Join us in our mission to collaborate with and develop young theatre artists across Scotland.
Scottish Youth Theatre is inviting expressions of interest to join our Board at a pivotal period of the company’s development.
We are seeking up to five new Board members to strengthen and diversify our current Board and succession plan for 2025, when our two longest serving members will have fulfilled their maximum tenure. This includes our current Chair, who is open to discuss the role of Chair with individuals who may have a particular interest in the position.
These are unpaid roles with reasonable expenses reimbursed. Previous Board experience is not essential and training will be offered if required.
First and foremost, we want to recruit Board members who are committed to the work and ambitions of the company and who will meaningfully contribute to our governance and strategic development. We particularly welcome expressions of interest from people with knowledge and experience in areas of:
Equity and inclusion
Environment
Finance
Marketing/PR
Legal
In our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion we want our Board to reflect Scotland’s diverse communities and therefore particularly welcome interest from:
Black and People of Colour
Disabled people
People under the age of 35
Those based or with a strong connection to areas of Scotland outside the Central Belt
Deadline for expressions of interest: Monday 11 December 2023, 6pm
We are happy to accept written, audio or video submissions and offer reasonable adjustments to support people through the full recruitment process. If you have any questions about this, please get in touch.
(Top image ID: Three young performers look towards the sky with their arms outstretched, with dazzled/amazed looks on their faces. They wear different coloured knitted jumpers. There is a prop tree in the background, and wooden boxes surround them on the floor. [supplied])
Print Clan CIC are accepting applications for their fully-funded Artists in Residence 2024 programme.
Thanks to funding by National Lottery through Creative Scotland we’re delighted to be offering four artist residencies at the Print Clan studio in 2024.
We are looking for four Scotland based artists (three mid-career artists and one early-career artist) to undertake a fully-funded four week residency at Print Clan. Each residency will culminate with the delivery of one public output of their choice and a half-day workshop at one of our Print Clubs.
We are interested in artists using the residency to explore one or a combination of the following themes:
Eco consciousness and sustainability
Repeat pattern and/or reproduction
Surface, form, and colour
The four successful artists will receive one month’s access to our studio facilities, technical support and 4 one-to-one consultancy sessions. They will also be granted a budget to cover:
Print Clan membership
3 x A0 screens – coated and exposed
2 x A2 screens
Exclusive table hire x 5 days
Standard (shared) table hire x 13 days
Materials and sundries
In-house and external professional development courses workshops and courses up to £300
Access needs – this will be assessed on an individual basis but might look like accessible transport, accessible studio hire, contribution to childcare/PA/interpreter fees
In addition to the materials and studio budget, artists will receive payment for their four week residencies at Scottish Artists’ Union residency rates (2022): for the early career artist this will be £2139.92, and for the mid-career artists £2994.15. 50% will be paid in week two, and 50% will be paid upon completion of the residency. Each artist will also receive a further £38ph for delivering their Print Club workshop.
Deadline: Monday 4 December, 2pm. Successful applicants will be informed on Monday 18 December:
The four residencies will run throughout 2024 and are currently scheduled to take place between January – August, however these dates can be negotiated with the successful applicants.
(Top image ID: Open Call: Print Clan Artist in Residence 2024 poster, with a Print Clan logo and a photo of a person working with a printing press. [supplied])
This is the fifth in our ‘Thinking about environmental sustainability’ blog series and focuses on climate justice.
There is no specific question around climate justice in Creative Scotland’s funding criteria, but applicants may find this blog useful for shaping responses to the questions generally.
A key climate justice consideration is to ensure that your work to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change impacts involves, and accounts for the needs of, disadvantaged and marginalised groups. Without rapid action these groups will face worse impacts. Climate change action taken by the cultural sector needs to be fair and equitable and should counter rather than worsen existing inequalities.
Climate justice is centred on people, looking at climate change as a social, political and cultural issue as much as a scientific and technological one. The essence of climate justice is that the people worst affected by the climate emergency are the least likely to have contributed to its causes. Often, references to climate justice are about Global South countries that are hit hardest by climate change. Without diminishing international responsibilities in that region, we must remember that disadvantaged people and communities in Scotland and the UK are also affected disproportionately by climate change. And helping to address these more local inequalities is exactly where our cultural organisations can have more impact.
