Culture Futures

Australia: Arts and climate change festival

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The festival ‘ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015’ will be staged in Melbourne, Australia, from 11 April to 17 May 2015. It is a festival which aims to inform, engage and inspire, delivering an expansive and stimulating series of events that can help lead us towards a creative, just and sustainable future.

‘ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015’ is a festival of climate change related arts, and ideas will include over 20 curated exhibitions at alongside a series of keynote lectures and public forums featuring local and international guests.

The events are intented to provide a clear space for the discussion of the challenges and opportunities, impacts and solutions, arising from climate change.

Art, culture, and environment are areas of contemporary intersection, generating exciting explorations of aesthetic ideas and creative thinking concerning the environmental conundrums of the 21st century.

‘ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015’ will be staged with further participation from museums and galleries located in greater Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Participants include:

Ian Potter Museum of Art – University of Melbourne
ACMI, Australian Centre for the Moving Image
ARC One Gallery
Art Projects Australia
Australian Galleries
Carbon Arts / RMIT Design Hub
Centre for Contemporary Photography
Craft
Creative Spaces Carlton Connect Studio
Federation Square
Heide Museum of Modern Art
Horsham Regional Art Gallery
Latrobe University Museum of Art
Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts
MARS Gallery
Melbourne School of Design – University of Melbourne
Monash Gallery of Art
RMIT Gallery
Sophie Gannon Gallery
TarraWarra Museum of Art
Victorian Eco Innovation Lab
West Space


If you with to receive announcements about ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015, you can subscribe to the CLIMARTE newsletter on www.climarte.org/

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

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Australia: Art prize and exhibition to promote climate awareness

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In Adelaide, Australia’s fifth-largest city with 1.3 million residents, 51 artists submitted 66 different works for the fifth Solar Art Prize which offered a first prize of AUS$ 8,000 worth of solar panels, along with four minor prizes of AUS$ 5,000 each of solar vouchers.

The 66 artworks have been on display at the Royal South Australian Society of Arts gallery in March and April 2014, and are currently at display at Pilgrim Uniting Church in Adelaide.

solar-art_carbon-footprint5

Amanda Hassett: ‘Carbon Footprint’ 12.25x60x5 wood and char on board

The aim of the exhibition is to raise awareness of climate change and to encourage “ideas for the reduction of atmospheric green house gasses as expressed through art work, or by illustrating warnings and public responsibility.”

Peter Noble’s ‘Danger Zone’ was winner of the 4th Solar Art Prize in 2013

The exhibition depicts artists’ concerns with the environment and climate change, through their imagination, diversity and the beauty of nature.

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In addition to viewing the art exhibit, visitors can pick up a booklet, ‘Ways We Can – Meet the challenge of climate change’, which containS a mix of previous art entries and emsissions reduction info – “science to inform and art to inspire.”

The theme for this years’ Solar Arts Prize was ‘Caring for Our Planet’. A People’s Choice Award was handed over 13 April 2014.

Pilgrim Uniting Church hosts the 5th Solar Art Prize exhibition ‘Caring for our Planet’ until 9 May 2014.

» More about the exhibition on  www.facebook.com


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solar-art-p_Edwards_Alway

“The exhibition aims to celebrate nature and the environment and promote the reduction of carbon output in the fight against global warming by encouraging ideas for the reduction of green house gasses as expressed through art work, or by illustrating warnings and public responsibility. If the world can change to renewable power, we can achieve a more sustainable future for both the natural world and humanity.” Introduction from exhibition booklet

solar-art-p_ad

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

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Performers make video statements about climate change

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The Climate Message Video Festival is an online initiative that brings together musicians from all over the world to increase awareness of climate change. They don’t meet in real life, they all meet on Youtube. Festival organiser and jazz musician Warren Senders from USA aims to have uploaded an even 1,000 videos by Earth Day on 22 April 2014.

climate-message_warren-send

“Whether we reach that number or not, the video festival will keep on keepin’ on. The goal is to have sounds and voices from all over the world saying in as many different languages and styles as possible that the time to get serious about climate change is now.”

