Join the volunteer team at Inverleith House in Edinburgh.
We are looking for enthusiastic and friendly volunteers to join our current team to assist in the daily running of Inverleith House – Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s primary exhibition venue – and welcome visitors to our next exhibition within it: Keg de Souza’s ‘Shipping Roots’, running from Friday 24 March to Sunday 27 August 2023.
Plants have always traversed seas, intentionally and inadvertently. In Shipping Roots, artist Keg de Souza draws on RBGE’s collections to tell tales of eucalyptus, prickly pear and ‘alien’ seeds, tracing legacies through the British Empire and specifically linking Australia, India and the UK. These stories relate to the artist’s own cultural removal, drawn from her lived experiences as a person of Goan heritage whose ancestral lands were colonised, to living as a settler on unceded Gadigal land in Sydney.
What does this role entail?
We offer training for this role, and activities include the following:
Welcoming and orientating visitors in the gallery
Invigilating and ensuring the safety of the artwork on display
Answering questions about the exhibition, artists, and other RBGE Creative Programmes projects
Encouraging visitors to engage with the exhibition and works on display
Maintaining the cleanliness of the exhibition spaces
N.B. There might be additional opportunities to give ‘spotlight tours’ of Shipping Roots or support other exhibitions and events organised by RBGE Creative Programmes.
Ideally volunteers will be able to commit to at least four hours per week from 24 March to 27 August, between the hours of 10.15am and 5.45pm. We also welcome applications from people who are only available for part of the exhibition run.
How do I apply?
If this sounds of interest, we would love to hear from you. Please visit our volunteering page where you’ll be able to download and complete an application form and return to volunteering@rbge.org.uk by 9am on Friday 17 February 2023, along with brief answers to the following questions:
What do you like most about galleries?
What is your favourite exhibition you have ever visited, and why do you think you enjoyed it so much?
What are you looking to gain from joining the volunteer gallery assistant team?
We encourage applications from candidates from diverse backgrounds, and value the positive impact that this has on our team. RBGE is committed to ensuring that all volunteers are treated equally irrespective of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, and pregnancy or maternity.
If you have any access requirements or questions relating to this volunteering opportunity, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Creative Programmes Producer, Amy Porteous at aporteous@rbge.org.uk.
For the Argyll Climate Beacon, we’re sharing short films about the Scottish rainforest, a vital habitat and natural carbon sink. ‘Rainforest Days’ is a suite of three short films, made entirely from footage and descriptive audio taken by pupils of Hermitage Academy and Lochgilphead High School as part of the Artists in Schools programme led by artist Juliana Capes. The films premiered in May 2022, but are now available online.
Fife
The Fife Beacon helped organise ‘Levenmouth Fayre’ at Levenmouth Academy in September 2022. We’re sharing the winners of a poster competition at the fayre, which invited school pupils to share their vision for Levenmouth in the future. The prizes for the best posters were hampers of locally sourced produce.
The four winners of the poster competition. Clockwise from top left: first prize, second prize, joint third prize. Courtesy of Fife Climate Beacon.
Inverclyde
For the Inverclyde Climate Beacon, we’re sharing a backstage look at the making of This Is How It Happens, a performance at Beacon Arts Centre researched, written and performed by the Beacon Young Company. The performance took place in March 2022 at the Beacon Arts Centre.
For the Midlothian Climate Beacon, we’ve got not one but two films made by Queen Margaret University students during a residency at the National Mining Museum Scotland. The films premiered at an event at the museum in April 2022, but are now available online for all to see.
Have Your Piece by Sandra Karolak and Jay Brown is an encouragement to have more conversations about climate change, drawing on the tradition of ‘piece time’ when miners would take their sandwich break from work.
Re:Grow by Maria-Magdalena Arnaudova is a highly personal exploration of climate anxiety and its effect on young people, combining elements of spoken word and dance.