Culture and creativity have an important part to play in this, helping society to think about difficult and challenging ideas, encouraging debate and challenge. Artists can make the invisible visible, involve different communities, and help imagine different futures, while cultural venues can provide spaces for debate and discussion, both through their artistic work and as venues in civic society. Cultural participation has a strong record in building engagement with people and broader society, increasing confidence and collaboration in tackling major issues.
We believe your climate change ambitions are made more effective when climate justice is woven into every aspect of your work, internal and external. As arts, cultural and creative organisations and individuals you have unique skills and bring new and imaginative approaches to tackling complex problems. You are in an exceptional position to tell the stories of our lives, good or bad, and to give hope and provide a space to think individually and collectively about the challenges and opportunities that the climate emergency has placed on our doorsteps.
A climate justice framing for your work can:
Highlight and help tackle local inequalities.
Provide new routes to participation.
Build trust and empower the community.
Influence decision-making.
Increase diversity of staff, volunteers and collaborators.
Climate justice stands strongly beside EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion). It’s important that the sustainability measures taken for productions or exhibitions when, for example, aiming for theatre green book or arts green book compliance, are and are perceived to be fair.
Questions an organisation can consider are:
Do your sustainability and EDI plans complement each other?
What are our opportunities to improve EDI and access? For example, sustainability measures like adjusting parking space in favour of people with limited mobility (to decrease car travel by others), or more local touring to areas with less access to the arts.
Do your sustainability actions avoid harm to underprivileged groups? For example, measures like a plastic straw ban and removing parking access can have an adverse effect on people with disabilities.
Who can you work with on climate change projects and whose voices need to be represented or platformed? Who do you need to work with? Remember that some people can take more climate action or in different ways so while some audiences should be encouraged to make changes to their behaviours, others (disadvantaged groups) may need to have a voice in climate decision-making.
Mitigation through a climate justice lens
You should always consider that anything you do to reduce your emissions may impact disadvantaged groups unintentionally. For example, disabled people may find it challenging to travel in more sustainable ways so compelling people to use sustainable travel may make them less able to work with you or attend your performances. On the other hand, touring to smaller venues might both reduce audience travel and enable more people living in remote areas to access high-quality artistic work.
Generally, small, medium and regional organisations have fewer assets and resources than their larger counterparts. Larger cultural organisations can support smaller organisations and independents by offering materials and resources for reusing and repurposing, or by sharing and providing access to assets.
As we’re already seeing with the cost-of-living crisis, people may struggle to support culture financially if climate change impacts on infrastructure or agriculture are making daily essentials more expensive. We can also expect to see health impacts with older and younger people more vulnerable to hotter temperatures and people finding it harder to move around in icy and stormy conditions. Practically speaking, as long as they’re physically accessible, cultural venues can be useful and appreciated places to stay cool in summer and warm in winter, so there’s potential for a community hub aspect to come to the fore.
In terms of how organisations’ work relates to the communities they are based in or work with questions to ask could be:
What risks does the neighbourhood or community face, and could the organisation help reduce these risks or help address any problems when they arise?
How does the organisation increase any risks and what could change to avoid this?
If you are thinking of programming content about climate, it’s vital to incorporate climate justice. Global climate justice issues are important, but also think about what matters locally, as this may be where you can have the greatest influence. Telling bold stories about climate change impacts on marginalised communities, and commissioning projects from and with people who are experiencing the effects of climate injustice directly, are ideas to think about. Who is most adversely affected by climate change in your area?
Programming can also show how climate change is connected to other important social issues like fuel poverty or access to transport.
Examples from our website: Eco-anxiety among children and young people is on the rise worldwide so programmes such as Rowanbank’s creative climate education project – Positive Imaginings – can provide invaluable space and time for this group to have a voice on climate change.
In Banchory, near Aberdeen, artists and a cultural venue work together with the community to create an apple orchard to deepen relationships with and understanding of the natural world. At its heart, The Far Orchard is about creating community and connecting people to nature and environmental issues.
We are recruiting for a new development officer at EAF.
Job title: Development officer Responsible to: Director Salary: £26,000 pa Start date: January 2024 Application deadline: midnight, Sunday 3 December 2023 Interviews will take place on Friday 8 December 2023 online, via zoom
Type of contract: Full time Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week Holidays: 20 days, plus 8 public holidays
Probation period: Six months Notice period: Two months
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ROLE
We want to recruit a new development officer to work with us. The new role will work closely with the director and development associate to generate new income streams for EAF, with an emphasis on growing support from Trusts and Foundations, corporate sponsors and individual giving. This role is ideal for someone who wants to grow with EAF, and is designed to develop a person in line with our mission.
