Julie’s Bicycle

We Make Tomorrow 2022 – Speakers

Take a look through the activists, artists, thinkers and influencers taking part in our landmark summit We Make Tomorrow on 13th October 2022 at the Birmingham Rep & Library or online.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW


Ahdaf Soueif

Ahdaf Soueif  is a novelist and political and cultural commentator. Ms Soueif is the author of the bestselling The Map of Love (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999 and translated into more than 30 languages). Her account of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, Cairo: a City Transformed, came out in January 2014. Her collection of essays, Mezzaterra (2004), has been influential and her articles for the Guardian are published in the European and American press.

In 2007 Ms Soueif founded the Palestine Festival of Literature – PalFest, a traveling festival which took place in cities across occupied Palestine (until COVID19). Out of that she co-edited This is Not A Border: Reportage and Reflections from the Palestine Festival of Literature (2017).

Ms Soueif was the first recipient of the Mahmoud Darwish Award (Palestine: 2010) and received the European Cultural Foundation’s 2019 Princess Margriet Award.


Alistair Gentry

I make live artperformance lectures, artistic interventions, participatory experiences and live role-playing games, often focusing on communities and audiences outside of conventional gallery or performance spaces. My other art-adjacent work is as a researcher, producer and activist in livelihoods, equity and access for artists from marginalised groups, especially LGBTQ+ artists, disabled artists, self-taught artists and artists from low income backgrounds… just like me.”


Amahra Spence

Amahra Spence is an artist and organiser working for liberation. She is particularly interested in the role of culture and transformation and how liberation is practiced through systems, strategy, governance and spaces. To do this, she centres 5 key teaching tools in design: Black Imagination(s), Grandparents & the Indigenous Philosophy of Collectivism, Hip Hop & Other Genres of Resistance, Science Fiction and Emergent Strategy. Across cultural, public or Built environment interventions, her work encourages the collaborative dreaming, designing and building of radical, civic infrastructure for community vision, wellness, self-determination and joy.


Anna Santomauro

Anna is a curator and researcher in micropolitics and situated ecological practices.

She joined Arts Catalyst (Sheffield, UK) in 2017 as Curator, and recently became Senior Research Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University (College of Social Sciences and Arts –Art & Design Research Centre). She is co-founder of Vessel in Bari (Southern Italy), a nomadic curatorial organisation and agency invested in supporting artistic and curatorial practices that are situated, responsive and research-led. Anna previously worked as ESP and Public Programmer at Eastside Projects (Birmingham), and in 2018 she was Curator in Residence at Grand Union(Birmingham). She is PhD candidate at the University of Wolverhampton (UK).


Chinonyerem Odimba

Chinonyerem Odimba is a Nigerian British playwrightscreenwriter, and poet.

Her work for theatre includes The Bird Woman of Lewisham at the Arcola, Rainy Season, and His Name is Ishmael for Bristol Old Vic andSweetness of a Sting for National Theatre Connections. More recently, Chinonyerem has written for Young Vic Theatre on the experimental AI play, RSC/Coventry City of Culture 2021 Faith, and is currently under commission with ETT for Who is She, a projection mapping project, and Kiln Theatre, as well as new commissions for BBC Radio 3 and Regents Park Open Air Theatre. She has been shortlisted for several awards including the Adrienne Benham and Alfred
Fagon awards.

Chinonyerem’s TV credits includes Scotch Bonnet for BBC Three and A Blues for Nia for BBC/Eclipse Theatre, Adulting for Channel 4, and more recently My Best Friend Married a Warrior for CBBC. For radio, credits include The Last Flag, and Eve as part of This Is Your Country, Now series on BBC Radio 4.


Edgard Gouveia Júnior
Headshot of Edgard Gouveia Júnior

Edgard Gouveia Júnior never tires of putting people to play. Architect and Urbanist and Post Graduate in Cooperative Games, he dedicates his career to mobilise children, youth and adults by designing and applying virtual games, scavenger hunts and collective actions that lead to small community revolutions.

He is the president of Epic Journey a company that promotes the regenerative communities in organisations such as companies, schools and NGOs. Co-founder of LiveLab that specifically acts with the youth leading regeneration in their own communities, highlighting Jornada X & Primavera X.


Edouard Morena

Edouard is a lecturer and researcher and currently teaches French and international politics at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP). He coordinates the Just Transition Research Collaborative (JTRC), an international researcher-activist platform that works to embed workers’ and frontline communities’ lived experiences in the just transition debate.

As part of his broader interest in climate justice and non-state actor participation in international environmental processes, Edouard’s current research focuses on the role and influence of philanthropic foundations and elite networks, and how they shape the post-COP21 climate agenda.


Emma Blake Morsi
Emma Blake Morsi

Emma Blake Morsi is an award-winning Multi-Disciplinary Producer, Non-Executive Director of Rising Arts Agency and Bristol City Council’s Culture Board member. A prolific visual storyteller, she predominantly works across photography, words, graphics, film, events and sound, and has been training as a creative intersectional environmentalist following years in STEM.