Outer Hebrides
For Làn Thìde, the Outer Hebrides Climate Beacon, we’re sharing Tuil is Geil, a sound piece by artist Sandra Kennedy that incorporates data from the Met Office and conversations with local people to reflect on the impact of climate change and storms on the Western Isles. The piece was created in 2022 as part of Làn Thìde’s Climate Storyline project.
Tayside
The Tayside Climate Beacon commissioned new work from three local creatives, which explored climate change in relation to local issues, culture, and geography.
Artist Kristina Aburrow’s The Smokie Migration explored the history of the Arbroath Smokie and how it related to changes in the local environment. Shaper/Caper’s dance piece The World is My…? looked at the climate crisis through the lens of intergenerational relationships and personal choice. Storyteller Alex Turner’s Storyscaper shared three stories of personal experiences of climate change from the perspective of the year 2055.
You can watch a video of Shaper/Caper’s performance below and find out more about all three commissions on the Tayside Climate Beacon website.
Share your knowledge with others so we move faster together – or ask a question that someone else may have the answer to!
At our Green Arts conferences (which we held up until 2019), our ‘show and tell’ sessions, where practitioners shared their stories with their peers, were very popular and successful. Much of the knowledge needed for working on climate change is in people’s heads and in their cultural and climate-focused organisations. It’s knowledge that’s less technical and more about how to get it done, where to start, who to ask, and where the suppliers are.
Ideas for transformational change and re-imagining the world
We need a more transformational change in society. So, we welcome your ideas about how culture can start doing different things to help bring about that change; rather than doing the same things differently.
Let other sectors know what you need to enable your transformational change
Culture, transport, local and national government, environmental agencies – we all need each other’s help to make the change. Tell us the challenge you are facing and what you need from others.
What sort of exhibits are we looking for?
We’re looking for posters, short videos, presentations, whatever suits you best. It can be an exhibit you’ve created already or one you make especially for SPRINGBOARD (as your time and resources allow).
While your exhibit doesn’t have to tie in to the themes or cohorts specifically, you may find it useful to have a look at the SPRINGBOARD programme.
Deadline to express interest
We’re not setting a strict deadline but we encourage you to submit your expression of interest as soon as possible. This allows us time to review and get back to you so that you can create your exhibit with time to spare before SPRINGBOARD begins on 27 February.
We’ll check your submission for relevance and suitability and then let you know if it’s been accepted so that you can share the relevant links and/or files with us to upload to the exhibition hall.
We’re aiming to upload any exhibits that we receive by 16 February ready for day 1 of SPRINGBOARD. After 16 February, we’ll do our best to upload exhibits but know that we’ll also be pretty busy getting ready to welcome you at 10am on 27 February.
Aberdeen Performing Arts (APA) is seeking a solo performer/artist with work-in-progress to take part in Planet Scratch Night.
APA is pleased to offer this performance opportunity as part of Climate Week North-East 2023 at the Lemon Tree. We are seeking a solo artist with a work-in-progress performance of 30-40 minutes that centres on the climate conversation.
We welcome applications from practising creatives across any art form that is suitable for the stage, inclusive of but not limited to theatre, performance art, drag and spoken word. You will present this work as part of a scratch night billing on Wednesday 29 March alongside performance artist Katy Dye, who will be presenting her work-in-progress, Climate Grief Karaoke.
This opportunity welcomes applications from artists with a track record of presenting work in venues of a similar size and scale to the Lemon Tree. The Lemon Tree lounge space has a capacity of 150 seated cabaret-style. More information about the venue can be found on our website.
If you would like to arrange a visit to the Lemon Tree before submitting your application, please contact hanna.louise@aberdeenperformingarts.com to arrange this.
Other important information
Fee: £850 fee plus travel expenses
Performance date: Wednesday, 29 March 2023 at the Lemon Tree
We’re offering up to 10 bursaries of £350 to cover the time of freelancers in the cultural and climate change sectors who wish to attend the online assembly.
