This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

This month’s meeting examined more fully how the power of the arts sector can be harnessed to enable social good, improving the lives and environments of individuals and the communities they exist within. There has long been discussion about the positive benefits of cultural participation in the arts: increasing cultural and social capital and improving the communicative links within a society, as well as ensuring economic capital for the sustenance of various livelihoods. Although sustainability is often viewed as synonymous with environmental actions, the traditional three elements of sustainability comprise of environment, economy and society.

Out Of The Blue has been consistently affecting these three elements over its 20 year history, and despite a change in venue 11 years ago.  As a result, it was a particularly appropriate place to provoke a discussion on the role and responsibility of the arts to their surrounds. The event took place in the Cutting Room of the 1901-built, Rowand Anderson-designed Drill Hall: an ex-military building purchased from the Territorial Army and refurbished by the organisation with a strong environmental sustainability ethos.

To start the Green Tease, Rob gave us an overview of Out Of The Blue’s motivations for their community work. He explained how the multi-arts organisation is required to justify their social value to their range of stakeholders in order to secure operational funding and legitimacy. Charity status and activities, contribution to health and education, economic benefits and environmental impact are all considered and addressed by the organisation, and given precedence alongside their initial artistic purpose.

Rob went on to detail a few examples of their initiatives aimed at young people – one of the community groups for whom they aim to be a significant resource – including the Youth Arts Hive and their Community Cafe. ‘The Hive’ builds on Out Of The Blue’s history of engaging young people in participatory cultural activity, partnering with various arts and education organisations as part of Creative Scotland’s Youth Arts Hub/ Time to Shine initiative, whilst the cafe is an on-site skill-training programme for members of the local community.

As the group discussion developed, too did our understanding of what a more socially sustainable arts sector might look like: we explored the impact of permanence (in location and concept) as being distinctly affecting to the success of social projects, but commented on the frequent short term, project-based nature of the arts sector, and how these might be reconciled.  It was suggested that “dipping-in is damaging” when considering social value initiatives, both to the initiative and to the individual unable to witness the outcome of their efforts. We talked about changing the mindset of organisations working in arts sector: how they explain and justify themselves in their immediate area, and what timescales they theorise on when attempting to address inequality, social cohesion and cultural participation. Members of the group also drew from experience working in organisations and artistic venues where staff turnover could prevent successful efforts, suggesting that maintaining continuous knowledge transfer and establishing an educational platform for the transmission of sustainability are paramount to the longevity of ideas and actions.

The two hour discussion also expanded outwith the Edinburgh setting, with members of the group sharing their knowledge, involvement and problems they have encountered when attempting to address sustainability. We learnt of art accessibility projects in rural Finland, where emphasising the affordability of art promotes sustainable livelihoods and increased cultural appreciation and participation. Too, we discussed the repercussions of withdrawing musical support in prisons, and the involvement of cross-medium artists in the research gap surrounding social sustainability.

The evening left the group questioning how the arts can impact across their community and inspired by the work of Out Of The Blue so far!

Our next Edinburgh Green Tease will be announced shortly, be sure to check our News page, Facebook and Twitter for up-to-date information and our Instagram for more event photos. Feel free to post your own Green Tease reflections using #GreenTease.

Image: Alastair Cook: The Land and The Sea at Out Of The Blue Drill Hall, © Chris Donia

The post Edinburgh Green Tease Reflections: Social Sustainability with Out Of The Blue 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

Teena Gould, a ceramist with a strong background in public and community art, led discussion and action during the event, drawing from her practice of the use of earth, water, air and fire elements in her chosen medium. Teena explained how she often works with materials that would otherwise be discarded, having served their original purpose. She discussed the subjective concept of ‘rubbish’ in the context of creative materials, demonstrating how popularly perceived ‘waste products’ like sawdust have huge potential under alternative conditions: for energy and for creativity.

Teena also mentioned how these concepts fitted within her own work and how clay, as a material sourced from the earth, can very easily be returned to its initial state if not sealed through glazing. This in turn highlighted consideration of the creative life-cycle, and the longevity of found or ‘rubbish’ materials: their potential impermanence a feature, rather than a hindrance.

After this short discussion, the more practical aspect of the event began. The group was shown some images of the paper kiln making process, whilst Teena described how the structures form, and how this is an effective method of firing clay. Members of the group – which included a range of individual artists and those with an interest in sustainability – then chose between creating a small clay object, or creating the body of the paper kiln:

• Old newspaper, brought along to the session by participants, was rolled into tight rounds, before being plaited successively to form large lattices of condensed paper.
• Various clays, both traditional grey and terracotta forms, were available for the group to form a completely unspecified small object with inspiration and sculpting tools (in the form of leaves, shells and rocks collected by Teena).

