more relevant to the 21^st century. The pleasure for Di came in “watching something so raw and unstructured begin to take shape and have social and economic impact.”

In planning a festival, Di believes it is really important to think clearly through your intentions and implementation. Festivals provide an opportunity for dialogue and community expression, drawing links between divided communities, and often enhancing lives through programming. Di reminded us that when working within the creative sector, we cannot deny art’s ability to “make us look up for a minute” on a social, environmental and creative level.

An important point made by Di was that “we need to preserve resources, not only natural but personal and artistic.” As is often the case for short-lived festivals, one-off festival productions don’t always contribute to a longer lifespan for many projects. This cycle of quick production and short-lived performance doesn’t necessarily benefit creative communities, or promote ideas of fundamental sustainability within the arts. (Temporality versus longevity is a topic we also discussed at our Glasgow Green Tease in July 2014, more reading available here)

After hearing from Di, the conversation opened up to audience participants. The energy in the room brought many profound ideas and questions into discussion. A question that arose was- “Are festivals a function of the society in which they operate?”  It was mentioned that when starting the organisation of a festival, the foundations and reason for the event are pertinent. Building from the grassroots up helps establish the local community’s presence within the festival and vice versa.

We heard an inspiring story from Ameena Saiyid OBE about the Pakistani Children’s Literature Festival. The festival, hosted in a location between two communities that have been historically divided, brought children together who wouldn’t have otherwise met. Children played together, as if they were completely unaware of the significance in this act of unity. The festival proved that there are ways to engender social change through the youngest generations, building social acceptance and cooperation for the future.

The discussion turned back to the local context of Edinburgh, of which the point was made that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe began as a very local festival and has since evolved to a major festival with international reach. A key reason for this success lies within the governing structure of the Edinburgh Festivals; through this structure the festivals gain a lot of attention and can be driven towards more progressive goals. In this way, festivals are quite similar to a business in the need for structure and clear objectives. However, as asserted by Marina Salandy-Brown, from the Bocas Literature Festival, “the success of festivals depends on our business acumen, but there’s a danger in there.” Often we can become the victims of our own success; upon becoming widely successful, a festival can lose the ideas and aspirations on which it was founded. The solution to this dilemma lies in balancing social and environmental responsibility with the business and financial aspects.

Bringing in one of the original guiding questions of the event, the group was asked- “What is arts’ role in a changing climate?” Callum Madge from Lung Ha’s Theatre Company explained, “you engage people who aren’t necessarily interested in the subject through artistic means” and that art is a way to mobilise thinking, specifically in regards to environmental sustainability.

The emergent and temporal nature of festivals brought a stimulating perspective to the dialogue. This temporality has proven to be a means for overcoming censorship in countries that may have strict laws regulating the arts and expression through the arts. The point was made that in these countries the only way that people can learn, understand and accept the truth is through festivals. Temporality also lends itself to the experimental nature of work produced and showcased at festivals. Tanja Beer, set and costume designer, mentioned the support she’s received from festivals to try new ideas, including a completely edible and biodegradable set. Tanja’s work  is about celebrating sustainability, changing attitudes that green works and the raising of awareness is “boring” or negative. Tanja has found that people are desperate for this type of celebration; many communities have adapted temporary festival projects into more permanent fixtures within their locality.

The lively discussion at “Can Festivals Change the World?” proved the interest and passion for creating events that operate on levels of social, economic and environmental sustainability. Hearing from such an internationally diverse audience brought many perspectives into the conversation, allowing ideas to be shared between people who otherwise would not have been able engage in this knowledge exchange. Di Robson concluded the session, inspiring those in attendance to embrace the freedom of their dreams and visions. “Vision-space is unregulated. We can dream and make these things a reality, if not for the world, for our worlds.”

The post #GreenFests highlights: Can Festivals Change the World? with Di Robson appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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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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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Gilded Balloon has emerged as one of the most popular venues in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. For this reason, amongst many others, we feel quite lucky to have the venue as part of the Green Arts Initiative. Creative Carbon Scotland recently heard from Gilded Balloon regarding their thoughts on sustainability.

CCS: What is your most recent action related to sustainable operations or programming?

GB: This year we have converted two of our venues to 100% LED lighting. We have also kicked off a new sustainable build program where we are replacing worn out building materials with more durable materials that have a longer life span.  Part of this program includes making wall units which have a “tool free” build causing less damage to the building materials over time and elongating their life span.

We have also begun a collaboration with our landlord EUSA to expand their year round recycling program through the festival.

CCS: What have you most enjoyed about being a member of the Green Arts Initiative?

GB: We love to have a collaborative group working towards carbon responsible goals.  It’s a great place to find new ideas that we can implement throughout our organization.

CCS: What are you most eager about for the 2014 summer festivals season?

GB: We are very excited to discover our energy savings come the end of the festival fringe, compared to last year.

CCS: Do you have a top tip for new GAI members?

GB: Just get stuck in!  Any first step will do, and it always leads to the second!

Image courtesy Steve Ullathorne and the Gilded Balloon. For the Gilded Balloon Fringe programme, please visit their website.

The post Green Arts Initiative Spotlight: Gilded Balloon 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

Powered by WPeMatico

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

As the ‘Fringe of the Fringe’, Forest Fringe Festival, came to a close on August 17th, the activist performance group intermingled music with a ‘sermon’ on reduced consumerism, pro-environmental behaviour and the plight of the threatened honey bee population.

‘Deforestation plus poisoned pollination/ time greedy escalation equals planet devastation’

Reverend Billy, as the Elvis-comparable, evangelistic preacher, leads the audience-congregation within the affirmative traditions of revival meetings, and frequently throughout the audience participated when desired, with the religiously-themed commitments of ‘amen’, ‘awoman’ and ‘praise-bee’. In appropriating this religious style to communicate issues of sustainability, Reverend Billy appeals for the faith and commitment associated with traditional preaching, and mobilises a community: “the Church of Stop Shopping”, regardless of alternative religious beliefs. Programmes are referred to as the ‘Order of Service’ and feature ‘sermons’ on affecting the capitalist system.

Although the Forest Fringe performance displayed a temporarily reduced choir from the New York-based 50-strong grouping, the well-established collective showcased a variety of songs, written by the members, some of which originated for the Occupy movements of 2012. This activist sentiment rings clear throughout the performance, although the focus is shifted to the protection of the honey bee population: natural pollinators which support agriculture and biodiversity. The audience ‘learnt the truth’ about the unique behavioural habits of honeybees and their place in food chain. In the style of the choir too, each element of the environmentalist call-to-action was characterised in Christian doctrine: Monsanto, the agribusiness corporation much-criticised for its pesticide policies was demonised as the ‘Devil’, and blamed for the demise of the bee species.

Most remarkable about this production was the sheer enthusiasm: the energy and passion of the performers were at times almost unbelievable, and this was echoed by the audience, who drove a spontaneous encore and a standing ovation. Fuelled by such revival meetings, the congregation of Reverend Billy will inevitably keep on growing.

Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir performed “Honeybeelujah!” as part of the Forest Fringe 16 & 17 August 2014 at Out of the Blue Drill Hall, a Green Arts Venue. More information about the performance can be found here.

The post #GreenFests Highlights: Honey-bee-lujah! 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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