We recognise that many freelancers in the cultural and climate change sectors often cannot participate in events like SPRINGBOARD 2023 due to financial pressures. However, freelancer contributions are invaluable to creative climate action and we believe it will be a very worthwhile experience for everyone who participates. So, we’re offering up to 10 bursaries of £350 to cover attendance time.
We particularly encourage applications that will increase the diversity of assembly participants. We’re aiming to award bursaries across a range of age, geographical area of work, discipline or field of work and stage of career. We’d like, if possible, to award half the bursaries to cultural practitioners and half to climate change practitioners.
Apply now for a bursary to attend SPRINGBOARD. The deadline for applications is 11.59pm on Tuesday 31 January 2023.
FAQs
Am I eligible to apply?
Yes, if:
you do most of your work on a freelance / short contract basis
your work is mainly Scotland based and focused in the arts and culture sector and/or the climate change and sustainability sector
you believe attending SPRINGBOARD will enable you to contribute more effectively to building a sustainable, climate-ready Scotland
No, if:
you are employed full-time or part-time as we hope you’ll be attending on behalf of your employer
you are in full-time education
How much time will I need to spend at SPRINGBOARD?
This is a four-day commitment from 10am to 4pm each day (27 February to 2 March). If you can only attend part of SPRINGBOARD, we ask that you come to all the sessions for your cohort and as much as possible of the main programme as your time affords. You’ll be asked to join a cohort based on your experience and interests. Full programme details will be announced as soon as they’re finalised.
Cohort sessions will run 2pm-3.30pm (90 minutes) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday a longer cohort session in the morning will run 10.20am-1pm (160 minutes including a 15-minute break) and, after lunch, a 90-minute plenary will include cohorts presenting their action plans, Q&A and discussion.
We’re finalising cohort topics at the moment and will advertise them shortly.
Once bursaries have been awarded, we’ll contact the successful applicants to discuss which cohort best suits their skills, knowledge and ambitions based on their preferred question (as indicated in their application).
When should I register for SPRINGBOARD?
As soon as you receive notification about your bursary application. All bursary recipients will be given a code to put in at the payment stage of registration to indicate that they’re not required to pay the fee.
If you are unsuccessful in applying for a bursary, we hope you’ll still register to attend SPRINGBOARD.
If I’m a successful applicant, how will my bursary be paid?
After SPRINGBOARD concludes on Thursday 2 March 2023 you’ll send us an invoice and we’ll pay £350 (+VAT if applicable) into your nominated account within 14 days of us acknowledging receipt.
What does my invoice need to include?
Your full name (first name and last name)
Your full postal address
Invoice date
Invoice reference (for your own accounting)
If you are VAT registered, the amount of VAT charged and your VAT number
This description of what the invoice is for: ‘Bursary for participation in the SPRINGBOARD online assembly 27 February-2 March 2023’
This total bursary cost: £350.00
Full payment details comprising:
Name on bank account
Sort code
Account number
Name of bank
Can I apply for both a bursary and financial assistance to cover the cost of childcare during SPRINGBOARD?
No. However, if you are unsuccessful in your bursary application and will incur childcare costs by attending SPRINGBOARD, please contact us: springboard@creativecarbonscotland.com.
If you wish to apply, please complete the form HERE by 11.59pm on Tuesday 31 January 2023. We’ll advise both successful and unsuccessful applicants by Friday 3 February.
SPRINGBOARD bursary application
This application has 14 questions or fields requiring responses and six optional fields. Some of the questions have free text boxes and we suggest you answer in around 200 words. We estimate it may take up to 45 minutes to complete the application, but it may be much less. Shortlisting will be anonymous and take into consideration your responses under ‘About your work’ and ‘For SPRINGBOARD’ (except where noted to maintain anonymity). We will give particular attention to your statement and your biography, so please avoid including any identifying text in those responses.
At this Green Tease event, we explored the role of the arts and culture sector in helping to imagine and cultivate spaces for climate democracy in Scotland.