As the Content and Partnerships Manager for the ethical marketing and PR agency Enviral to former Lifestyle Assistant Editor of gal-dem, Emma challenges approaches to inclusion and innovation in the spaces she works in, producing work that can be experienced by all but most importantly gives visibility to and engages those from marginalised groups.


Eric Njuguna

Eric Njuguna is a youth climate justice and human rights organizerfrom Nairobi, Kenya. She is the campaigns lead at the Kenya Environmental Action Network, co-leads the national Fridays for Future group, and is the campaigns director at Kenya Environmental Action Network. She has worked with youth across Kenya, East Africa and Africa to build advocacy campaigns and build pressure on African leaders to take action on the climate crisis and mobilize the youth in Africa.

In 2017, during her junior year in high school, Kenya was hit by severe droughts and having seen the impacts it had on children in her community she joined the youth climate movement to demand action from world leaders. She has worked with youth climate activists to organize climate strikes, education and capacity building events across the country. She also recently began working with UNICEF as a young leader on advocacy around NDCs.


Fanny-Pierre Galarneau
an olive skinned woman with long brown hair is smiling at the camera. She is surrounded by plants

Fanny is a visual artist, muralist and social innovator fascinated by collective intelligence.

Her practices have been centred around developing artistic participatory methods around the protection of living heritage, biodiversity, water and climate justice. Her passion has led her throughout Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and in knowledge-rich and creative northern and Indigenous territories. Fanny also works at the One Drop Foundation as a Social Art Specialist on safe water Programs. She is also co-developing a new philanthropy youth initiative around water and climate in Canada.


Fehinti Balogun
Fehinti Balogun

Fehinti is an actor, theatre-maker, and activist. He has worked in theatre, film and television, with

recent performances in BBC’s award-winning drama I May Destroy You, ITV’s Viewpoint, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, as well as performing in BBCs critically acclaimed Informer. He has been involved in an array of west end theatre performances and has just finished filming in Netflix’s Half Bad.

Alongside his acting career, Fehinti delivers talks on climate change aimed at creating more rounded inclusion in the conversation and has written two well received political films named: You just don’t get it and it hurts and CAN I LIVE produced by Complicite theatre company.


Feimatta Conteh

Feimatta is the Environmental Sustainability Manager for the Manchester International Festival. She has worked across sustainability, technology development, digital culture and the arts for over 15 years, for organisations including the LSE, Arcola Theatre, Arcola Energy and FutureEverything. She is a trustee of Artsadmin and Invisible Dust, a facilitator of the GMAST network which brings together the cultural and creative community across Greater Manchester to address the climate and ecological crisis and she sits on the advisory committee for the Theatre Green Book. Outside of work, Feimatta is very involved with an educational children’s camping charity – she enjoys building communities and helping young people interact with nature.

Photo credit: Rebecca Lupton


Gigsta
A person obscured by large pink and white flowers

Gigsta is an academic researcher, DJ, producer, promoter, radio host and zine maker.

A regular host on Cashmere Radio with her show Fictions, Gigsta plays a variety of tempos, rhythms and colours with a specific fascination for lower frequencies and the odd cut out sample. Born in Belgium, Gigsta grew up in Brittany (France) and is currently based in Berlin, where she writes a PhD, makes zines, hosts her own Fictions parties and is a resident at Room 4 Resistance.


Hannah Entwisle Chapuisat

Hannah is a curator and a lawyer.

She is Co-founder and Curator of the art project DISPLACEMENT: Uncertain Journeys, Director of the Swiss art association La Fruitière, and a doctoral candidate at the University of the Arts London, Chelsea College of Arts.

She is also a lawyer by training, with over 15 years of experience working with the United Nations, States, and non-governmental organisations on operational and policy issues related to humanitarian affairs and the protection of displaced people. Hannah is currently bridging these two worlds by exploring how contemporary art practice and research can contribute to the development of international law and policy to protect the rights of people displaced by disasters and climate change.


Harpreet Kaur Paul

Harpreet Kaur Paul, researcher and lawyer, organised her first petition against systemic racism in policing when she was 11 and attended her first protest in 2002, against war in Iraq. She has participated in many protests since. She is a non-practising solicitor and previously worked at REDRESS, Amnesty International, and People & Planet. Most recently, she’s been raising her daughter, researching for a PhD on climate justice at Warwick Law School, and writing – including the Common Wealth report Towards Reparative Climate Justice, co-editing and co-curating, the illustrated book Perspectives on a Global Green New Deal, with Dalia Gebrial (and co-hosting a podcast based on it too), supporting Julie’s Bicycle Creative Climate Justice Guide, and working collaboratively with movement actors in London through Platform’s London Leap programme to co-write Participatory policies for a fairer and greener London.

Last year she co-launched Tipping Point UK, a climate justice movement building organisation. She also organises with the Wretched of the Earth collective and supports climate justice centred strategy, policy, and advocacy development as a consultant with organisations like ActionAid and The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative.