They will support a refreshed strategy, story of change, case for support and strategic communications to develop relationships and secure investment in the organisation.
HOW TO APPLY
We really want to recruit in a different way. We know that there are many barriers for people applying for jobs, especially in the cultural sector, and we want to make this process as open and supportive as possible.
Please send a current CV, cover letter (2x A4 Max) or a video/voice mote (3 min max) and the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form to jobs@edinburghartfestival.com using ‘Development Officer Application’ as the subject heading. The cover letter should be no more than two sides of A4 and should outline your interest and suitability for the role and highlight relevant experience.
TIMELINE
The closing date for all applicants is: midnight, Sunday 3 December 2023. Interviews will take place on Friday 8 December 2023 online, via zoom.
Job title: Civic curator Responsible to: Director Salary: £28,000 pa Start date: Jan 2024 Application deadline: midnight, Sunday 3 December 2023 Interviews: 11 December 2023 online, via zoom (with second interviews where applicable)
Type of contract: Full time Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week Holidays: 20 days, plus 8 public holidays
Probation period: six months Notice period: two months
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ROLE
We want to recruit a new civic curator to work with us. The successful candidate will lead a programme of projects and events, with a focus on working at the intersection of art, social justice, and civic and community engagement in Edinburgh. Applicants should have experience of delivering partnership projects at scale, project management and should be comfortable building and nurturing relationships in a broad range of settings.
HOW TO APPLY
We really want to recruit in a different way. We know that there are many barriers for people applying for jobs, especially in the cultural sector, and we want to make this process as open and supportive as possible.
Please send a current CV, cover letter (2x A4 Max) or a video/voice note (3 min max) and the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form to jobs@edinburghartfestival.com using ‘Civic Curator Application’ as the subject heading. The cover letter should be no more than two sides of A4 and should outline your interest and suitability for the role and highlight relevant experience.
TIMELINE
The closing date for all applicants is: midnight, Sunday 3 December 2023. Interviews: 11 December 2023 online, via zoom (with second interviews where applicable).
This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français
Note: This blog is an informal ‘script’ for a paper I gave on October 6, 2023 about my ‘Sounding Modernity’ project to the XI International Symposium on Soundscape, organized by the FKL-Forum Klanglandschaft in Lugano, Switzerland.
Note: Below is a recording of my delivery of the paper. I ended up deviating quite a bit from my script! I also answered a question about representation/diversity at conferences and whether listening was enough to address complex ecological issues.
Good morning
I’m speaking to you from the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations otherwise known as Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
I’m happy to be present a paper today through Skype at this important gathering of acoustic ecologists from around the world. Some of you might recall that I had the pleasure of speaking to you from this same room two years ago about radical listening as climate action.
So thanks to Stefano Zorzanello and the production entire team there for this opportunity to talk about a passion of mine, sound and sustainability, or as I like to call it these days ‘sound and the end of the world as we know it’.
Je vais vous parler en anglais mais si vous avez des questions en français à la fin il me fera plaisir d’y répondre.
I was excited to submit a proposal to this conference because it explores how to ‘initiate an interdisciplinary dialogue that examines the use of the acoustic paradigm, eventual or current, in the times and places we are living in, with the idea of a sustainable present and future in mind.’
There is a lot to unpack here with this statement.
What is meant by sustainability here?
Does it imply continuing life within the assumptions of modernity or is a sustainability a radical new way of life?
And from what perspective are we listening?
How can listening help us prepare for a catastrophic future?
I submitted my proposal a category called ‘Storytelling with sound : the language of media and audio-based narration’ which invites us to think about ‘what specificity does sound have in these narrations and which models can contribute to developing ethical forms of storytelling?’
These are very exciting questions for a soundscape composer and podcaster like me, who sometimes feels isolated doing this work. So, thanks for listening today and hopefully we can continue the conversation afterwards.
The fourth season of the conscient podcast began on January 1 of this year, is called ‘Sounding Modernity’ and explores what modernity sounds like, how it affects us and how to ‘create the conditions for other possible worlds to emerge in the wake of what is dying’.