A range of clay objects were produced during the two-hour session: everything from egg cups and plates, to free-form shapes and some of the most detailed nature. Throughout the activities, Teena’s ‘Coastal Ceramics’ film was shown to provide context and ideas.

The whole group worked collectively on the paper kiln to create a single shared product – and although there were around 20 people creating and plaiting the paper shapes, the kiln was only partially complete by the end of the time: evidencing to the group how intensive a process it is, and how the social aspect of making was also necessary in this case.

In discussing this community creation, Teena also highlighted how the eventual firing (and thus, destruction) of the kiln acts as a collective reward and an intensely social gathering at the end of the process. Creative Carbon Scotland hopes to help realise this in a few weeks time for the November Glasgow Green Tease: reuniting people, made objects and a completed kiln for a fun and seasonal revisiting of the theme. Keep an eye on our events page in the coming weeks!

Information about our next Glasgow Green Tease will be published soon. Follow us on Twitter or ‘Like’ us on Facebook to hear about the event!

The post Glasgow Green Tease Reflections: Paper Kiln Making with Teena Gould 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

This series from On Site Projects involves artists talks, workshops, field trips, residencies and reading groups. The programme is inspired by the following provocations-

“If the city were a commons what would it look like, taste like, sound like, feel like, and smell like? How would artists and other creative individuals develop their skills and hone their practice?”

The year-long programme begins on 30 September 2014, with events held fortnightly. Creative Carbon Scotland’s very own Gemma Lawrence will be speaking 11 November 2014 about the relationship between participatory art practices and sustainable development.

For more information, please visit the If the city were a commons page on OSP’s website.

Image: Dundee Live, Scottish Dance Theatre, 2011. Courtesy OSP.

The post Launch: “If the city were a commons” series 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

Powered by WPeMatico

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Craft Scotland will use their annual conference today to announce the launch The Green Craft Initiative, a new project run with Creative Carbon Scotland to celebrate and encourage more environmentally sustainable practices in Scotland’s craft sector.

The Green Crafts Initiative is a sister project to the Green Arts Initiative – a nationwide accreditation scheme designed to provide Scotland-based artists and arts organisations with the advice, support and tools they need to become greener and let audiences and the public know what they are doing.

The Green Arts Initiative currently works with over 60 arts organisations of all shapes and sizes to keep track of and reduce resource use including energy, water, waste and travel. This year has seen new and returning members including the twelve major Edinburgh Festivals, Craft Scotland, Spring Fling and Fife Contemporary Arts and Crafts all participating and finding innovative ways of putting sustainability at the heart of their operations without any detriment to artistic quality or audience satisfaction. The initiative actively encourages members to share their green work with audiences and harness their creativity, imagination and influence to help build a more environmentally sustainable Scotland.

Creative Carbon Scotland Director Ben Twist sees the imagination of the Scotland’s arts and crafts as an essential ingredient in our shift towards a more sustainable society, celebrating its “unique ability to imagine and experiment with alternative futures, question the status quo, see the world differently and explore the future with audiences”.

Fiona Logue, Director of Craft Scotland said:  “It is not enough for Craft Scotland just to monitor and manage our own environmental impact. While many makers already work to reduce their carbon footprint we have a responsibility to engage fully the craft sector and provide guidance and support. This new partnership with Creative Carbon Scotland will allow us to do that.”

Over the coming months Creative Carbon Scotland and Craft Scotland will be inviting crafts practitioners and organisations to sign up to the initiative and make the most of the support to hand including training workshops and seminars tailored to the crafts sector, one to one advice and extensive online resources available through the Green Arts Portal.

To find out more about the initiative and to sign up please click here. 

Notes to Editors:
More information on Creative Carbon Scotland can be found at www.creativecarbonscotland.com or alternatively by contacting Gemma Lawrence at gemma.lawrence@creativecarbonscotland or on 0131 529 7909.

Creative Carbon Scotland is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (Reg Charity No. SCO24687) initiated by the Edinburgh Festivals, the Federation of Scottish Theatre and the Scottish Contemporary Art Network and supported by Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council.

Creative Carbon Scotland was formed in 2011 to work across the arts and culture in Scotland, aiming to get the sector thinking about climate change and environmental sustainability, harnessing its influence with its large audiences to change public attitudes and opinion and running itself as sustainably as possible. CCS provides training, advice and practical support to arts and cultural organisations throughout Scotland.

Craft Scotland is the national agency for craft. It works to unite, inspire and champion craft through creating opportunities for makers in Scotland to practice, exhibit, sell and promote their craft and for audiences to see, purchase and learn about craft. It lobbies for craft as an essential and integral part of our cultural, economic and social life and works in partnership with other like-minded agencies. It is a central point of information about craft in Scotland and identifies and creates new activities to build awareness and understanding of craft. It is a charity (SC039491) supported by Creative Scotland.

Image credit: Craft Scotland

The post Press Release: Green Crafts Initiative Announced 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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