Helen Starr
Helen Starr

Helen Starr is a Trinidadian world-building curator. Of Afro-Carib ancestry, Helen’s indigenous and black lived experience is entangled with both racism and genocidal erasure. Helen is interested in the formulation of how European people came to see themselves as the gatekeepers to the Personhood of Others. How Earth became a colony of the West. Working mainly with artists who have protected characteristics, Helen has commissioned, curated and produced world building artworks using game engines such as: Life Without Matter(2018) by Rebecca Allen, Warm Worlds and Otherwise (2018-20) by Anna Bunting-Branch and Aliyah Hussain, Haunting Alongside our Shadows (2021) by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and It was an Aliens’ Picnic (Beyond Black Orientalism) – the World as a futuristic re-imagination, existing in Time and Zones that Spring from and Move in Breath (2021) Salma Noor, Megan Broadmeadow, Brandon Covington, Sam Sumana, Nicholas Delap, Ben Hall, Nayu Kim and curated by Kinnari Saraiya – and framed and held in love and longing by Amrita Dhallu and Helen Starr.

Helen has worked with public institutions such as Ars Electronica Festival in Austria, Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge, FACT, Liverpool and QUAD in Derby. Helen also sits on the board of QUAD, Derby and was part of the winning team for the Wolfson Economic Prize 2021. She lives in London with her family and her collection of artworks by emerging and established Contemporary artists. Central to Starr’s practice are the writings of the Jamaican philosopher Sylvia Wynter.


Ian Solomon-Kawall

KMT (Ian)  is a musician, DJ, promoter and is co-founder of May Project Gardens. He has over 20 years experience of leading positive social change and raising awareness for a multitude of social issues, through the powerful words and rhythms of Hip Hop music and a non-exhaustive passion for the environment and conservation. CEO of award winning community-led food growing space May Project Gardens, and mentors young people, nurturing ideas through music and a connection to the environment, through the leadership programme, Hip Hop Gardens.


Ibrahim Hirsi

Ibrahim Hirsi is a student, writer and poet.

A digital cultural archivist, his work has been performed as part of the Bedlam Mental Health Festival, contributed to the DearAyeeyoexhibition at The Roundhouse, featured in the Confined But Creativeexhibition and is in Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal. He has worked as a consultant on Asmaa Jama’s interactive short film ‘ ‘Before We Disappear” and has poems Flipped Eyes’ “Before Them, We” anthology.


Immy Kaur

Throughout her decade-long career, Immy has focused on convening and building community, the role of citizens in radical systemic change, and how we together create more democratic, distributed, open source social and civic infrastructure. Through this work she has discovered much about economic justice and broader injustices, the pivotal role of land and social/civic infrastructure in neighbourhoods, and the value extracted from communities through our broken investment models. It’s an ongoing journey of discovery, emergence and learning together. Immy is a Co-Founder and Director of CIVIC SQUARE.

CIVIC SQUARE is a public square, neighbourhood lab, and creative + participatory platform focused on regenerative civic and social infrastructure within neighbourhoods. She is also an active member of Project 00. Immy is part of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab Advisory Team, a Birmingham Hippodrome Trustee, a Birmingham Open Media (BOM) Board Member and an Inclusive Economy Partnership Board Champion. For her services to the city of Birmingham, Aston University’s School of Life & Heath Sciences granted Immy an Honorary Doctorate in 2019. And in 2020, Immy was awarded a prestigious Ashoka Fellowship.


Islam Elbeiti
Islam Elbeiti

Islam is a musician, cultural curator and advocate for social and political change through culture. Islam acts as the community engagement lead at i4Policy. She has led and worked on several projects that have set the momentum for the entrepreneurial and cultural industry in Sudan and beyond. Islam has experiences that range from co-founding the first Sudanese entrepreneurship and innovation network to facilitating the development of informal music education in Africa through the Global Music Association. She is a Co-Founder of the Sudanese Innovative Music Association. Islam has recently been listed as one of Africa’s most influential young people. Her work has been featured on NPR, Yamaha, CNN, Public Radio International, The Mosiac Rooms, Voice of America, 500 Words Magazine, Wiki Loves Women, People Power Planet and Action Music Women.


Janet Vaughan

Janet is Co-Artistic Director of Talking Birds, whose 30 year practice explores the complex relationships between people and place. With an emphasis on care, stewardship, social and ecological responsibility, Talking Birds are the custodians of The Nest: a shared creation space exploring, supporting and promoting inclusive and regenerative practice. The company is well known for its site-specific Theatre of Place; its interactive works for festivals (such as The Whale and The Q); its pioneering mobile captioning tool, the Difference Engine; and for holding (possibly) the UK’s first cultural Citizens’ Assembly exploring arts, culture and creativity’s role in shaping a better future.


Jessica Sim
Jessica Sim

Jessica is a Creative Climate Leader who participated in Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Leadership programme in 2017.