And this concept of ‘possible worlds to emerge in the wake of what is dying’ came to me from article by the same name by the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective, a group of scholars and researchers led by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, who is author of Hospicing Modernity, which is a book I strongly recommend. Vanessa and her colleagues work on decolonization work has had a very strongly influenced my life and I’m grateful for this wisdom.
It’s also interesting to note that the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective was formed here in Vancouver, which, as many of you know, is also the home of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University so it’s interesting for me to see how Murray Schafer’s theory about the soundscape and all those assumptions, is now being reconsidered in the context of decolonization and emergency preparedness in a province that is suffering from massive fires and floods like many other places in the world.
So, what I’ll do today is walk you through some examples of my ‘Sounding Modernity’ project today with a focus on what I have unlearned in the process.
I’ll speak for a few minutes and then I’ll invite you for questions and comments. I look forward to this exchange because one of the objectives of the Sounding Modernity project is to stimulate conversations with listeners about their experience with modernity and what we can to address complex issues that we face.
But first let me clarify what I mean by modernity?
I don’t mean modernist art or modernism as a style of art. What I mean the modern era based on extractive capitalism, overconsumption, endless growth, systemic racism, white supremacy, separation from nature, and so on. I’m interested in both a critique of modernity’ such as the lifestyles, structures, sites, beings, creatures, habits around us but also on how to leave the worse aspect of modernity behind us.
And one of things learned from my colleagues at the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collectives is to walk a tightrope between naive hope and desperate hopelessness, with honesty, humility, humor and hyper-self-reflexivity. And the humour part, in particular, is difficult because of the gravity of the issues we face – it’s easy to become demoralized – but it is critical to have the energy to face the truth and get on with the hard work of changing our ways.
And I’ll give you an example of changing our ways. I’ll read you a statement I include at the end of each podcast episode notes :
I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).
So this accountability is why I did not fly to be with you this week in Switzerland. This is also why I donate funds with each episode a ‘gesture of reciprocity’ for those in need. I also try to recycle technology, use green energy, etc.
How do I feel now? Well thanks for asking. I feel pretty nervous doing this presentation alone in Vancouver but after that episode I do feel a bit less tense. So, this is the first of 52 episodes.
I also wrote monthly blogs about my learnings and unlearnings from this project. For example, here is an excerpt from my February blog from a colleague who took a course called Facing Human Wrongs with me:
Episode 1 (e101) was a great start and stirring for me. I wanted it to last longer (even though my answer to your question was that I felt restless and annoyed). The gift of silence and breathing throughout and especially towards the end are so much appreciated. I am curious if these silences appear in the middle, how much are we conditioned not to trust the silence/devices and to sway towards checking our phones/devices to see whether the soundtrack stopped or is still playing. This can be an episode by itself.
I published a new episode every week, exploring a different issue or sound every time and asking a question at the end of each episode, for example:
e103 heat asks what does decarbonization sound like to you?
e104 time asks what does a very small moment in a much larger space sound like?
And so on. Some use raw field recording while others are soundscape compositions, some are radio plays, some are interviews, some are comments on quotes or a mix of all these styles. Every week I had a blank slate in front of me and a Sunday midnight deadline, so it was fun to get them done and not look back.
develop and implement a radical theory of change through the arts
transition out of modernity
change the story
connect our efforts
After that 12 minute program I went back to 5 minutes episodes that explored a wide range of questions, includingwhat are the privileges in your life? what does ecological loss sound like where you live? where does your shit go? And so on.
I was fortunate to receive many interesting responses, including one on March 20th, 2023 from composer Hildegard Westerkamp about her experience with e111 traps – what are the traps in your life? which is a fictional conversation between myself and an observer of me about some of the trappings of modernity. Here is what Hildi said from my April conscient blog:
Proselytizing certainly is one of my traps as well, spiritual bypassing the way your Observer defines it, is probably also one (although I do not do much field recording anymore). Other traps are hanging on to old patterns – they give the illusion of stability – or having expectations even when my mind thinks that I have let go of them, suddenly one is confronted with even subtler, hardly noticeable ones. That’s why, always returning to a practice of listening, can help to recognize the traps at least, perhaps even eliminate them.
I replied to Hildi that:
Spiritual bypassing is a tough because we think that these are ‘good things’ but it all depends on the point of view. I have found that gentle but deep self-reflexivity is helpful. Some old patterns also are good to let go of, leaving place and space for other places and spaces, but some are worth keeping… Traps, however, abound. Noticing them is the first step.