“As a musician, as a human being, and as a citizen of Planet Earth, I can say that we all need to be committed to the fight against global climate change, so that our songs can go on to generations in the future.”Warren Senders

If you’re a performer in any idiom, you can join the Climate Message Video Festival – an online initiative bringing together musicians from all over the world to increase awareness of climate change: www.theclimatemessage.com

To make a Climate Message video, here’s how: 
Use a smartphone or webcam (or a friend’s) and record about a minute’s worth of your music and talking. Then email it to theclimatemessage@gmail.com, along with your name, contact information, and any details you want included.

Warren Senders will then upload it to the YouTube channel, and feature it on The Climate Message website. Eventually all the videos will be linked to an interactive world map.


Climate Message from Warren Senders, teacher and performer of Indian classical music, Medford, Massachusetts, USA


Climate Message from Banning Eyre, radio broadcaster, writer, musician, Connecticut, USA


Climate Message from Jarrett Cherner – piano – Brooklyn, New York, USA

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

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Book about curatorial methodologies on climate change

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he book ‘Portable Nation: Disappearance as Work in Progress – Approaches to Ecological Romanticism’ offers a range of geo-political positions and research-curatorial methodologies on climate change and their approaches to ecological romanticism.

port-nat_curators

Featuring essays on the geopolitics of climate change and the idea of urgency, the book offers a comprehensive snapshot of the aesthetic, political and poetic dimensions of the situation in the island nation intertwined with a global vision of the climate emergency around the world.

The book is based on the work of curators Khaled Ramadan, Alfredo Cramerotti and Aida Eltorie who were commissioned by the Maldives Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture to be in charge of the exhibition at the Pavilion of Maldives for the 55th International Art Exhibition of Venize Biennale in 2013.

The book expands on several of the themes which emerged conceptually and artistically in the Maldives Pavilion exhibition and six-month-long public programme, and elaborates them in a philosophical, historical, scientific and poetic register within the specific materiality of a book, with its capacity to extend the time, space and context of the ideas beyond the Venice Biennale. It aims to engage a readership further-reaching than the project’s immediate public.

The publication is structured in three main sections: the artists and their projects presented in the Maldives Pavilion, the parallel projects over the six-month period, and the critical text section which includes interviews and thematic analysis.

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‘Portable Nation: Disappearance as Work in Progress – Approaches to Ecological Romanticism’

book cover

ABOUT THE BOOK
Editors: Dorian Batycka, Camilla Boemio, Alfredo Cramerotti and Aida Eltoire
Publisher: Maretti Editore
Year: 2014
Pages: 176
Language: English

MORE INFORMATION
» More information about the book at Maretti Editore:  www.marettieditore.com

EXHIBITORS
Mohamed Ali, Sama Alshaibi, Ursula Biemann, Stefano Cagol, Wael Darwesh, Moomin Fouad, Thierry Geoffrey (aka Colonel), Khaled Hafez, Heidrun Holzfeind & Christoph Draeger, Hanna Husberg, Laura McLean & Kalliopi Tsipni-Kolaza, Achilleas Kentonis & Maria Papacaharalambous, Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky), Gregory Niemeyer, Khaled Ramadan, Oliver Ressler, Klaus Schafler, Patrizio Travagli, Wooloo.

PERFORMERS AND EVENTS
Mark Dahl, Ehsan Fardjadniya, Shani Leiderman, Celeste Pimm, Oliver Ressler, Marian Tubbs.

SUPPORT
The project was supported by the Danish Arts Council, Mookai Suites, mooinc, The Allam Foundation, bm: ukk – Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, The Arts and Culture, Kultur Steiermark-Department Culture, Europe, Foreign Relations, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, 6 Contemporary Arts, Material Fonds, HIVOS: People United, Ayyam Projects, The School of Art and College of Fine Art – University of Arizona, Art Sawa Gallery Dubai, Olympus Cinema Male, Imad Agency Photo Archive, The Maldives National Museum, Meyer Sound and CITRIS, Contemporary Practices Art Journal, Transart Institute New York, Horcynus Orca Foundation Messina, www.doculogia.com.