She is passionate about ecology and committed to developing creative communication methods to address climate change and inspire more mindful living. Jess holds an MA in International Performance Research from the University of Warwick and University of Amsterdam, and a BA in Contemporary Dance from the London Contemporary Dance School. Her work with community and sustainability began in 2015 in Istanbul, where, as an activist and artist, she established the Museum of Garbage with FLYING roots. She then co-founded Circuit Istanbul and later, in 2018, Nadas Istanbul. Both organisations focus on establishing community spaces that foster nature connection through creative programming. In March 2022, she moved to the UK to pursue further training in nature connection and nature education, and is currently participating in Call of the Wild 2022.


Lou Byng

Lou is a creative communicator who uses illustration, design and words to extend open invitations, establish and maintain strong bonds, and socialise complex, multi-dimensional ideas. After studying Illustration at Arts University Bournemouth, Lou returned to the West Midlands to work as part of Midlands Arts Centre’s Cannon Hill Collective, where she developed One Hundred Thousand Welcomes, a significant public exhibition which catalysed over 300,000 interactions, and also took the opportunity to beam a 20ft projection of a GIF she made of Grumpy Cat across Cannon Hill Park.

She worked as Assistant Editor of Another Escape magazine, co-founded Illustrated Brum and exhibited work internationally before joining Impact Hub Birmingham as Chief Storyteller in 2015. During her time there she also took on the role of Brand Lead for TEDxBrum Perspectives in 2017, was responsible for reviving Brum Zine Fest after a 6 year hiatus and instigated a public Brum Zine Library collection for the city. Lou is now a passionate Co-founder and Director of CIVIC SQUARE, whose stewardship predominantly shows up in the mission area and pillars of work, however she establishes and maintains creativity as a connector across many facets of CIVIC SQUARE’s ecosystem, including operational processes, storytelling and learning infrastructure, cultivating regenerative language and our evolving systems of governance.


Magid Magid

Magid Magid is a Somali-British race and climate justice activist and author who came to the UK as a refugee aged five. He is the Founder & Director of Union of Justice, a European, independent, people of colour led organisation dedicated to racial justice and climate justice. He was a member of the European Parliament representing Yorkshire & the Humber, Mayor of his beloved city, Sheffield and was also an elected councillor representing his community. Magid was named one of TIME’s 100 rising stars shaping the future of the world.


Nathan Thanks

Nathan is a human ecologist and writer who has been active in the global climate justice movement for over a decade including with the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice and more recently the COP26 Coalition and the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. He is currently based in Ibagué, Colombia.


Noga Levy-Rapoport

Noga Levy-Rapoport FRSA (they/she/he) is a 20 year old climate activist, organiser, and speaker.

They led coordination and organisation of the school climate strikes across the UK and internationally as well as expansive involvement with several demonstrations for climate and social justice country-wide. They have also worked on numerous campaigns pushing for education reform, youth empowerment, and a Green New Deal.

She has led and been involved with queer, feminist, and sustainability community projects including ‘Green Space of the Year’ winner Gaia’s Garden and ocean conservation campaign #SeaOurFuture with Bimini Bon Boulash, embracing the creative sectors, music, theatre, and the arts as a crucial strategy for youth and social enfranchisement through politics and protest, particularly as an aspiring opera singer. They’ve confronted corporate leaders directly at International Petroleum Week, and have spoken at, organised, and led several marches and events to demand urgent climate action, including at the International Maritime Organisation, COP26, Wembley Arena, and in Parliament.


Nonhlanhla Makuyana

Nonhlanhla is an educator, creative and new economics organiser. They are a co-founder of Decolonising Economics, a grassroots collective working to build a new economy movement that is rooted in racial justice principles and decolonial struggle. Their  work involves investing in communities of colour who are working to build an economic democracy, enabling shared strategising, resource distribution and providing expertise.


Papa Omotayo
A black man with short hair, glasses and a beard looks at the camera. There are palm trees behind him.

Papa is an award winning architect, designer, writer and film maker.

Papa’s work strongly focuses on exploring the nature of culture and the context within contemporary Nigerian and the extended African condition, locally and globally. A strong believer in creating work through cross disciplinary collaboration and participation, he strives to find new possibilities for creating nuanced visual narratives in Nigeria (Africa’s) urban centres and beyond. He is the founder of A Whitespace Creative Agency and Creative Director of MOE+ Art Architecture. He currently lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria.


Pravali Vangeti

Pravali is a Climate Heritage Network Steering Committee Member and Climate Heritage Network Youth Forum Co-convenor. Working at the cross section of culture, education, and youth capacity building, Pravali co-coordinates the World Heritage Education Programme at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. She designs and implements initiatives such as volunteering campaigns, international and regional fora, training workshops, etc., and undertakes the development of educational resources and tools contributing to international cultural conventions.

Pravali is currently also implementing cross-sectoral collaboration projects towards culture and the Sustainable Development Goals, as a Global Cultural Relations Programme fellow.


Raj Pal

Raj is a curator/historian and activist. With a long career of having worked in the cultural sector in various capacities, he is now a freelance curator/consultant and has worked on projects at the National Trust and other heritage institutions. He co-curated the Blacklash: No justice, no peace exhibition currently at Birmingham museums & art gallery and is curating the Soho House Mural Projectat Soho House, Birmingham. Using his knowledge and skills to focus on bringing about cultural change through curation so that institutions can begin to reflect diversity through their outputs, he is also curatorial advisor to Fulham Palace Trust’s ambitious project to explore the role of the Bishops of London in British colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Raj is a regular writer, speaker and broadcaster on cultural issues.