One of my favorite quotes in this episode is from a listener who on May 16th wrote to me that :
So grateful to have been able to listen and stay close to your work. It’s wonderful to witness, feel and sense into the different layers and movements over the course of the episode and throughout the arc of the season so far. It’s almost as if the story of Sounding Modernity is being stitched by the sounds, walks and episodes and shapeshifting it into this surprising creature (sometimes scary, sometimes funny, sometimes visible, sometimes fictional…). I wonder how else the story of Sounding Modernity will further weave itself (both in/out of control) as you continue to loosen even more of your grips on it, slowly and gently. I like how humor mixes with pain and poetry mixes with interviews, and ocean mixes with toilet shitty waters. The playful and surprising diversity is fun. It’s even clear that you are both struggling and having so much fun, which adds honesty and trust in wanting to go with you on the inquiry. As you approach the middle of your journey, what might be needed at this time to invite further and what might be ready to be released into new soils? May more sounds reveal/be revealed.
Not surprisingly, many more sounds did reveal themselves over the summer and into the fall. Here is what I responded to this listener’s comment:
Your point about how Sounding Modernity might unfold in/out of control is a good one as I approach the midpoint in the project on July 1. I’m coming to terms with its failings, surprises and unanticipated unlearnings. The isolation in particular has been bewildering. I think I have already ‘lost my grip on it’, in a good way. I have essentially given up on it being a ‘exploration of the sounds of modernity’ – which was quite pretentious anyway – but rather, as you suggest, has become a portrait of my struggles and discoveries through the sounds of modernity.
On June 23, 2023 I had the pleasure, and the privilege, of attending ‘Listening to Lhq’a:lets’ otherwise known as the city of Vancouver, at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Learning at the University of British Columbia.
A group of artists, all women, spoke about their week-long residency, organized by indigenous sound scholar and UBC professor Dr. Dylan Robinson. They shared a wide range of sensory engagements through listening to Lhq’a:lets: how our bodies listen through the haptics of vibration, about hearing and feeling the voices of our non-human relations, about how we can perceive the built environment with new perspectives – the air, waterways and earth that surround us.
They spoke about their encounters with the trans-mountain pipeline, their dialogues with animals and birds, their encounters with haunting vibrations and their thoughts about the past, present and future sounds of this region.
What they did not talk about was themselves, their accomplishments or the type of technology they used to extract and manipulate the sounds. None of that. There was also no reverence for say R. Murray Schafer or the World Soundscape Project, nor any nostalgia about the good old days when, say, the term ‘soundscape’ was invented. There was no disrespect either. They were listening from a different position.
So I heard stories, poems, anecdotes, images, silences and prophecies… It was uplifting.
This is a good example of an unlearning moment. I let go of my old listening habits and experienced a new way of listening.
So, to conclude, it’s October 6th, 2023 today and I have 12 more episode to publish. Last week’s episode is called e140 saturation and asks you, ‘how can we tap into our boundless streams of love, connection and meaning?’ I suggest we listen to the beginning:
(bell and breath)
(sound of two climate shows at once then fade out)
I was talking with a colleague recently about how few people listen to ‘end of the world as we know it’ podcasts, such as this one.
And I think it’s because they’re so … fucking, depressing and grim. We are constantly reminded how awful things are and how much more awful they will become, with no credible way out.
Saturated
I used to think that art could help us with these entangled crises but I’m starting to think the role of art is more about the relationship between consolation and hope as my friend and colleague Azul Caroline Duque suggests.
Consolation and hope.
The last episode of this project will be broadcast on December 31, 2023 is called full circle. It asks you ‘how can we support those who are frightened by the ecological crisis and in need of a calm presence?’
I want to thank all the voices, human and non-human, that I have recorded during this project. I also want to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, whose funds helped me pay my collaborators and work in good conditions.
The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.
I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.
The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.
season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.
season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.
season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.
season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity
About
I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca
acknowledgement of eco-responsibility
I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.
a word about privilege and bias.
While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.
We would like to invite you to the next FIA Live Performance Webinar on Green Production, on November 30, from 6pm to 8pm CET.
Conceived amidst the COVID 19 pandemic, the FIA Live Performance Webinars aim to delve into issues specific to the live performance sector. Following three webinars devoted to the pandemic and its impact on performers working on live shows, this new edition will focus on Green Production.
