This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Kate began the afternoon’s discussion highlighting the key elements that are integral to the North Edinburgh Arts organisation, addressing the on-going regeneration of the local area and both the challenges and rewards of running the centre in such an unexpected area for an arts hub. The centre’s garden, known as the North Edinburgh Grows project, truly has redefined the function of the entire organisation, emerging as a driving force of participation, engagement and sustainability. Over one third of the garden property has been devolved to other local groups, making both the garden space and the existence of North Edinburgh Arts inherently self-sustaining.

Designed with support from ANTA Architects, the North Edinburgh Grows project includes play space, gardening plots, quiet spots for reading and a labyrinth path. Current artist-in-residence, Natalie Taylor, joined us for the afternoon’s gathering and explained her role in shaping the garden, both through whimsical visual interventions and by encouraging local involvement. The garden is a place where local children and fresh produce thrive; Natalie is able to encourage the positive regeneration of this space through her artistic and social practice.

The garden opened in May 2014, offering local children and other community groups the chance to learn how to grow food, engendering themes of self-reliance and responsibility. We had the privilege of being led on a garden tour by three eager local children, and it was clear that the garden is a space that entirely nurtures their imagination. After lending a hand to one of Natalie’s smaller painting projects in the garden, we wrapped up the session with a discussion about the wider role of the arts in urban development. We also explored the availability of spaces for the arts within Edinburgh (prompted by the fact that for many attending it was their first visit to North Edinburgh Arts), and how artists and communities can benefit from socially-driven, and economically accessible creative opportunities.

The North Edinburgh Grows project is a prime example of how collaboration can give on-going life and energy into a project. Though Kate admits that the organisation will always need management and structure (as well as funding), by injecting energy into a once-overlooked space immediately surrounding the facilities, the organisation will see a flourishing of activity in the years to come. And with the project being shortlisted for a 2014 SURF award, it is clear that the project is gaining well-deserved praise from the Scottish design community.

 North Edinburgh Arts provides opportunities for individual and community development through contact with the professional arts, particularly for residents of Greater Pilton in Edinburgh. To find out more about their work, click here.

Images: Allison Pallenske and Catriona Patterson

The post Edinburgh Green Tease Reflections: Community Growing at North Edinburgh Arts appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

This opportunity comes from Bamboo Curtain Studio–

The Bamboo Curtain Studio (BCS) in Taiwan aims to promote cross-cultural exchanges by providing a meeting point for creative talents from national to international art related fields, for short stay or specific projects. BCS also practice and promote sustainability by launching art projects within the community to bring awareness about the environment, global warming and sustainable living.

Since 2009, Bamboo Curtain Studio (BCS) has launched a residency program. It aims to provide time and space for creative talents to do experimental works, outreach projects, collaborations or research. In 2012, we focused more on “Creative Talents”- projects that will bring out new ideas, concepts to the communities, societies and the world, without regard to the age, gender, race and nationality. This program will provide four artists (group) with either a free studio or accommodation space (a choice of only one) for up to two months.

2015 Creative Talent Program

Bamboo Curtain Studio will celebrate its 20th anniversary in the upcoming year of 2015. In celebration of this special occasion, the 2015 “Creative Talents” program specifically opens a call to artists interested in collaborating with our award winning Plum Tree Creek Project, an environmental and community engagement project that focuses on promoting sustainability.

To apply for BCS Creative Talent Program and for more information, please visit the opportunity listing on the BCS website.

Creative Carbon Scotland was fortunate to have Catherine Lee from Bamboo Curtain Studio at our June 2014 Glasgow Green Tease. Catherine spoke about their Plum Tree Creek project at the gathering- reflections from the afternoon are available here.

Image: Bamboo Curtain Studio

The post Opportunity: Bamboo Curtain Studio Creative Talent Programme appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Our most recent digital resources feature the environmental work of the CCA, including strategies and policies that address sustainable changes and positive promotion.

Staff, Tenant and Audience Engagement at CCA discusses CCA’s initiatives for engaging those who use their facilities on a daily basis, as well as occasional visitors to the building. These initiatives include training and incentive schemes, support networks and green transport promotions.

CCA Environmental Policy and Public Statement includes details of the CCA’s high standards of environmental sustainability, with short-term and long-range goals and objectives.

More case studies can be found on our Resources page.

Would you like your organisation featured in our Case Studies? Drop us a line at Gemma.lawrence@creativecarbonscotland.com

The post New case studies: Environmental policy and engagement at CCA appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Join us on Thursday 27th November, 3 – 5pm as we light up a kiln made of repurposed newspaper to fire the ceramic pieces created at our September Green Tease gathering. The event will take place at an outdoor site off of Garscube Road.

David Parr from Sustainable Glasgow Project will host us on the site which he currently is working with Glasgow City Council to develop into an urban forest and will tell us a bit about the project. Even if you weren’t present at the workshop in September you’re very welcome to come along for a chat and cup of tea next to the fire.

If you were unable to make our last Green Tease with Minty Donald and Nick Millar you can read our reflections here. As always, Green Tease is open to anyone interested in the links between arts and sustainability so please pass this on to anyone you think might like to join us.

Please RSVP to gemma.lawrence@creativecarbonscotland by midday on 26^th November.

