The buzz is building for the return of our action-focused one-day summit We Make Tomorrow on October 13th in Birmingham. Sliding scale tickets for both in person and online attendance are on sale now (including complimentary and concession rates) and we share our first speaker and programme preview below.
What To Expect
We Make Tomorrow 2022 is Julie’s Bicycle’s biggest event, inviting people to connect with the projects, individuals, and ideas that are making change and leading on creative climate action.
25+ cross-cultural speakers:
>> An intersectional line-up of inspiring speakers and contributors, including artists, activists, cultural commentators, scientists, policymakers, producers, curators, writers and communicators.
Visual arts interventions:
>> Discover artists exploring the relationships between art, social justice, imagination and liberation from the creatives at MAIA.
Musical performances:
>> Woven together with lively performances from talented musicians via cross-cultural folksters Nest Collective.
Intimate workshops:
>> Put your learning into action with workshops on personal resilience and wellbeing, and creating sustainable doughnut cities.
Inspiration on Creative Climate Leadership:
>> Meeting courageous individuals reimagining the possibilities for a fairer future.
Community & connection:
>> Plenty of space for discussion, networking and reflection with others working towards Creative Climate Action, with delicious vegetarian and vegan sustenance provided during break times.
A 600-strong community of participants:
>> 300 joining us in person and 300 participating online to discover, question, and gather hope together.
Changemakers retreat space:
>> A dedicated oasis of calm hosted by our friends at Craftivist Collective, with 6 action stations to reflect, digest and get creative throughout the day.
Exploring Climate Justice
The We Make Tomorrow 2022 programme will include sessions on the following topics:
We need one another
What is needed now? A conversation about leading climate action with care, honesty, and respect.
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Making justice work
What can be learnt from those who’ve stepped up against the odds to take action on climate, changing the conditions around them?
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Funding climate justice
Does financial decision-making reflect values that integrate justice? Exploring principles and frameworks for funding climate justice in our work.
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Our place in the world
Learning from local placemaking that tackles creative climate action, leveraging our role as cultural catalysts in local climate policy and civic activism: when to step up and when to step aside?
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We don’t care when your net zero target is!
How do we challenge the ‘net zero’ tag without losing the critical 1.5 degrees limit on warming? What imaginative responses might culture make to reach net zero locally, nationally and globally?
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Adaptation and upheavals
How can cultural organisations respond to social and physical upheavals, adapt, thrive and build resilience to climate impacts?
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Seeing the big picture: creative climate justice
How do we practice solidarity and connect injustices to build equitable, healthy, and regenerative systems for our planet, here and internationally?
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Making space for wellbeing
What does personal resilience mean, and what makes a caring, healthy environment in which we can thrive?
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A legacy that matters
Creating legacies now: which frameworks and relationships can support ongoing change?
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The full programme will be announced soon.
Meet Our Contributors
Speakers include:
Ahdaf Soueif, novelist and political and cultural commentator
Alistair Gentry, artist, activist and researcher
Amahra Spence, Co-Founder and Creative Director, MAIA
Cecilia Vicuna, poet, artist, filmmaker and activist
Emma Blake Morsi, Multi-Disciplinary Producer, and Director of Rising Arts Agency
Eric Njuguna, youth climate justice and human rights organizer
Fehinti Balogun, actor and writer
Feimatta Conteh, Environmental Sustainability Manager, Manchester International Festival
Gillian Burke, biologist, presenter, public speaker, and writer
Harpreet Kaur Paul, researcher and lawyer
Helen Starr, world-building curator
Ian Solomon Kawall, CEO of May Project Gardens
Immy Kaur, Co-Founder and Director, CIVIC SQUARE
Islam Elbeiti, musician, cultural curator and radio presenter
Janet Vaughan, Co-Artistic Director of Talking Birds
Jessica Sim, Co-Founder of Nadas Istanbul
Lou Byng, Creative Director, CIVIC SQUARE
Magid Magid, race and climate justice activist and author
Nathan Thanki, human ecologist and writer
Noga Levy-Rapoport, youth climate activist, organiser, and speaker
Nonhlanhla Makuyana, Co-Founder of Decolonising Economics
Pravali Vangeti, World Heritage Education Programme Coordinator, UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Raj Pal, curator/historian and activist
Saleemul Huq, Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development
Zahra Davidson, Chief Exec and Design Director, Huddlecraft
…and more!
Further speakers and performers will be announced in the coming weeks. Full speaker bios can be found on this page.
Friends of We Make Tomorrow include:
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
The Climate Heritage Network
Culture Declares Emergency
The Happy Museum
LIVE Green
May Project Gardens
Music Declares Emergency
The National Museum Directors’ Council
The Theatre Green Book
With warm thanks to our supporters and sponsors for this event:
This event is run in partnership with Arts Council England as part of the environmental sustainability programme.
Good Energy is a pioneering, clean energy company whose purpose is to power the choice of a cleaner, greener future for everyone. Its mission is to help one million homes and businesses cut their carbon by 2025. It supplies customers with electricity from a community of over 1700 renewable generators, helps tens of thousands more generate their own clean power and is accelerating clean transport too. The company has a long history of working with the arts and cultural sector.
Sustainable Wine Solutions began its journey in 2002 as Borough Wines with its refillable wine on tap concept. Today Sustainable Wine Solutions are the true champions of sustainability within the drinks industry, with their fully circular business model supplying zero waste wines with UK’s only refill Kegs and the first Bottle Return Scheme, directly invested in tackling packaging and transport of wine (the biggest source of emissions in the wine industry), plus working with sustainably led winemakers.