Rob van Wegen

Rob is a sustainability coordinator working in the festival industry. As a former producer with over 15 years experience working with festivals, Rob has now shifted completely to working in sustainability and has a very practical approach.

He has been working at Innofest for 5 years, testing sustainable innovations at festivals, and has worked as the sustainability coordinator for ESNS festival for the last three years. ESNS is part of the Green Deal Circular Festivals. In the last year he created a canvas to help festivals put their sustainable ambitions into a plan and create a roadmap for their future.


Saleemul Huq

Prof. Saleemul Huq is the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Professor at the Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) as well as Associate of the International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED) in the United Kingdom. In addition he is the Chair of the Expert Advisory Group for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and also Senior Adviser on Locally Led Adaptation with Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) headquartered in the Netherlands.

He is an expert in adaptation to climate change in the most Vulnerable developing countries and has been a lead author of the third, fourth and fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and he also advises the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In addition he is affiliated with the UN Food System Summit for 2021 as co-chair of the Action Track 5 on Building Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks & Stress. He has published hundreds of scientific as well as popular articles and was recognised as one of the top twenty global influencers on climate change policy in 2019 and top scientist from Bangladesh on climate change science.


Sarah Corbett

Sarah is an award-winning activist, author and professional campaigner. Born 1983 into an activist family in Everton (the fourth most deprived ward in the UK), she is a professional campaigner – most recently with Oxfam GB, and an Ashoka Fellow. Corbett founded the Craftivist Collective in 2009 after demand from around the world for people to join in her craftivism (craft + activism) projects. Corbett focuses on engaging non-activists and influential target audiences globally to deliver what she coined ‘Gentle Protest’ tactics. Her quiet yet pioneering work has directly helped change hearts, minds, policies and laws around the world. Corbett works with national charities such as The Climate Coalition, creates bespoke events for museums and and galleries such as Tate and V&A  as well as collaborates with unusual allies such as Secret Cinema to reach new and nervous audiences to activism.

WWF used Corbett’s 10-point manifesto to create their own successful craftivism campaign that directly led to a change in law to protect migrating birds. Corbett co-created the new Girlguiding Craftivism badge (2018), has exhibited in Stockholm (2015), Helsinki Design Week (2016) and currently with Designmuseum Denmark until June 2023. Sarah was included in the Crafts Council 2018 ‘Power List’ and her TEDx speech ‘Activism Needs Activists’ was chosen as a TED Talk Of The Day with over a 1.2million views so far. Corbett’s book ‘How To Be A Craftivist: the art of gentle protest’ is now available in paperback and she is currently writing the ‘Craftivist Collective Handbook’ coffee table hardback book. For her services in design activism and public engagement Goldsmiths, University of London granted Corbett an Honorary Fellowship in 2022.


Taiwo Afolabi

Taiwo is a theatre-maker, scholar, theatre manager and entrepreneur. His interest is in amplifying voices and experiences; and re-centering governance models, strategies and systems on the margin through the lens of decolonisation, equity and anti-oppressive approaches. His experience in over a dozen countries across four continents in a variety of contexts focused on socially engaged and community-based creative practice for transformational change. Through storytelling and devised theatre, he works with communities on social issues pertinent to them and his research continues to advance broad-minded thinking within the art and culture sector.

He is the Canada Research Chair in Socially Engaged Theatre and serves as the Director of the Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (C-SET) at the University of Regina. He is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa and the founding director of Theatre Emissary International (TEMi) in Nigeria and Canada.


Thimali Kodikara


Thimali Kodikara is creative impact producer and co-host of the groundbreaking podcast, Mothers Of Invention on feminist solutions to the climate crisis, focusing on the work of BIPOC women and girls around the world. Alongside her co-hosts —former Irish president Mary Robinson and comedian Maeve Higgins —Thimali has interviewed state leaders to grassroots organisers on their innovations to avert climate catastrophe at its frontlines.

As showrunner, Thimali has researched, developed and overseen the show’s unique editorial strategy. And as its impact producer, she has evolved the project into a reputable source for stakeholders to connect with and platform feminist climate leaders around the world.

Thimali is the founder of multi-disciplinary creative agency, OneLoudBellow, and prior was a senior field producer for Getty Images New York. Thimali is a graduate of both Wimbledon School of Art & Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, and has lived in Brooklyn, New York for 18 years.


Zahra Davidson

Zahra is Chief Exec and Design Director at Huddlecraft CIC. Huddlecraft aim to accelerate collective learning

towards a regenerative civilisation, specialising in peer-to-peer learning, support and action. Zahra is fascinated by the power of ‘Huddles’: small, purposeful peer groups that pool their resources to unearth more oft heir potential, together. She works to bring this approach together with causes including climate finance, consciousness raising and local economic change, and believes peer-to-peer learning has a huge role to play in accelerating the collective learning that will underpin the societal transitions we so desperately need. Zahra is also Strategic Director for Money Movers, a peer support network for women moving their money for the planet.