At the root of the climate emergency is a crisis of political imagination. Our current democratic structures are limited in who they represent and what they can achieve. We need radical, collective visions of alternative futures to drive transformative action.
At this Green Tease event, we explored the role public participation can play in the climate and ecological emergency; and the importance of art and culture in envisioning and creating the radical climate futures we need. A just and equitable response requires creating and extending dynamic, participatory systems with new citizen engagement opportunities.
To help understand those connections, we had three great speakers on creative democratic innovation followed by creative participation in practice in the form of a live version of The People’s Palace of Possibility, an interactive performance installation about utopias, rage, and how we create change.
Our first speaker of the evening, Oliver Escobar, senior lecturer in Public Policy and academic lead of democratic innovation at Edinburgh Futures Institute, introduced the term ’democratic myopia’ – a concept of short-term thinking in institutions driven by electoral and market cycles that makes it difficult to act on the climate emergency. He argued that we, through public participation, can unlock this mechanism:
“The climate crisis demands short-term action based on long-term thinking, and democratic innovations can do that. However, we cannot reach a desirable future if the means do not reflect the values we want for the future. That is where democracy and climate come together.”
Imaginaction: A creative democratic life
Art and culture are essential in opening up spaces for democratic participation by connecting to futures greater than the present:
“It is important that we begin to think of power as creative: When you share power, you generate power because your creative capacity to act was not there before”, Oliver Escobar said.
Democracy is more than elections, and we need art to reverse this narrow understanding and open up the public imagination that we can create new citizenship that goes beyond the established institutions. To capture this need, Oliver Escobar used the term imaginaction1:
“Imagination and action go together. Action without imagination is an action that constrains the horizon of possibilities we are now endeavouring. We cannot act on the crisis we are facing unless we can imagine things that are truly different”.
Unlocking our imagination was also crucial for the next speaker, Claire Dufour, Creative Climate Producer at Creative Dundee, who said:
“We are in a crisis of imagination of what today and tomorrow could be. To me democracy is about action.”
Communities as vital democratic spaces
When people are given the right conditions, they can create change and build bridges between communities, movements and institutions. However, today only 35% of Scottish citizens feel part of how decisions affecting their community are made and 77 % would get more involved if it was easier to participate in decisions that affect it. By increasing opportunities for public participation, we can deepen the role of citizens in decisions around climate.
An important feature of democratic innovations, such as Citizen Assemblies, is that members are selected in a way that is demographically representative of society. This means we avoid the self-selection bias that normally exists in public spaces. Creating in-build institutional spaces for citizens to be heard is also something that environmental movements such as Extinction Rebellion have long been advocating for. However, democratic innovations should also take place outside formal institutions and for this communities are vital.
Democratic life should unfold in all social, cultural, and economic relations, something that was emphasised by Claire Dufour from Creative Dundee. Her presentation focussed on the regional programme CULTIVATE that demonstrates how art can cultivate democratic spaces in communities.
CULTIVATE is a leadership programme for creative practitioners and local communities to collaboratively explore creativity as a root for climate action in the geographically, socially and economic diverse Tay region. CULTIVATE helps creative practitioners to engage local communities in sustainable practice, foster environmental leadership, and share learning.
From left: Claire Dufour, Oliver Escobar and Malaika Cunningham
One of the artists in CULTIVATE is Nicky Bolland, who works to bring together communities in conversations across generations, creating spaces around painting and tea to have conversations. Another project is led by Jade Anderson called The Wee Wardrobe, making second hand clothing a first choice locally.
“On a local level we are showing what can happen through collective action, collaboration and placemaking. Democracy needs to be people focussed, from the grassroots meeting people where they are and help people in communities with their visions and art and culture can really help with that,” Claire Dufour said.
A culture of participation
The third speaker of the evening, Malaika Cunningham from Artsadmin spoke about how we need a culture of political participation where we use multiple approaches to create deliberative and participatory spaces where citizens can imagine and express their views in different ways. Getting everyone into a space is not enough. We must make sure that everyone feels able to express themselves.
