This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland
As part of #CleanAirDay this Thursday, we’re excited to announce the details of a new collaboration between Creative Carbon Scotland, Glasgow charity Bike for Good and theatre-maker, Lewis Hetherington, as part of the Velocommunities project funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund.
Velocommunities will run between Spring 2018 and March 2020, supporting communities in Glasgow’s Southside and West End to cycle in their local area and tackle climate change by reducing travel-related carbon emissions. The project was announced as the 1000thproject to be funded by the Climate Challenge Fund earlier this year.
City data shows that car driving is the ‘go-to’ transport mode in Glasgow, contributing to climate change, air pollution and poor health through inactivity. There are already significant infrastructure changes underway in the city to enable more active travel choices including the South City Way. Alongside these developments, programmes such as Velocommunities support individuals and communities to overcome barriers and widen access to cycling, whilst increasing environmental awareness and carbon literacy.
Creative Carbon Scotland and Lewis Hetherington’s role in Velocommunities will be to use theatre and video to document and explore Glasgow’s transition to a more sustainable city. We’ll work with young people taking part in the project, who will be inheriting and shaping the city, to explore their visions of a Glasgow in which more sustainable modes of travel such as cycling are the mainstream.
This ability of the arts to imagine different potential futures and explore them through ‘thought experiments’ with audiences and communities is one of the roles of the arts and cultural practices which we’re interested in promoting and exploring through Creative Carbon Scotland’s culture/SHIFT programme.
Over the course of the project Lewis will embed himself in activities being run by Bike for Good’s Southside Community Hub and produce a film which captures the stories of individuals and groups engaging with the Hub, working with film-maker Geraldine Heaney. The works produced will be shared at a range of events and we’ll be posting updates on the project on our news page and social media channels, so keep your eyes peeled!
If you’re interested in finding out more about the project or Creative Carbon Scotland’s culture/SHIFT work then please get in touch at gemma.lawrence@creativecarbonscotland.com.
The post New project announcement: Velocommunities 1000th Climate Challenge Fund project 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.