Scottish elections will take place on Thursday 6th May 2021.

On Friday 23rd April, Jean Cameron and Kate Leiper attended the Culture Hustings, hosted by Culture Counts to hear candidates’ responses to five questions. In this blog they share a summary of what they heard.

We are members of Culture for Climate Scotland (Cultar airson Gnàth-shìde Alba), a working group established in January 2021. Our aim is to identify ways in which we, the culture sector, can contribute to a just, green and creative recovery after COVID-19. We believe that the culture sector is a key player in creating a society more focused on wellbeing and that we can contribute creatively and imaginatively to the challenges of climate change and climate justice. The group was initiated by Creative Carbon Scotland and is comprised of members of the Green Arts Initiative and Green Tease network (part of the culture/SHIFT programme).

An opportunity for culture

At our very first meeting we were very aware that with the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May and Glasgow hosting COP 26 in November, it was an opportune moment to initiate political engagement. We were invited by Culture Counts to submit several questions to the Culture Hustings they were hosting. Of course, given COVID-19 restrictions, these hustings were to be online. However, they were to follow the familiar format: five candidates from different parties invited to answer pre-prepared questions in front of a live, online audience. There was no guarantee that there would be time in the 90-minute event to ask all questions we submitted but we were delighted to be making a contribution.

Culture for Climate Scotland’s task was to craft our questions. This process felt very inclusive and given that this was one of our first big tasks working as a group, it was a wonderful participatory experience listening to each other and working collaboratively to get the wording just right.

We must acknowledge and thank Culture Counts for all the work and effort they put into this event. They took care to ensure that the host did not belong to any political party, proceedings were conducted fairly and that equal time was given to each candidate to express themselves. Culture Counts invited questions before the event and because of the large volume of submissions, questions with similar themes were merged.

On what was a busy agenda, we were delighted to see the inclusion of a question on culture’s role in a green and just recovery, as put forward by Culture for Climate Scotland

What were the questions?

At the event, each question was aimed at one candidate, then all the other candidates were given the chance to ‘respond’. As five questions were asked over the course of the event, each of the five candidates had the opportunity to be the first to answer. The questions covered a variety of topics:

• The place of the performing arts in a wellbeing economy
• The culture sector’s place in a just and green recovery
• Aiming for a wellbeing economy
• Freelancers, COVID-19 and the Universal Basic Income
• COVID-19 recovery in communities

Who was there?

The Culture Hustings provided a platform for an online audience representing different parts of Scotland’s cultural ecology to hear from a range of candidates representing a variety of views, from different parts of the political spectrum.

Contributing (in alphabetical order) :

• Claire Baker, Scottish Labour Party
• Pam Gosal, Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party
• Fiona Hyslop, Scottish National Party
• Kim Long, Scottish Green Party
• Fred Mackintosh, Scottish Liberal Democrats

In their opening statements, candidates took it in turn to share examples, from their personal experiences, each illustrating an active, individual interest and engagement in arts and culture as well as setting out their party-political perspectives.

Candidates used opening statements to acknowledge the devastating impact of the pandemic on Scotland’s cultural sector and to speak about their belief in the critical importance of culture to Scotland’s recovery.

Claire Baker recognised the creative sector as the first to close and likely to be the last to open. Fiona Hyslop highlighted the value of the arts and the role that culture has played throughout the period of the pandemic to get people through difficult times. Fred Mackintosh spoke about the huge impact of venue closures on performers and production staff and the worry caused to people working across the sector as a whole. Kim Long stressed the ongoing uncertainty facing the cultural sector whilst other industries could see light at the end of the tunnel. Pam Gosal emphasised the importance of sustainable funding models to support the cultural and creative sectors play a strong role in Scotland’s recovery.

It was heartening to hear candidates acknowledge a shared responsibility to work across parliament towards Scotland’s world-leading climate change targets and to hear several candidates reference the intersection between equalities and climate justice, environmental sustainability and grassroot recovery in communities, in responses to the different questions asked during the event.

Responses to our question

Candidates had the opportunity to expand on their environmental pledges in the specific question put forward by Culture for Climate Scotland:

How would your party actively engage, support and champion the culture sector as a key player in Scotland’s just and green recovery?