Cecilia Vicuña sadly now can’t be part of this event due to unforeseen circumstances but we look forward to working with her again in the future.

We Make Tomorrow 2022 – Performers

Take a look through the performers taking part in our landmark summit We Make Tomorrow on 13th October 2022 at the Birmingham Rep & Library or online.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW


Visual art performers

Our artistic curation partner for We Make Tomorrow 2022 is MAIA, who have commissioned the following performance, visual and spoken word artists to create new works and present interventions throughout the day, responding to issues of land and environmental justice, displacement, cultural heritage, hope and healing.

Adjei Sun

Adjei Sun is a multi-disciplinary artist and organiser based in Birmingham. Themes of his poetry include mental health, masculinity, identity, healing and love. He began performing poetry at 16 and has performed locally as well as internationally. In 2022, Adjei performed internationally at the Dubai World Expo and has also performed for international audiences to open BBC World Questions, and to welcome the Queen’s Baton into Victoria Square, Birmingham, for the Queen’s Baton Relay Homecoming Festival.

As an organiser Adjei has been producing events for over three years, to engage young people in Birmingham in causes around them such as mental health, inclusive youth projects, and anti-knife crime.


Antonio Roberts

Antonio Roberts is a Birmingham-based artist and curator, working primarily in video, code and sound, exploring how technologies continue to shape ideas of creation, ownership and authorship. Antonio’s performance practice includes algorave and live coding, where music is generated from algorithms. He also supports the development of Black artists to explore the possibilities of live coding.


Auden Allen

Auden Allen is a Birmingham-based creative practitioner, performer and producer, whose practice engages nature, spirituality and music. As a purpose-driven artist working across styles and technologies, Auden is passionate about contributing to the protection, evolution and growth of young people. Key projects include I Am My Mother’s Child, GrimeBoy and I Am Abundance.


Ibrahim Hirsi

Ibrahim Hirsi is a student, writer and poet.

A digital cultural archivist, his work has been performed as part of the Bedlam Mental Health Festival, contributed to the DearAyeeyo exhibition at The Roundhouse, featured in the Confined But Creative exhibition and is in Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal. He has worked as a consultant on Asmaa Jama’s interactive short film ‘ ‘Before We Disappear” and has poems Flipped Eyes’ “Before Them, We” anthology.


melissandre varin

Relation, displacement, multiplicity, interdependency, and language emerge from melissandre’s work.

Making from an Afro and Caribbean diasporic context, melissandre adds layers of complexity, using a situated Black feminism. Through performance arts, moving image assemblages, and site-specific installations -among other things -melissandre investigates love, intimacy, and tenderness.


Musical performers

Our musical curation partner for We Make Tomorrow 2022 is Nest Collective, who have selected artists passionate about social and environmental justice to accompany and play for participants throughout the day.

Anna Phoebe

Anna Phoebe is a violinist, composer and broadcaster working on cross-disciplinary collaborative projects.

Recent collaborations include co-writes with Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement recipient Nitin Sawhney CBE on his album Immigrants, released in March 2021 on Sony Masterworks; and recordings with legendary musician and TV personality Jools Holland for his forthcoming solo album on Warner Music.

Anna’s latest commissions have come from the European Space Agency, writing music to Earth Observation Data tracking the climate crisis; and the University of Kent in association with Cancer Research UK, for whom she composed a choral–orchestral work in response to cancer and dementia research.


Emmanuela Yogolelo

Originally from the Upper Zaire and Kivu in the Eastern DR Congo, Emmanuela Yogolelo is a singer-songwriter, live performer, workshop facilitator, speaker and cultural leader.

Emmanuela developed her passion for music from an early age, soaked as she was in the musical surroundings of her native land. She was exposed to the traditional acoustic music of the Shi and Mbuti pygmies, the musical genres of neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi, the music of the streets, the radio and the local nganda pubs.

Her mother sang whilst performing her household chores, the local fishermen sang on their boats, the farmers whilst carrying out their daily tasks. From the age of six, Emmanuela performed traditional songs as part of family weddings and funerals and her influences come from far and wide, including African gospel, Afro jazz and Congolese styles of music, such as Rumba, Seben and Agwaya.


Faith I Branko

Leading Serbian Roma violinist Branko Ristic and English accordionist Faith Elliott perform virtuosic original Roma-influenced music with their international ensemble.

The duo met in Branko’s Romani village in 2009, and – with music as their only tool for communication – began a journey that would lead to their marriage, their last album ‘Gypsy Lover’ being placed in the top 10 World Music Charts, a successful international schedule and an award winning documentary tour. From a foundation of ‘Serbian-Roma’ music, Faith i Branko have created a style that draws from both of their musical heritages and uniquely expresses their interpersonal conversation. This forms an original set with a storming ensemble which is joyous, passionate, tragic and virtuosic.