The climate crisis is one of the most urgent issues in today’s world, with every industry being called upon to prioritise environmental sustainability. How can the live performance sector actively contribute to the battle against global warming? Moreover, what role should performers’ unions play in this critical fight?
To answer these questions, we have invited 6 great speakers:
• Isabel Amian, General Secretary of SSRS, Switzerland
• Ian Garrett, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, Canada
• Devon Hardy, Program Director Canadian Green Tools, Canada
• Karrim Jalali, Industrial Official for Equity, UK
• Kristine Karåla Øren, President of NoDa, Norway
• Sandro Santoro, Project Manager at Les Bonnes Pratiques, Switzerland.
This webinar will be moderated by Simon Norrthon, President of Scen & Film, Sweden, and Vice-president of FIA.
If you would like to find out more about our speakers and moderator, you will find attached a document with a brief biography of each of them.
To register to this event, please fill in the online form available HERE.
Simultaneous interpretation will be available in English and French.
Nous vous invitons au prochain webinaire sur le spectacle vivant de la FIA, consacré à la production écologique, le 30 novembre, de 18h00 à 20h00 CET.
Conçus dans le contexte de la pandémie de COVID 19, les webinaires de la FIA sur le spectacle vivant visent à explorer des questions spécifiques au secteur du spectacle vivant. Après trois webinaires consacrés à la pandémie et à son impact sur les artistes-interprètes travaillant dans les spectacles vivants, cette nouvelle édition sera consacrée à la production écologique.
La crise climatique est l’une des questions les plus urgentes dans le monde actuel, et tous les secteurs sont appelé à donner la priorité à la durabilité environnementale. Comment le secteur du spectacle vivant peut-il contribuer activement à la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique ? Et quel rôle les syndicats d’artistes-interprètes devraient-ils jouer dans ce combat crucial ?
Pour répondre à ces questions, nous avons invité 6 formidables intervenants :
• Isabel Amian, Secrétaire Générale du SSRS, Suisse
• Ian Garrett, Directeur du Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, Canada
• Devon Hardy, Directrice du programme Canadian Green Tools, Canada
• Karrim Jalali, Représentant industriel à Equity, Royaume-Uni
• Kristine Karåla Øren, Présidente de NoDa, Norvège
• Sandro Santoro, Chef de projet Les Bonnes Pratiques, Suisse
Ce webinaire sera modéré par Simon Norrthon, Président de Scen & Film, Suède, et Vice-président de la FIA.
Si vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur nos intervenants et notre modérateur, vous trouverez ci-joint un document contenant une courte biographie de chacun d’entre eux.
Pour vous inscrire à cet événement, veuillez remplir le formulaire en ligne disponible ICI.
Une interprétation simultanée sera disponible en anglais et en français.
This is the fourth in our ‘Thinking about environmental sustainability’ blog series and focuses on climate change in arts programming.
The blog relates to this question that Creative Scotland asks in its Multi-Year Funding application process: How will the climate emergency be considered in your programme and the ways it is delivered? It will also be relevant to other funding streams.
Artists and cultural organisations have an enormous opportunity to use their powerful influence to shift society’s thinking about climate change. We reach a far broader population than almost any other field. Cultural organisations often have loyal and repeat audiences who understand and like an organisation’s values, meaning that they are ‘trusted messengers’ that can help shift opinions and bring about change.
Does that mean you should programme work that specifically addresses climate change? ‘Issue-based’ work has become unpopular in recent years but in fact there is a great history in Western art, at least, of great art with a purpose, from Joan Baez’s protest songs to religious music, and the plays of Bertolt Brecht to paintings like Picasso’s Guernica. Margaret Atwood has written powerful novels about post-climate crisis society. Composers John Luther Adams and, closer to home, Karine Polwart have written music directly focused on environmental themes. The key is that it must be goodart.
The point: There is good artistic work that’s addressing climate change, and there are artists in all disciplines who want to take on this big challenge of our age.