This question was first directed to Kim Long, representing the Scottish Green Party, who expressed her delight in a green recovery now being considered a mainstream topic and that other parties are also keen to tackle it. She spoke about a need for fresh thinking, a more participatory democracy, possibly embedding artists in local and national government projects. She outlined the need for investment funding to transform town centres, which could include converting unused spaces into low-carbon arts spaces, thereby cultivating possibilities for the cross-pollination of ideas. She would like to see the Scottish Government amend procurement strategy so that local artists are given more opportunities and expressed her support for the Universal Basic Income and a four-day working week with no loss of pay. In summing up, she said that we had to now be bold and going back to how things were before COVID-19 was not an option.

Pam Gosal, from the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, confirmed the need to create new jobs in new green industries and that the culture sector has a very important role to play in this. Her party proposes a Circular Economy Bill, which would involve work in education and awareness to engage businesses, an area the culture sector would be able to contribute towards.

They are also developing an electric vehicle action plan and aim to tackle housing, making it more efficient through working with developers. The culture sector also has a big role to play here. She emphasised that it’s very important that local councils are better funded so that creative cultures and local artists can be knitted into the planning processes.

Claire Baker, from the Scottish Labour Party, confirmed that we need to work collaboratively and collectively and to set ambitious plans. She pointed out that the culture sector also has a responsibility to look at reducing its own carbon footprint. Some practitioners, have very low footprints. However, this is not the case with larger international touring companies. She believes that culture should be part of the transformational change, for example, fitting electric vehicle charging points at heritage sites or retrofitting buildings into cultural spaces. She would also like to see changes in procurement policy, which allow local artists and organisations more employment opportunities, and a clear carbon reduction plan for all businesses working with the public sector.

Fred Mackintosh, from the Scottish Liberal Democrats, began by reminding those of us who live in Edinburgh how strange it was last year without the festivals. He pointed out that it has allowed us to reopen the debate on sustainability, referencing as an example the miles covered by touring companies and long-distance international tourism. One solution could be providing more sleeper trains to Edinburgh from central Europe? He acknowledged that we need to focus on decarbonising and that this is an area that has to be looked at in all sectors.

Fiona Hyslop, from the Scottish National Party, began by stating that small countries can move swifter, faster and smarter to tackle climate emergency. She said that she was also expecting communities to make major shifts to meet carbon reduction targets. She believes in the power of culture and that through community work, artists can help communities to creatively think, express and mobilise themselves. She confirmed that her party’s manifesto includes creating 20-minute neighbourhoods and the repurposing and retrofitting of buildings, thereby freeing up space for artists to use. She also highlighted her party’s proposed major infrastructure programme, which will aim to help drive the economic recovery and which includes investment in the arts. With every new public infrastructure project, 1% of the budget will be for commissioning arts, thereby freeing up £150 million for commissioning cultural activity and community arts. She summed up by saying that her party is aiming to create a wellbeing economy and to improve diversity.

Strong messages

Consensus building and co-operation were strong messages given in answer to questions across the hustings, as was a commitment to a Scotland that nurtures access and better representation for under-served communities. Several proposals were made to address the precarity of freelance workers in the cultural sector and strengthening the resilience of the sector more widely. The majority of candidates advocated for a model of minimum income provision. All acknowledged the need for better local-national partnerships and a role for the cultural sector to support this, including participatory decision-making processes.

For more details of party manifestos, we recommend the summaries of the key pledges relevant to the arts, screen, heritage & creative industries, published by Culture Counts.

Conclusion

In this election week, we invite all incoming members of the next Scottish Parliament to recognise and harness the unique ability of Scotland’s creative and cultural sectors to work with empathy and imagination across communities. We ask MSPs to seize the opportunity to engage collaboratively with our sector so we that we can embed our energy, our innovation and commitment to play our active and meaningful role in the green, just and creative recovery that Scotland deserves.

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Authors
Jean Cameron is a freelance creative producer based in Glasgow. Find her on Instagramand Twitter.

Kate Leiper is an artist and illustrator based in Edinburgh. Find her on Instagram: @kate_leiper_artist.

Both are members of Culture for Climate Scotland (Cultar airson Gnàth-shìde Alba) Working Group

The post Guest blog: questioning the candidates at the Culture Hustings 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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Connecting Threads is inviting applications from visual artists for a three-month residency.

Connecting Threads is inviting visual artists based in the Scottish Borders to apply for a three-month summer residency, hosted in a new species-rich meadow in Upper Tweeddale. The residency forms part of the Connecting Threads pilot programme, a series of activities and events which aim to test out ideas for a proposed five-year cultural programme exploring the culture of the River Tweed.