Kadialy Kouyate

Kadialy Kouyate is a musician, a singer songwriter inspired by the West African Griot repertoire.

Born into the great line of Kouyate Griot in Southern Senegal, Kadialy’s mesmerising kora playing and singing style have been appreciated in many prestigious venues as both a soloist and in different ensembles.

Since his arrival in the UK Kadialy has played a significant part in enriching the London musical scene with his griot legacy. He has been teaching the Kora at Soas university of London for the last decade and he has also been involved in countless musical projects both as a collaborator and a session musician.


Saied Silbak

Saied Silbak is a Palestinian composer and Oud player born in Shafaa`mr, a city located in the lower Galilee of occupied Palestine. His music has been performed around the world at festivals and concert series in Palestine, the UK, Belgium, France, Morocco, Argentina and beyond.

Silbak has a Masters Degree in music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He composes music for solo Oud as well as traditional Arabic and various contemporary ensembles. In recent years he has worked with many artists on interdisciplinary projects and has been involved in educational and community works, developing a politically and socially engaged practice. His music is known to bring together new musical colours by fusing elements from different musical styles combined with rhythms from distinct regions of the world, providing the listener an authentic world-crossing experience.

We Make Tomorrow 2022

BUY TICKETS

Join us at We Make Tomorrow 2022, a day for creativity, community and connection.

It has been two transformational years since We Make Tomorrow 2020, two years where the cultural community mobilised on climate action, and connections between environmental, social, and cultural justices were exposed.

With contributions from poets, artists, musicians and writers, Julie’s Bicycle invites all cultural organisations and individuals across the UK and beyond to join, collaborate and be inspired.

Together we will delve into themes beyond operational action, and, through the voices of many pioneers, celebrate creative climate leadership, and appreciate what more we can learn.

This one-day summit will look at political, demographic, economic and social changes driven by our changing climate, and explore how working with shared purpose can generate social, economic and creative value that helps us all to imagine, and craft a better tomorrow.

The We Make Tomorrow 2022 programme will include sessions on:

  • Community-led practice and place-making
  • Funding climate justice
  • Mitigation beyond net zero
  • Creative responses to global climate impacts
  • Health, wellbeing and resilience
  • Using creative climate action to build a legacy
  • …and much more.

Join us for a day of valuable knowledge-sharing on Thursday 13 October at the Birmingham Rep & Library or online to spark ideas and inspire you to lead from the front on the climate agenda.

CHECK OUT OUR SPEAKER PROFILES

CHECK OUT OUR PERFORMER PROFILES

ONLINE PROGRAMME

DOWNLOADABLE PROGRAMME


Curation Partners

MAIA 

MAIA are the We Make Tomorrow 2022 visual artistic commissioning partners.

MAIA is an artist-led social justice organisation, working globally from their home city, Birmingham, UK. Their work explores the relationships between artists, imagination and liberation, through developing cultural programmes, artworks, resources and spaces to practise alternative paradigms, where culture and Black thought are catalysts. 

Anthony Simpson-Pike 

Anthony is the dramaturg for We Make Tomorrow 2022, helping to make the event as participatory as possible.

Anthony Simpson-Pike is a director, dramaturg and writer whose work has been staged in theatres including The Bush, The Gate, The Young Vic and The Royal Court. He is currently Associate Director at The Yard Theatre, was previously Resident Director at Theatre Peckham and Associate Director at The Gate Theatre. Anthony is also a facilitator, having worked with young people and communities at The Gate, The Royal Court, The Young Vic, The Globe, and National Theatre.

Recent directorial work includes Lava by Benedict Lombe (Bush Theatre), Living Newspaper (Royal Court), The Electric by Vickie Donoghue (Paines Plough/RWCMD), and The Ridiculous Darkness by Wolfram Lotz (Gate Theatre).

CIVIC SQUARE

Civic Square will be presenting a workshop and introduction to their doughnut cities models.

Together with many people and partners, CIVIC SQUARE are visioning, building and investing in social and civic infrastructure for neighbourhoods of the future, rooted in the heart of Birmingham; their home city.

CIVIC SQUARE builds upon a decade of research, discovery, and practice as Impact Hub Birmingham and as part of the 00 family around systems change, land, housing and what 21st Century civic spaces might need, looking at how they are participated in, funded and maintained.

Alongside an ecosystem of local and global neighbours, CIVIC SQUARE are discovering and developing civic and social infrastructure to collectively respond to our growing societal challenges. They are working collaboratively and imaginatively at the scale of the neighbourhood through many different ways of organising, within Public Square; Regenerative Neighbourhood Economics Lab; and Creative Resistance.

Nest Collective

Nest Collective are the We Make Tomorrow 2022 musical performance commissioning partners.

The Nest Collective is a leading force in contemporary and cross-cultural folk music.
We bring people together to experience extraordinary music, rekindling connections with nature, tradition and community.

Founded in 2005 by Mercury-nominated artist Sam Lee, the Nest Collective began as a small gathering of music and folk lovers. Today, our vibrant annual programme includes a diverse range of music events in locations across the UK, featuring outstanding emerging and established folk, world and roots artists from across the globe.