The stories we tell
In 2021 Creative Carbon Scotland worked with major cultural bodies to produce a film, Climate Action Needs Culture, highlighting cultural organisations’ ability to change the narrative about society. Cultural organisations tell stories – in the work they produce and present, and in the work they don’t produce and present. They can tell stories that, in direct or indirect ways, include narratives of a positive future in a climate-changed, zero-carbon society. They can tell stories that directly reinforce existing ways of being. And, simply by not touching upon or considering the climate emergency, they can reinforce current ways of being that are the cause of the problem. One thing I learned as a theatre director is that audiences notice and take account of everything you present to them. Our stories are never neutral.
Cultural organisations also tell stories in the way they work. This is not so much about programming, but it is impossible to disentangle the work presented from the way in which the work is delivered. This is reflected in the question in the Multi-Year Funding application, and applies to other funding streams as well: How will the climate emergency be considered in your programme and the ways it is delivered?
Programming work using the climate lens
It isn’t necessary – although it may well be a good thing to do – to make or programme work that is about climate change.
Climate change is happening all around us. It’s an integral part of our lives. It’s changing what we eat and where we go on holiday, the ways in which we travel, farm, heat our homes and more. It’s prompting international migration. It’s causing wildfires and travel disruption. It has caused protests and policies to address it have led to riots. It features in the news every day.
For all these reasons, we at Creative Carbon Scotland argue that it is essential, simply to keep up with the times, to view your programming through the climate lens. What does, or could, this work of art, this exhibition, this novel, say about climate change and how it is affecting our society? This might lead to work that is specifically about environmental themes (see for example the work of artist Patricia MacDonald) or includes them (Karine Polwart’s Wind Resistance). It might lead to works directly about climate change:
Don’t Look Up got mixed reviews but there is no doubt it garnered attention and delivers some good laughs.
Ian McEwan’s Solar is perhaps a more successful foray into climate change comedy.
In Scotland, Robbie Coleman’s and Jo Hodges’ The Museum of Climate Futuresshows how terrific work directly addressing climate change can be moving, fun and powerful.
The counterfactual: what if you don’t use the ‘climate lens’?
It may not be necessary to produce or present work directly about climate change; the problem arises if you don’t consider it. Hollywood constantly pumps out stories of high-carbon lifestyles – and has been very successful in promoting American values and aspirations across the world for decades. If we ignore climate change and continue to tell stories in which it doesn’t register, we are authorising audiences to ignore it too, promoting the same values as the oil companies. If you’re not doing the right thing, you’re doing the wrong thing.
‘Authorising’ artists to work on this theme
Why not co-create work touching on climate change? An organisation that states that it’s seeking artists who want to work on climate change, in whatever way, will be attractive to those artists, and may well licence artists who have wanted to do so but have felt reluctant to say so. Creating work that makes an argument while also being artistically successful generally needs the craft, skills, experience and knowledge of established artists. Seek out top-level artists wanting to make this work and make clear your intentions. Scotland is ahead of most other places in the cultural sector’s practical and operational work on climate change; this is our opportunity to take the lead artisticallytoo.
Climate justice and programming
Could you take into account voices that are currently unheard in climate discussions or decision making? Are there specific topics that, by being relevant to your locality or communities, might attract new or different audiences, readers, visitors or users to your work? Can works from abroad where people have already experienced the impacts of climate change provide insights for people in Scotland? Climate lens programming can help make visible the connections with other social issues like fuel poverty or inequality. Look out for our climate justice blog, due to publish on 12 October, for more examples and thoughts on this topic.
Delivering the work
Creative Scotland asks: How will the climate emergency be considered in your programme and the ways it is delivered? [our bolding] There are other ways of using your assets to:
Provide a framing for non-climate-related work that highlights the connections with climate change.
Promote your organisation’s own choices and behaviours to encourage others to emulate them.
Perth Theatre & Concert Hall’s project Transforming Audience Travel Through Art is a good example of using the organisation’s influencing role – and the work of an artist, paid for by non-arts source Paths for All – to work for change with their audiences.
And again, failing to apply the climate lens to how you deliver the work as well as to the programme you are delivering may lead to reinforcing current beliefs, practices and behaviours.
Changing the narrative
When discussing programming around climate change there is often an assumption that the aim is to bring about individual change: an audience member, a viewer, reader or participant has a transformational experience leading them to change their lives. For example, maybe they see an exhibition and decide to stop flying or become a vegan! In fact, evidence shows that this is very rare. Normal life intervenes. Habits, work, family and peer pressure make change difficult. People revert to their usual ways of being. The infrastructure isn’t available. However, it is proven that if there are safe cycle lanes or effective kerbside recycling, more people ride a bike or more people recycle their waste. See Complexity theory, cultural practices and carbon reduction policy for more on this topic.