Totalling two hectares, the new meadow sits on the banks of the River Tweed and was established to enhance biodiversity, restoring one of the traditionally managed meadows that would have existed here 80 years ago. A human-made habitat, hay meadows are dependent on management by people. They are cultural landscapes and each meadow has its own management history influenced by its aspect, altitude and location.

There are a number of themes that could be explored through the residency, including biodiversity, land management, pollinators, soils, tools and seasonality. Crucially, we are looking for an artist that will engage the wider communities of place or purpose with the project.

This is not a traditional residency in that the artist will not be based in the meadow full-time, but can use the meadow as a place for fieldwork and research, for hosting events, for collecting source material and as a place which can be returned to for reflection.

We are seeking proposals from artists that work in any or multiple mediums and we welcome applications from artists at any stage of their career.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Sunday 23rd May.

For further information and details on how to apply, please read the full artist brief.

To find out more about Connecting Threads, please visit the Southern Uplands Partnership website or find us on Facebook @TweedRiverCulture.

Connecting Threads is the river culture strand of the landscape-scale project Destination Tweed, led by the Tweed Forum and supported by the Southern Uplands Partnership. This opportunity is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Fallago Environment Fund.

The post Opportunity: Connecting Threads artist residency 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

A fully-funded 10-week programme to support nature-based business and social enterprise ideas

Have you founded a nature-based enterprise*, or are you at an early-stage of your development and need support to take your idea to the next level? Or, do you know someone who has?

Glasgow City Council’s H2020 Connecting Nature project, in partnership with The Melting Pot’s Good Ideas and Glasgow Caledonian University, has launched the Nature-Based Accelerator, a pilot programme to support early-stage impactful nature-based businesses and social enterprises that are or could be making positive environmental, social, and economic change in Glasgow.

The pilot programme, which is fully funded for 10 weeks, aims to find ways to encourage more local and resilient nature-based economies, create more green jobs, and help us to achieve our net-zero targets. One of the main focuses of the pilot is on how we can use innovative enterprise ideas to help improve and maintain Glasgow’s open spaces.

Spaces are limited and applications should be received no later than 21st May 2021.

*A nature-based enterprise has a broader definition than you might initially think. It can include many different types of organisation such as social enterprises, a collective, charities or even a for-profit business. The key criteria is that nature is used either directly or indirectly as a fundamental part of their product, service or process whilst also supporting climate change, health and wellbeing and biodiversity policy agendas. Examples can include food or other community growing; beekeeping; nature-focused landscape architecture; eco-tourism; urban forestry; biomaterials; carbon off-setting; vocational and skills training, plus lots more. You can find more examples and more information about nature-based enterprises by checking out Connecting Nature’s simple guidebook (PDF).

More details and the application form can be found at: https://good-ideas.org/nature-based-accelerator.

The post Opportunity: Nature-Based Enterprise Accelerator pilot 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

We’re excited to share with you Creative Carbon Scotland’s methodology for supporting collaborations between arts and sustainability practitioners to address the climate emergency. In this blog, our culture/SHIFT Manager, Gemma Lawrence, gives us an insight into the theory and practice behind CCS’s culture/SHIFT programme.

In 2017 Creative Carbon Scotland formally launched its culture/SHIFT programme focused on harnessing the role of creativity and culture to tackle the climate emergency. Inspired by the work of civic artist Frances Whitehead and the embedded artist project, it sought to do this by supporting collaborations between artists and climate change organisations which mixed the skills and competencies of artistic and non-arts partners to address urgent climate and sustainability related issues.

Contributing to diverse projects

Four years on, we have had the privilege of contributing to a wide range of projects from creatively exploring the role of Marine Protected Areas for people and nature in the Outer Hebrides, to developing a transformational approach to catalyse Glasgow City Region’s adaptation to climate change, and embedding four artists in climate-related projects across Northern Europe through Cultural Adaptations. Our online Library of Creative Sustainability also curates case studies on past projects from around the world, demonstrating the precedent for this way of working locally and internationally.

Diagram describing the different stages of culture/SHIFT projects including initiation, artist recruitment, project delivery, and learning and evaluation.

Sharing what we’ve learnt

From these experiences, we’ve seen first hand what works when you bring practitioners from different backgrounds and perspectives together to address complex environmental issues and the new approaches, outcomes and insights that result from doing soon. We’ve also witnessed the challenges involved in collaborating across sectors and have identified ways of helping to overcome these, as well as common values that should be jointly desired and held for the project to work.

This culture/SHIFT methodology gathers the knowledge and insights gained from such experiences with the aim of sharing our learning with a wide audience and hopefully inspiring others to embed creative and cultural approaches into their own sustainability work.