This is the reason Malaika Cunningham developed the People’s Palace of Possibility, which everyone got to try in practice after the talks. a way to create conversation between strangers. She got inspiration from the idea of Real Utopias developed by Eric Olin Wright, based on the idea that utopias already exist out there and that the more we connect and celebrate them the more they can actually transform society. According to Malaika Cunningham, we need a culture of participation to make that happen.
“We need a broader idea of ourselves as citizens more than just consumers. We need deliberative spaces all over society in which citizens are invited to be critical and imaginative, and listen to opposing views and to exchange ideas,” Malaika Cunningham said.
One way of building a democratic culture is via artistic practice. According to Malaika Cunningham, a crucial part of creating a democratic culture is providing alternative forums for political exchange, not always depending on verbal political debate. Diversity within the room is not enough: To include as many people as possible, there must be various ways to communicate through alternative channels like sound, pictures, or text.
The People’s Palace of Possibility
After the three speakers, Malaika Cunningham presented a live version of The People’s Palace of Possibility an interactive performance installation about utopias, rage, and how we create change.
The project started in 2019 as a part of the Bare Project and creates a space where citizens are invited to join a collective called palace citizens that dares to imagine a different future. First the participants were invited to become palace citizens and were sent out for an audio guided walk which invited people think about our connections with each other, place, our values. During the walk people were asked questions such as, ‘what do you think about when you think about the world?’ and ‘who or what gives you hope?’and were encouraged to take pictures related to those, which would be uploaded to a shared archive.
When people returned from the walk, the event space had been split into four areas with the prompts from the walk together with pictures to continue the reflection. Participants were then invited to reflect and discuss ways that they could work with creating spaces for democratic participation with the climate emergency.
During the discussion, the participants touched upon the value of getting out and exploring the local area through a creative and participatory exercise: a practice some could see themselves using in teaching and community activities as a way of engaging people with their local environment. Several also expressed that today’s talks and exercises have revealed creativity is a powerful way of inviting a more diverse audience into a conversation about the climate emergency.
Here is a sample of some of the other themes and thoughts.
Over time, the hope with The People’s Palace of Possibility is that the archive can model a different democratic participation that is creative and playful: “I think it is important for democracy to be fun,” Malaika Cunningham said.
At this Green Tease event, we explored the growing movement within the arts to engage with and address the UK’s colonial history, looking at how this is intimately connected with work on climate change as a neo-colonial issue.
Cultural relationships within a landscape
When we talk about decolonisation and climate change we need to talk about land, the front lines of extractivism.
“It’s not just about the lost land in and of itself but also about the lost cultural relationships that exist within communities within that landscape, it is a slow industrial genocide”
said Suzanne Dhaliwal and referred to her work in the Boreal Forest in Canada, an area of the size of England and Wales combined that is now a site of extraction:
“It is a continuation of the genocide of indigenous people. We use art and culture to communicate these issues, but we also use art to understand the cultural heritage that has been lost.”
She encouraged people to use stories to generate solidarity for the people living in front line communities like the Boreal Forest, because by telling their stories, we can bring empathy and fill in the “human voice gap” that some environmental movements can leave out.
Parvinder Marwaha gave an example of her work on digital programming on the loss of land in times of the climate emergency with a project called Landless, an interactive resource site exploring climate refugees. The resource looks at objects travelling between countries, and so the map serves as a conversation starter about climate refugees. With the map, you can go back and forth in time and zoom in on specific areas with data-specific information about risks.
Titilayo Farukuoye, the final speaker of the evening, emphasised that we need to tackle all types of inequalities to tackle climate change – class, capitalism, transphobia – which are all destroying livelihoods. Stepping away from a white supremacist point of view, we need to acknowledge that colonialism is driving climate injustice. The power structures today are built on the right to land, and Titilayo Farukuoye read out a poem called “Draped in Cotton” about how we are all dressed in blood from the cotton and fabric industry.