The post Upcoming event: Firing Ceramics with a Paper Kiln at Glasgow Green Tease appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

This year, the conference takes on the theme of “Access” including access to funding, access to new audiences and access to sustainability. The conference balances social gatherings with debate and discussion events, offering numerous opportunities for professional networking and exchange of ideas. Participants receive discounted tickets to the Canterbury Festival, an international arts and culture festival with a diverse programme of events.

In August 2014, Creative Carbon Scotland hosted a discussion event as part of the Edinburgh summer festivals (highlights can be read here); “Can Festivals Change the World?” featured Di Robson and brought together a group of festival organisers, arts administrators, cultural delegates and creatives to discuss the following questions-

• What is art’s role in a changing climate?
• How can artists be part of changing the world for the better?
• What can festivals do for sustainability?

We hope that this discussion will be continued at the 2014 Bafa Conference for Festivals. For more information, please visit the conference website.

The post British Arts and Science Festivals Association Conference appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

The Green Arts Portal (GAP) is an online resource that enables organisations and individuals to track their progress towards sustainability milestones. Our launch of bi-weekly reminders will serve to support and remind GAP users of the many facets of the online tool.

The bi-weekly reminders will be structured around themes, ranging from waste management to marketing. Our first theme is “Green Champions,” which celebrates staff members who take the lead on setting and achieving sustainability goals for their organisation. Our new resource “Being a Green Champion” elaborates on the role and strategies implemented by successful green champions. The resource advises-

• How to become a green champion
• What your first steps as a green champion should be
• Communicating initiatives towards green goals
• Measuring your progress through the Green Arts Portal

If you would like to sign up to the Green Arts Portal, please get in touch. If you are already signed up for the Green Arts Portal, be sure to check your email inbox for our bi-weekly reminders!

The post Green Arts Portal Bi-weekly Reminders appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Ben Twist, director of Creative Carbon Scotland, led a discussion that explored various artistic and curatorial conflicts that might occur when considering sustainability – particularly those concerning the transportation of artworks across the world, and as part of international exhibitions. These conflicts were discussed in the real-life context of the Where Do I End And You Begin exhibition at the City Art Centre: commissioned as part of the 2014 Edinburgh Art Festival.

The group of 70 Edinburgh College of Art students were encouraged to reflect on the challenges  curators or artists may face when designing a commissioned exhibition of a similar scale. In this, they were able to explore the various pressures, concerns and opportunities resultant from the inclusion of sustainability at each point of exhibition design.

One of the examples discussed wasthe multimedia work, The Sovereign Forest by Amar Kanwar, and the choices relating to its exhibition space. As the work was too extensive for the City Art Centre, it was instead exhibited in the Old Royal High School – a highly relevant site to the sovereignty and government themes of the work– although a removed site from the initial exhibition. Students were asked to think through the financial, environmental and organisational costs of this decision, and reason their own choice of venue. Different groups within the ECA collective provided contrasting decisions, with those for the change of venue citing the extra costs as necessary to showcase the work to its full scale and effect. However, it was also proposed that instead the work should be shown in a location more pre-disposed to the multimedia set up (such as a cinema), though at a diminished scale.

We also heard from Sorcha Carey, director of the Edinburgh Art Festival, as to why the decision to host the work at the Royal High School was made. Sorcha explained that the experience of the viewer, and the richness or clarity of viewing the entire work in an appropriate space, was balanced against the cost associated with hosting another building. She also went on to highlight the social reasons for using the building, which is largely otherwise inaccessible to the public, and soon to become a commercial property. In considering that reopening of Edinburgh sites, like the Old Royal High School, to the public is a significant aim of the festival, we were able to appreciate the use of an already constructed environment and exhibit enriching the location outside of the festival:

“There is something bigger happening than the artwork”.

Also very present in the discussion was the idea of the integrity of an artwork, and how this might be impacted by measures taken to affect the environmental sustainability of its exhibition. The group discussed Johannesburg-based Kay Hassan’s installation piece My Father’s Music Room, in which Hassan comments on contemporary South African society through a mix of mediums, including a large selection of vinyl records. An inconclusive vote as to whether the work could have been recreated in Scotland (with the same records sourced in Scottish music and charity shops) highlighted how we value origin and authenticity when it comes to art. Many expressed how the artwork would be altered if its components were sourced differently, with Sorcha emphasising the generational significance of the records owned and traded in South Africa: a collective history evidenced through the work. Curator Jane Connarty also challenged us to consider how the work may have differed if produced during a residency in Scotland, and how the site of artwork creation can impact an exhibited product.

As the discussion developed, it became clear that carbon emissions and sustainability is another concern to be considered by curators and artists, but one which must be equated with practical, technical, spatial and aesthetic concerns. As artist and curator Kathleen Ritter highlighted, often the budget of an exhibition is its biggest constraint, but also potentially its biggest incentive to reconsider curatorial design and transportation of works – both which have a major impact on the environmental sustainability of the final exhibition. Ultimately, it is only in the decision to treat each work individually, and to develop compromises between the artist, the curatorial vison and the limiting factors, that the environmental impact of international exhibitions will be reduced.

Images:
Amar Kanwar, The Scene of Crime, 2011. Photograph by Stuart Armitt.
Kay Hassan, My Father’s Music Room, 2007-2008, mixed media, installation view.

Creative Carbon Scotland has been working with Edinburgh Art Festival and their Where do I end and you begin exhibition to better understand the environmental impact of large scale and international visual arts exhibitions. Click here to find out more about the project.

The post Edinburgh Art Festival & Edinburgh College of Art Study Day Reflections appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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