What’s in this methodology?

The methodology highlights the value of embedding artists in projects as strategic thinkers and change-makers as well as producers of art, and recognises the importance of involving artists at an early stage to help shape the questions being asked, issues addressed and approaches taken.

It provides a conceptual background as to why culture has a vital role to play in our approach to the climate emergency, including the benefits and opportunities for both arts and climate partners. It also offers as a practical step-by-step description of the typical project stages, learning from Swedish arts agency TILLT‘s experience as process managers of creative collaborations. 

We describe CCS’s role in supporting the process, including project initiation, defining project aims and scope, developing the artist’s brief and recruitment, as well as supporting project delivery, learning and evaluation. Over time we will update the methodology to reflect our learning and experience from new initiatives.

We hope that you enjoy reading it and find it a useful and inspiring resource for creative, cross-sectoral collaboration to help build a more environmentally sustainable, resilient and socially just society.

Get in touch!

We would love to hear from you if you are interested in working directly with CCS, have any feedback on the methodology or if you’re seeking advice on how to get your own arts and sustainability collaboration started. For enquiries please contact Gemma Lawrence, culture/SHIFT Manager, Creative Carbon Scotland.

The post New publication: culture/SHIFT methodology 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

On 25th March we held a Green Arts online meetup on the topic ‘Intersectional Justice in Climate Action’.

Introduction

Thanks to the wonders of Zoom, we were able to enjoy a presentation from Ana T. Amorim-Maia, PhD Researcher at the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice & Sustainability at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Ana’s research focuses on climate change adaptation, climate justice, intersectionality, resilience and urban planning. Last year Ana presented about Intersectional Justice in Climate Adaptation at a workshop for Clyde Rebuilt. Amanda felt that this way of joining the dots between issues of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) on the one hand, and climate action on the other, would be very useful for Green Arts members, particularly when working on EDI and environmental policies and planning.

Before Ana’s presentation, we read a provocation from an academic article*:

“Many artists and arts and culture initiatives working for a sustainable planet think that the ecological crisis is intertwined with other social and political problems, and when they take action for sustainability, they do so with the intent to create solutions for these problems as well. They think that living in a sustainable world is possible only if the issues of democratic deficit and inequality are resolved. Therefore, working on the climate crisis simultaneously denotes working on problems [of inequality].”

We took a poll on how we felt about this statement. 66% of us said we ‘strongly agreed’, while 33% ‘somewhat agreed’.

Ana’s presentation – summary

You can also watch this video of Ana’s talk HERE (15 min + 10 min of Q&A).

Climate impacts are experienced differently depending upon geographic, historical, social, political, economic and cultural settings. Inaction to reduce emissions will worsen climate impacts and increase (climate) injustices, especially for those already living with structural inequalities.

There is an uneven distribution of the benefits and burdens of climate impact and climate action. Climate action often takes the form of mitigation or adaptation, both of which can impact upon social inequality.

Climate action and social justice need to be considered alongside each other. For example, low-income, working class, and immigrant communities are faced with intersectional experiences of climate vulnerability and greater marginalisations, exclusions and injustices.

There is a danger of climate gentrification, when properties and areas previously seen as undesirable are adapted to face climate impacts, thereby pushing up value and prices. This further alienates and displaces vulnerable residents and creates ‘elite ghettos’ for the privileged.

Slide from Ana T. Maia-Amorim’s presentation

‘Intersectionality’ was coined by Professor Kimbleré Crenshaw in 1989 to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics ‘intersect’ with one another and overlap. Working with the concepts of intersectionality allows us a more diverse view of different lived experiences.

Intersectional justice in climate action helps move away from greening or low-carbon improvements that perpetuate or exacerbate vulnerabilities and encourages a multi-actor, multi-sector and multi-scale effort for climate justice.

Ana’s practical recommendations

• Recognise how intersecting social identities can create different modes of oppression and privilege and different ways of experiencing and dealing with climate change.
• Place the present and long-term needs of vulnerable people at the centre of our discussions and actions to avoid reproducing or worsening social and environmental inequalities.
• Recognise our privileges and use our voices, roles and networks to fight for intersectional justice in climate action.

Thank you to Kate Leiper for taking these notes on Ana’s presentation.

We returned to the quote we read earlier, and took another poll. This time, 100% of us said that we ‘strongly agreed’ with the statement that “working on the climate crisis simultaneously denotes working on problems [of inequality].” Ana’s talk was clearly very effective!