WEB LINKS
» Maldives Pavilion:
www.maldivespavilion.com

» Chamber of Public Secrets:
www.chamberarchive.org

VIDEOS
» www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHE4DJmJnGs

» www.doculogia.com/01doculogia.html

» www.vimeo.com/channels/essay/page:8

» www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgDEcJEnupw

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

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Australia: American environmental artist featured at Sustainable Living Festival

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Australia: American environmental artist featured at Sustainable Living Festival

The internationally renowned eco-artist and photographer Chris Jordan constructed a major artwork for the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne, Australia, from 11 to 16 February 2014, and he also gave presentations and talks.

chris-jordan_sinking-ship

Chris Jordan explores themes of consumption, waste, environmentalism, ecology and use of art for communication. His work has been described as aesthetically beautiful, mind-boggling and thought-provoking.

Citizens of Melbourne were encouraged to bring their old mobiles to Federation Square on 11 February to be part of his installation.

slf_chris-jordan

» Chris Jordan’s home page: www.chrisjordan.com

» More information about arts-related events during the Sustainable Living Festival: www.slf.org.au/festival14

Chris Jordan’s activities at the festival in Melbourne

Public Forum
Saturday 15 February at 1pm
Free entry
Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia

Installation
11-16 February
Swanston St Forecourt
Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia

Help Create an Eco-Artwork
Wednesday 12 February 2014 (10am-12pm & 12pm-2pm)
Federation Square, Melbourne

Be inspired by internationally renowned eco-artist Chris Jordan as he constructs a major artwork for MobileMuster at Sustainable Living Festival.

Students and teachers will be able to join Chris as he arranges 8,000 old and unused mobile phones into a feature artwork on mobile phone recycling. They will hear from the artist about how he creates his environmental artworks which have been described as aesthetically beautiful, mind-boggling, and thought-provoking. This unique session will challenge students to consider how art can be used to communicate how we think about sustainability. Schools will be provided with learning resources on the artist which can be used as an extension or homework activity.

SLF Education Day Forum & Workshop 
Friday 14 February 2014, 10am-2pm
Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia

slf_chris-jordan-bookAs part of SLF Education Day activities students heard a keynote presentation from Chris Jordan and participated in a hands-on workshop. Widely recognised for his stunning environmental art yet also a captivating speaker, Chris Jordan, in his keynote presentation, exploree themes of consumption, waste, environmentalism, use of art for communicating messages and ecology.

The workshop offered students the chance to learn about the inside of a mobile phone and what can be recycled. They were given expert advice, tools and workspaces to dismantle old mobile phones and learn about the resources that can be recovered. They separated the phone components and identified what materials and elements are used in the mobile phone and how they can be recovered in the recycling process. MobileMuster provided learning resources to that can be taken back to school and used as extensions or homework activity to complement the workshop and further the discussion on the life cycle of a mobile phone.

Students were also able to view the large scale artwork created by Chris Jorda

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

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European alliance of artists and arts institutions promote environmental sustainability

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European alliance of artists and arts institutions promote environmental sustainability

Green Art Lab Alliance is a European-wide programme dedicated to promoting environmental sustainability and how that can be challenged in practical, ethical, and artistic ways across arts genres and cultural communities across Europe. On 12-13 March 2014, the alliance’s next workshop was held in Berlin, Germany.

green-art-lab-alliance

The alliance investigates the challenges and opportunities that environmental sustainability implies for the practice of artists and art institutions:

“We believe it is time that arts and culture takes responsibility in its own innovative and artistic ways. The arts shouldn’t see environmental sustainability as a side issue, but as an essential part of its practice. What that exactly implies for the visual arts and design, is what this project will investigate on different levels and in close collaboration with designers, artists and scientists across Europe,” the initiators of the project stated.

Based on the concept of a ‘knowledge alliance’ developed by DutchCulture|TransArtists in partnership with Julie’s Bicycle the Green Art Lab Alliance of twenty cultural organisations in Europe have created a partnership, building a collaborative project with cultural organisations and artists all over Europe and Georgia.