Thus, what’s more important is the ability of the arts and culture to change the narrative in society more broadly – to focus not so much on the individual as on society.
(Image ID: Wavy lines in varying shades of green with the text ‘BLOG SERIES: Thinking about environmental sustainability #4’.)
ACTS OF RESILIENCE is a hybrid conference instigated by Two Planks and a Passion Theatre Company. Bringing together organizations and artists dedicated to outdoor performance, this gathering is dedicated to sharing knowledge and developing new strategies related to the climate crisis.
The conference will include sessions ranging from the practical (how are our conditions of work changing and how must we adapt?) to the high-level (how are our relationships with audiences changing and what are our responsibilities as storytellers in mitigating the crisis?). This three-day gathering will be held at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts in rural Nova Scotia, and the initial strategies and ideas developed during the conference will be shared widely.
Registration will open shortly and will be pay-what-you-can. Please also note that all zoom sessions will be recorded but that individuals will not be required to have their cameras on.
The challenges the climate crisis presents to our entire society are undeniably huge and present in every community, workspace and home. This gathering of professional performance companies who work outdoors in collaboration with nature is focussed on our specific sector and the challenges we now face, from the practical to the existential. Some of the most important are:
How are our conditions of work changing? What new guidelines, measurements or strategies need to be put in place in order to protect the health and welfare of theatre/performance workers?
How do we communicate with the general public about the climate crisis and its impacts? What does that conversation look like?
How does our public profile change given how closely our work is associated with nature and, by association, an existential crisis? How do we work in that new reality?
What are our responsibilities as storytellers and community institutions in confronting the crisis?
Are the changes ahead of us a matter of gradual adaptation, or is this crisis something we can’t simply adapt to?
Many of our stakeholders create work in geographically remote locations without public transportation. What is the true carbon footprint of our work? How can/should this be measured?
How will accessibility to our work be adversely impacted by the changing climate?
What further measures can we take to further green our organizations?
This project is a response to an emergency. We, as artists who create work in partnership with nature, are overwhelmed by both the immediate impact of the climate crisis, and grappling with the longer-term ramifications for our relationships and communities. We must work together to share experiences, develop strategies and ask uncomfortable questions.
(Top image ID: Square graphic. At the top, yellow text on a dark purple background reads ‘ACTS OF RESILIENCE’. Directly below in yellow text on the same purple background reads ‘outdoor performance in the climate crisis. On the bottom is a yellow semi circle resembling a sun with a thin red border. Red text against the yellow sun reads ‘a conference at the ross creek centre for the arts’. Directly below that text in purple font reads ‘NOV 24-26, 2023’.)
This course is for new and emerging producers based in Scotland.
Producer Accelerator is aimed at producers at the start of their careers who are looking to take that next step into the industry, but may need support in furthering their knowledge of the industry or expanding their skillset.
This course aims to inspire and invigorate the most dynamic, promising new producers in Scotland. The course will take place across four days in the form of two two-day workshops on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 of January, and Friday 1 and Saturday 2 March 2024.
Short Circuit will select up to eight applicants who will develop their producing skills and industry knowledge through in-person development workshops, masterclasses and one-on-one mentoring sessions. Participants will take part in training and networking sessions from industry speakers and will be matched with a carefully selected mentor that they will work over three months. There is no cost to participate in the programme.
Sessions include masterclasses on:
Understanding the development process.
Working with writers and directors.
Managing talent relationships.
Budgeting and financing.
Legal and distribution.
The lifecycle of a project from inception, through to physical production and delivery.
Producer Accelerator is now open for applications, the deadline is 10am on Tuesday 21 November 2023. Apply now!
Producer Accelerator is an inclusive programme and we are aware that within the screen industry that Disabled and D/deaf people, people of the global majority, women, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex people (LGBTQI+) and those who have been socially and economically disadvantaged by their circumstances and upbringing are disproportionately marginalised.
We encourage applications from individuals who are currently under-represented within the sector and seek to foster equal opportunities for new and emerging talent from diverse backgrounds, with support on hand for those who need it.
(Top image ID: Producer Accelerator poster with a photo of people shooting a video. The text reads: ‘Deadline: 21st November 2023’. [supplied])