Discussion

Participants moved into breakout rooms and considered the following questions:

Q1. How might some of your (organisation’s) carbon reduction measures or plans impact on people with differing abilities, gender or sexual orientation, employment status, different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, or other characteristics in this triangle?

With the follow-up questions:

• How can you adapt your carbon reduction measures so they don’t exacerbate existing inequalities? Can you mitigate the negative impact?
• How can you help everyone make sustainable behavioural choices?

The situations imagined and discussed by the groups included:

If your organisation plans to reduce its carbon footprint by: choosing countries to work with which are close enough that collaborators can take the train rather than fly (which is much more carbon intensive)…

This would negatively impact on certain groups more than others because of : exclusion by geographical location. This might be particularly problematic if UK cultural organisations stop working much with organisations and artists in the Global South, as the UK needs to learn about their different experiences in order to respond to climate change in a just way. The impacts could be unequally felt because not everyone has adequate WiFi and digital infrastructure to participate in remote collaborations.

How could we mitigate this impact or offer alternatives? Organisations could set annual travel carbon budgets, and ringfence a portion of each year’s budget for working with collaborators in countries only accessible by air. When there is a festival or conference which requires a flight to attend, fewer people from Scotland could attend, but with a remit to share their learnings with other Scottish cultural organisations when they return, maybe at an event (to which people can travel overland!). This could prompt useful discussions and collaborative ways of building on the ideas generated at the international festival or conference.

You can see several further examples and ideas in this record of the breakout room discussion.

An overarching insight was that rather than try to offer a one size fits all solution for everyone who might be impacted by carbon reduction actions, we should open up conversations, talk with those who are affected, and work out appropriate ways to adapt our plans and policies, so that reducing carbon is an inclusive, collaborative effort.

Groups were then invited to consider a wider question:

Q2. How can the idea of intersectional climate justice be applied to cultural organisations’ wider work – environmental and beyond?

Some concrete examples were highlighted:

• Theatre Gu Leòr have written extra travel days into freelance creative staff contracts, enabling them to choose more sustainable but slower travel options. (Carbon Reduction) 
• Theatre Gu Leòr also created a theatre work exploring how the climate crisis is particularly impacting on Gàidhlig speaking communities in coastal areas, who are losing both their land and their language as rising sea levels cause migration and dispersal. (Artistic)
• Julie’s Bicycle produce a podcast called ‘The Colour Green’, aiming to amplify the voices of artists of colour and of migrant origins, exploring links between climate change, race, nature and social justice. (Advocacy)
• Imaginate recruited a Board member to be their diversity champion and another to be their climate change champion, ensuring both viewpoints are represented at Board level. (Strategy, Governance)

Further ideas are included in the write-up of the breakout room exercises.

Next steps

Some quick actions to take were suggested, including:

• Check out Creative Carbon Scotland’s Guide to Climate Justice
• Register to attend Culture Counts’ Culture Hustings (23rd April, 10-11:30am, online), where candidates for the Scottish Parliament elections will be asked questions from the cultural sector. Culture for Climate has contributed questions on how parties would value and support our sector as a key player in a just and green recovery.
• Sign up for the Global Just Recovery Gathering (9-11 April, online). “Hear from a powerful line-up of climate leaders, artists, and musicians in every corner of the world, and enjoy interactive workshops, cultural sessions, and hands-on trainings.” (The talks will be made available on the Global Just Recovery Gathering website after these dates.)

*The academic article from which the provocation was taken was a draft of ‘Transformation for a Sustainable Earth’ by Fazilet MıstıkoÄŸlu and colleagues at Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts.

The post Key Learnings from the Green Arts March Meetup: Intersectional Justice in Climate Action 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

16th March 2021: This Green Tease event explored the topic of ’embedded artists’ who work closely with or within environmental organisations to help further, diversify, challenge or reorient their work. Film-maker Janine Finlay and artist Emma Hislop discussed their experiences working with Zero Waste Scotland and the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, followed by focused group discussions. 

The event started with a quick icebreaker. Attendees were asked to think of films – environmental or otherwise – that had affected them particularly powerfully or altered their perception of an issue. The suggestions were saved to be reused for an activity later on in the session.

Speakers

Gemma Lawrence of Creative Carbon Scotland then provided an introduction to the concept of ’embedded artists’ and discussed the role she plays in setting up and supporting projects that involve embedded artists. This was followed by a conversation with Janine Finlay, who was embedded artist with Zero Waste Scotland’s ‘Demystifying Decoupling’ project. and Emma Hislop, who was the first artist-in-residence with the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. The conversation is available as a video with a summary of key topics below.