The project has a total budget of 400,000 euro, of which 50 percent is co-financed by the EU Culture programme. The Green Art Lab Alliance officially started with a kick-off meeting in June 2013 at the Jan van Eijck Academy in Maastricht, the Netherlands, and it will run for almost two years, ending in March 2015.

During this period the collaborating partners organise workshops and labs to share knowledge and raise awareness amongst citizens and artists in particular.

On 28-29 November 2013, Art Motile and the Gas Natural Contemporary Art Museum presented a two day programme of talks, workshops and a round table discussion with TransArtists, ResArtis, On-the-Move and Interarts, among others.

On 12-13 March 2014, the Green Art Lab Alliance hosted a workshop on green issues for the sustainable support of cultural mobility in Berlin, Germany. This workshop targeted EU funders and cultural policy makers interested in including green criteria in the way they support culture and cultural mobility in particular.

On the Move, Julie’s Bicycle and DutchCulture¦TransArtists co-organised the workshop together with with ITI-Germany and IGBK.

Sholeh Johnston from Julie’s Bicycle is tutor of the training.

“This workshop provided an overview of various approaches taken to embed environmental criteria into cultural funding. We shared the tools, resources and methodology used by example funding bodies, such as the Arts Council England, which has embedded criteria around environmental reporting into funding agreements since 2012. We covered case studies of how cultural organisations are interpreting environmental sustainability and the potential impact of policy in aiding and supporting this work, with a focus on touring, residencies and other mobility-related work. There was ample opportunity for discussion and thinking through how these learnings can be practically applied in various European contexts,” explained Sholeh Johnston.

Along with this workshop a training for ecological and sustainable cultural work took place, entitled ‘Training sustainability!’. This training – supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes) – targeted leaders and stakeholders in the performing arts.

Experiences were shared and synergies were created at a joined introductory presentation by Julie’s Bicycle and at a ‘Green Salon’ on 12 March 2014. The participants also got a chance to visit in Berlin cultural and “green” places, including UFA Fabrik.

»For more information about the workshop, you can send an e-mail to mobility (at) on-the-move.org

Advocate for legacy and standards

“Maintaining the diversity of response in the context of a shared ambition will be critical for ensuring that the project has a strong foundation for legacy. With this project we will establish a strong network of artists and organizations engaged with this topic of environmental sustainability, which will be the foundation for establishing a European Knowledge Alliance. This European Knowledge Alliance will consist of knowledge hubs (ambassadors/artists and organizations) across Europe on the different ethical, practical and artistic aspects of environmental sustainability.

The Knowledge Alliance will advocate for legacy and standards for the arts and cultural sector on environmental sustainability on the longer term.”

Transartists.org wrote that this first meeting of all partners “demonstrated what it is that makes this project so unique: the variety of profiles of participating organisations and different geographical backgrounds offer a diverse approach to the different aspects of sustainability.”

There are residencies involved where artists, the general public and partner organisations get the chance to experiment and explore the role of sustainability in the arts.

Others are European cultural networks, government related institutes which have impact on (national) policy level, educational institutes and organisations which are stimulating the exchange of scientific knowledge with the creativity of artists.

The issues related to sustainability that these organisations are going to address vary from mobility to waste, water and energy.

“All partners believe that it is time for the arts and culture to take responsibility in their own innovative and artistic ways. By exploring the different approaches and by sharing knowledge and best practices, the partners aim to identify realistic first steps to create a better understanding  of the meaning  of sustainability for and through the arts.

The GALA partners want to promote and support artists and cultural workers in their contribution to this goal. The ambition is to create a Europe-wide network of individuals and organisations engaged in combining arts and environmental sustainability.”

»Report about the kick-off meeting: www.transartists.org

More information

»Open or download: planning document for the Green Art Lab Alliance 2013-2015 (PDF)

»Discover or rediscover the Green mobility guide for the performing arts sector which On The Move co-produced with Julie’s Bicycle.