Titilayo Farukuoye ended their presentation with a poem based on an Afrofuturist perspective called ‘What do you remember about the earth?’ reflecting upon how it will feel if we do not take care of our shared home:
“The home that has been a lost love of our lives. What do you remember about her?”
Craft Scotland has an exciting opportunity for a talented and self-starter marketing & campaigns manager to join our dynamic team.
Our communications (including marketing and PR) and digital platforms play a vital role in the delivery of Craft Scotland’s strategy, helping the organisation to advance on our vision and mission, and positioning us as Scotland’s leading craft charity supporting the sector.
The Communications & Digital team at Craft Scotland believe in the power of storytelling to resonate with audiences. We deliver marketing and PR campaigns to a high-standard, promoting the vibrant year-long programme that Craft Scotland delivers.
We pride ourselves on creating and commissioning engaging content that shares makers’ stories, raises awareness of the value of craft and shines a light on the diversity and breadth of activity happening in Scotland’s contemporary craft community.
This new role, marketing & campaigns manager, is a fantastic opportunity for someone with proven industry experience who is keen to get their ideas off the ground in a supportive environment. If you want to lead on results-orientated campaigns, whilst being a key contributor to a new social media strategy then this role is for you!
Full information about the role, key accountabilities and capabilities is available in the Recruitment Pack. We recommend reading through the information provided before applying: https://www.craftscotland.org/careers/marketing-campaigns-manager [opens in a new window]
Closing date: Midnight, Tuesday 17 January 2023 Interview date: Late January 2023 (date TBC) Salary: £29,000 Term: Permanent
Please note, this role has been re-advertised and the benefits package updated. We are also open to applications for flexible working, including a 4-day working week. Additionally, the Craft Scotland team are currently hybrid working.
(Top image: Image: Studio Emma, photography by Susan Castillo. [supplied])
Craft Scotland has an exciting opportunity for a passionate and organised digital co-ordinator to join our dynamic team.
Our communications (including marketing and PR) and digital platforms play a vital role in the delivery of Craft Scotland’s strategy, helping the organisation to advance on our vision and mission, and positioning us as Scotland’s leading craft charity supporting the sector.
The Communications & Digital team at Craft Scotland believes in the power of storytelling to resonate with audiences. We deliver marketing and PR campaigns to a high-standard, promoting the vibrant year-long programme that Craft Scotland delivers.
The digital co-ordinator is essential to the organisation, as the role supports the promotional activity of the wider craft sector and helps the organisation to promote its programme and reach a variety of audiences.
Full information about the role, key accountabilities and capabilities is available in the recruitment pack. We recommend reading through the information provided before applying: https://www.craftscotland.org/careers/digital-coordinator [opens in a new window]
Closing date: Midnight, Tuesday 17 January 2023 Interview date: Late January 2023 (date TBC) Salary: £22,500 Term: Permanent
Please note, that the team are currently hybrid working. We are also open to applications for flexible working, including a four-day working week.
(Top image: Studio Emma, photography by Susan Castillo. [supplied])
The Jorum Craft Award is a materials focused grant supported by Jorum Studio & Craft Scotland
The Jorum Craft Award provides funding to support makers’ exploration of materials, including but not limited to research and development of a new piece of work, project or collection.
Each award centres around a theme, exploring the intersection between technical skill and material innovation.
The theme for Round 6 (Dec 2022) is Unusual Weather. The influence weather and unusual phenomena can have on design; studying unusual weather phenomena to influence creativity.
We are looking for proposals for new bodies of work that explore unusual weather and different approaches to materiality. Each theme can be interpreted by the maker through their materials, concepts, designs whether this is literally or abstractly.
Applicants must be able to demonstrate a clear view of their future development (and/or that of a particular project), and how receiving the Jorum Craft Award would help them to achieve their goals.
One award available per round, between £500 and £1,000, to assist with the development of your creative practice