Gemma stressed that embedded artist projects tend to be process oriented, focusing on collaboration over an extended timescale with outcomes not being predetermined. The aim is for artists to meaningfully contribute to the running of an environmental organisation, offering the skills that come from their experience and training to find creative ways of tackling seemingly intractable issues.

The slides from her talk are available here and more information about Creative Carbon Scotland’s work on embedded artists is available on the project webpage.

Emma discussed the importance of complexity and strangeness as a means of opening up space for alternative forms of understanding and perception that would not be encountered elsewhere. Her practice is research focused and involves developing stories that combine elements of familiarity and strangeness, drawing on sci fi, alchemy, and pop culture. One example involves drawing parallels between gut disease and environmental crisis, creating unexpected juxtapositions.

As artist-in-residence with Ellen Macarthur Foundation, she created the website Open Tongue that documented her experiences, and the piece Plaeriet for Aether, which involved a script bound to include fungal spores that will eventually consume the object. She discussed the importance of legacy in her work and discussed how she was able to help shape the format of the residency for future artists.

Janine talked about her interest in stories and visual media. Her work has involved creating science and nature documentaries for the BBC and for the World Wildlife Fund as well as character-focused documentaries. She explained the importance of films for demonstrating realities to people who have never witnessed them in person: for example, showing decision-makers places that their decisions influence but that they never visit in person.

As filmmaker with Zero Waste Scotland she  had to grapple with explaining the concept of ‘decoupling‘ (achieving economic growth without increased environmental damage) in an accessible way as well as working during COVID-19, which has complicated the process of building relationships. The upcoming film will combine input from researchers and from members of the public.

The ensuing conversation focused on the process of collaboration and the need to develop good relationships, which can involve navigating contrasting value systems or terminology. The artists stressed the importance of taking time to develop good personal relationships and valuing contrasting ways of thinking.

An embedded artist can usefully ‘disrupt’ an organisation to help enable new directions, so their role should not necessarily be to simply follow a brief but could be to productively question the aims of the organisation. Gemma discussed the importance of having an ‘anchoring phase’ that lays the groundwork in advance to build support and minimise misconceptions of what to expect.

Discussion

This was followed by time in smaller group discussions. Participants first returned to the film suggestions from the start of the session and analysed them with the aid of a guide prepared by Janine to gain a better understanding of what devices they thought made these films effective. They then turned to their own experiences as artists or environmental practitioners to consider where they might be able to employ similar methods in their work or what issues that they work with might benefit most from being presented creatively.

Finally, the discussion turned to practicalities, drawing on the Embedded Artist Project Toolkit developed by the Cultural Adaptations project to think about key questions for setting up collaborative embedded artist projects, such as:

• What change are you trying to bring about?
• What issue are you responding to?
• How can you develop bold new approaches?
• How can you leave space for the project to develop?
• How can you ensure that the project is genuinely co-designed?
• Who are your audiences and stakeholders?
• How can you make the best use of the skills held by different collaborators?
• How will you know if you have been successful?

Some of the answers to these questions suggested by participants are given below.

The post Green Tease Reflections: Embedded 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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Mindselo is a personal growth platform that seeks to transform ideas into wisdom. They want to create conscious minds connected to the world through their education system. 

Young Writers Program 2021 is a unique initiative by Mindselo where they are inviting writers, bloggers, journalists and other conscious minds to express their unique ideas on various topics in the form of a blog or article.

Through this program, they aim to build a community of passionate and conscious minds who can contribute to making this world a better place with their skills.

Benefits of participating in the Young Writers Program 2021 include:

• Winners of this program will receive a unique title – Mindselo Bloggers.
• The best submissions will be featured on the Mindselo official website, reaching a global audience.
• Winners will gain access to the Mindselo Creators Program.
• Winner will receive certification and many other future opportunities.

Eligibility requirements:

• Proven ability to tell rich stories in words, video or both.
• The blog or article should be written in Hindi or English.
• The word limit is 250 words minimum and 1000 words maximum.
• The article should be the author’s original work and should not be published anywhere else in any form.
• There are no age restrictions.
• All regions are eligible.

Application Process:

1. Write a powerful and unique blog or article on the given topics.
2. Submit your article using the registration link.

The deadline for submissions is 2nd July 2021.

For more information, please email Aman Kumar or phone on +919557178303.

The post Opportunity: Young Writers Program 2021 by Mindselo (YWPM 2021) 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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