»More info on www.on-the-move.org

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

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Australia: Artist collective for ‘planetary healing’ opens exhibition

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On 6 February, an art exhibition entitled ‘Oh My Gaia’ was opened as part of the St Kilda Festival in Melbourne, Australia. The aim of the exhibition is to deliver “a non-linear approach to community education, sustainability and healing through the transformative power of art.”

oh-my-gaia_artpiece

The art exhibition is produced by the an artist collective called The Planetary Healing Artists Association of Australia Inc. It is a forum for artists including visual artists, performers, writers, healers, and other creatives in the community who share ideas for a sustainable future in a creative way. The main purpose, they write on their home page, is to support an environmentally sustainable planet. The overall concept of the ‘Oh My Gaia’ art exhibition is to create “community cohesiveness for the benefit of connecting all people and life on the planet.”

At 2:30pm every first Sunday of the month, the forum holds open meetings in St Kilda West, Melbourne.

» For exhibition and festival info, see: www.stkildafestival.com.au

» Home page: www.planetaryhealingartists.blogspot.com.au/

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

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USA: Art exhibition about climate change, coal and superfunds

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In the new exhibition ‘Altered State’, which runs at the Holter Museum in Helena, Montana, until 13 April 2014, the popular American painter Monte Dolack takes a look at controversial topics such as climate change, coal, superfund sites, and the effects of extractive companies moving into Montana’s wild spaces.

returnOfLakeMissoula_590

Monte Dolack is a well-known and popular artist in Montana, and with this new exhibition, he still tries to speak to a wider audience, he told Darby Minow Smith from Grist magazine, though he is touching on a much more controversial topic than anything else he has produced over the 40 years he has been working as a visual artist.

“Some artists might fill a room with coal. It might be really cool but a lot of people might miss the message. You have to be pretty well informed about art to understand that vocabulary,” he told Minow Smith. The following is an excerpt of Darby Minow Smith’s review of the exhibition in Montana:

“Unlike the broad whimsy found in some of Dolack’s past work, most of the pieces in Altered State are simple and subtle. An antelope watches a coal train zip along the plains. In ‘Oil and Water’, a family of geese swims through the reflection of a refinery.

In a less subtle move, Dolack incorporated the fruits of Montana’s extractive industries into the collection. He used copper as a canvas; the frames are rubbed with coal. One frame of bright, jagged coal pieces nearly overwhelms the painting inside: a meandering Smith River. ‘Marriage of Convenience’ is a sculpture of a man and a woman made out of coal — Dolack’s commentary on our dependance on the dirty fuel.”

Darby Minow Smith in Grist, 3 Feb 2014

MonteDolack_SuspensionOfBel

Dolack plans to continue to touch on coal and climate change in future works, but he wants to incorporate more animals and explore an international angle.

“This work was about my own history, family, and culture,” he said. “But [regional and global issues] touch each other.” The coal on those trains is heading from Montana to China, after all.

» Monte Dolack’s home page and online gallery: www.dolack.com

Grist – 3 February 2014:
The full Monte: Beloved Montana artist makes bold statement on climate and coal
By Darby Minow Smith

The photo on top of this article is a poster reproduced from an acrylic painting portraying downtown Missoula, Montana as if Glacial Lake Missoula had returned in the present day. It can be purchased at Monte Dolack Gallery: www.dolack.com

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

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Festival in Australia: ‘Arts+Climate=Change 2015’

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The Australian organisation CLIMARTE is developing a major festival of climate and culture which will take place in 2015.

CLIMARTE-logo

CLIMARTE is an independent not-for-profit organisation in Australia that aims to harness the creative power of the arts to inform, engage and inspire action on climate change.

With the collaboration of participants such as Carbon Arts, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Heide Museum of Art, Tarrawarra Museum of Art and the Centre for Contemporary Photography, the festival ‘Arts+Climate=Change 2015’ is intended to engage the arts community and its wide diversity of audiences.

The organisers hope this and other projects will “help make climate change register in people’s hearts and minds, make them demand the sort of action that we need if we are to avoid the worst case scenarios of climate change.”

“Growing up I was lucky to be surrounded by beauty and mystery in artworks and in nature. I want the same for my children and for theirs in turn. I know that climate change is happening. I want urgent social, economic and technological responses and yet this isn’t happening. I hope that art might be one way to make people think. I might be wrong, but opposite my desk hangs an artwork by Los Angeles based street artist Ian Morely. It says ‘If you’re reading this, there’s still time’,” wrote Guy Abrahams, CEO and co-founder of CLIMARTE, in an article in Crikey’s Daily Review of the arts.

Guy Abrahams is a former lawyer and gallerist who left the commerce of art to focus on arts projects that would promote environmental sustainability and counter the threat of climate change. As a founder of the organisation CLIMARTE – Arts for Safe Climate, he is creating an arts network to inspire the broader community to take action on these issues through relevant events.

In the Daily Review article, Guy Abrahams discusses the reasons for establishing CLIMARTE and why he thinks the arts can be a positive force for change. An excerpt:

“The question for CLIMARTE is: can art “rearrange our sense of reality” about the state of our planet, sustainability and climate change?

Throughout history the arts have played a major role in recording and reflecting the state of human society, and the natural world of which society is but a part. At certain times, the arts have also been a catalyst for change, a call to action, a pricking of our collective conscience.

In Australia, there are Aboriginal rock paintings of animal motifs that may be 40,000 years old. These works clearly indicate the importance of the natural world to the people who created them. We have early Eurocentric visions of landscape by John Glover and Fred Williams’ revolutionary evocation of our unique bush. Now Mandy Martin’s bleak coal mine pocked landscapes, Fiona Hall’s tapa cloth depictions of our over exploited oceans, and Janet Laurence’s mystical and mysterious flora and fauna, allow us to see and feel the reality of this new human dominated age – the anthropocene.”

» Read the article here: www.dailyreview.crikey.com.au

» CLIMARTE’s home page: www.climarte.org

MandyMartin

The photo above shows Mandy Martin and the artwork Vivitur Ex Rapto (for Bulga) 2014. Photographed by Alexander Boynes

Mandy Martin is one of the artists who will join a panel at CLIMARTE’s public forum ‘Climate Art Ethics: What role for the arts?’ on Saturday 15 February 2014 in Melbourne, Australia.

Mandy Martin is an Australian artist with a national and international reputation for conservation and landscape. Her work is well represented within Australian public galleries and museums, as well as at the Guggenheim Museum New York, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno.

Imprint Magazine published a Climate Change Issue in 2013, which contained an article by Guy Abrahams from CLIMARTE. The magazine is not online, but the cover, an editorial and the index can be seen here:
» www.printcouncil.org.au/imprint

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

Holland: Conference on the future sustainability of European culture organisations

This post comes to you from Culture|Futures

The conference ‘The Future Is Not What It Used To Be’ aims to develop a range of practical strategies and tactics for the future sustainability of European culture organisations.

futureisnotwhatitused

‘The Future Is Not What It Used To Be’ is a three-day, interdisciplinary working conference on 2-4 April 2014, presented by Trans Europe Halles, Melkweg and P60, taking place in Amsterdam and Amstelveen, The Netherlands.

Key issues and questions will form the basis for in-depth discussions, workshops and presentations at the conference. For instance, one of the conference-workshops entitled ‘Big Change – Towards a Sustainable Cultural Organisation’ will be a hands-on workshop about introducing sustainable methods into a cultural centre.

The host organisation P60 and its adjacent cultural organisations will be used as examples. By identifying areas requiring improvement, diagnostics and developing strategies, this workshop builds on the Sustainability Charter and the expertise developed by Trans Europe Halles.

The idea of the conference is to explore how cultural organisations can meet the needs of the future: What are the prospects are cultural organisations operating in a future of reduced resources and a changing European society?

‘The Future Is Not What It Used To Be’ is for anyone employed in or connected to the cultural sector. It will also offer the opportunity for policy makers and politicians to engage in discussions with culture practitioners on work-related topics and issues.

‘The Future Is Not What It Used To Be’ is organised in partnership with Culture Action Europe, European Cultural Foundation, GALA, IETM, Kunsten ’92, On The Move, Res Artis, Trans Artists and VNPF.

Until 14 February 2014, registration as an early bird with a reduced price will be available. More information on the programme will be available on the conference website from 7 February. 

» www.tehfuture.net

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Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.

Go toThis post comes to you from Culture|Futures

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