Friends of We Make Tomorrow

Partners and sponsors of We Make Tomorrow

This event is run in partnership with the Arts Council England as part of the environmental programme.

Arts Council England logo

This event is kindly sponsored by Good Energy and Sustainable Wine Solutions.

We Make Tomorrow 2022 image

Good Energy is a pioneering, clean energy company whose purpose is to power the choice of a cleaner, greener future for everyone. Having led the way in clean energy since 1999, Good Energy is making it easier for people and businesses to make renewable energy part of their lives. Its mission is to help one million homes and businesses cut their carbon by 2025. It supplies customers with electricity from a community of over 1700 renewable generators, helps tens of thousands more generate their own clean power and is accelerating clean transport too as a major investor in Zap-Map, the UK’s go-to electric vehicle charging app. The company has a long history of working with the arts and cultural sector.

We Make Tomorrow 2022 image

Sustainable Wine Solutions began its journey in 2002 as Borough Wines in the world famous Borough Market with its I WILL REFILL wine on tap concept.

Today Sustainable Wine Solutions are the true champions of sustainability within the drinks industry, with their fully circular business model supplying zero waste wines in the most sustainable and convenient formats for the trade with Uk’s only refill Kegs for wine-on-tap and the first Bottle Return Scheme,directly invested in tackling packaging and transport of wine (the biggest source of emissions in the wine industry), as well as working with sustainably led winemakers passionate about quality wines with provenance.

DETAILS 

Date: October 13 Time: 

9:00 am – 6:30 pm

Website: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/we-make-tomorrow-2022-tickets-360471418717

VENUE 

Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Broad Street 
Birmingham, B1 2EP

We Make Tomorrow 2022

We Make Tomorrow summit 2020 video. For the audio-described version, please watch here.

The buzz is building for the return of our action-focused one-day summit We Make Tomorrow on October 13th in Birmingham. Sliding scale tickets for both in person and online attendance are on sale now (including complimentary and concession rates) and we share our first speaker and programme preview below. 


What To Expect
Credit: An excerpt from Zadie Xa’s artwork ‘Ancestral undulations and the transmission of knowing’, previewed at We Make Tomorrow 2020

We Make Tomorrow 2022 is Julie’s Bicycle’s biggest event, inviting people to connect with the projects, individuals, and ideas that are making change and leading on creative climate action.

25+ cross-cultural speakers: 
>>  
An intersectional line-up of inspiring speakers and contributors, including artists, activists, cultural commentators, scientists, policymakers, producers, curators, writers and communicators.

Visual arts interventions: 
>> Discover artists exploring the relationships between art, social justice, imagination and liberation from the creatives at MAIA.

Musical performances: 
>> Woven together with lively performances from talented musicians via cross-cultural folksters Nest Collective.

Intimate workshops: 
>>  Put your learning into action with workshops on personal resilience and wellbeing, and creating sustainable doughnut cities

Inspiration on Creative Climate Leadership: 
>> Meeting courageous individuals reimagining the possibilities for a fairer future.

Community & connection: 
>>  Plenty of space for discussion, networking and reflection with others working towards Creative Climate Action, with delicious vegetarian and vegan sustenance provided during break times.

A 600-strong community of participants: 
>>  300 joining us in person and 300 participating online to discover, question, and gather hope together. 

Changemakers retreat space: 
>>  A dedicated oasis of calm hosted by our friends at Craftivist Collective, with 6 action stations to reflect, digest and get creative throughout the day.


Exploring Climate Justice
Photo Civic Square’s Co-Creation Week

The We Make Tomorrow 2022 programme will include sessions on the following topics:

We need one another

What is needed now? A conversation about leading climate action with care, honesty, and respect.

Making justice work

What can be learnt from those who’ve stepped up against the odds to take action on climate, changing the conditions around them?

Funding climate justice

Does financial decision-making reflect values that integrate justice? Exploring principles and frameworks for funding climate justice in our work.

Our place in the world

Learning from local placemaking that tackles creative climate action, leveraging our role as cultural catalysts in local climate policy and civic activism: when to step up and when to step aside?

We don’t care when your net zero target is!

How do we challenge the ‘net zero’ tag without losing the critical 1.5 degrees limit on warming? What imaginative responses might culture make to reach net zero locally, nationally and globally?

Adaptation and upheavals

How can cultural organisations respond to social and physical upheavals, adapt, thrive and build resilience to climate impacts?

Seeing the big picture: creative climate justice

How do we practice solidarity and connect injustices to build equitable, healthy, and regenerative systems for our planet, here and internationally?

Making space for wellbeing

What does personal resilience mean, and what makes a caring, healthy environment in which we can thrive?

A legacy that matters

Creating legacies now: which frameworks and relationships can support ongoing change?

The full programme will be announced soon. 


Meet Our Contributors
Speakers include:

Ahdaf Soueif, novelist and political and cultural commentator

Alistair Gentryartist, activist and researcher

Amahra Spence, Co-Founder and Creative Director, MAIA

Cecilia Vicuna, poet, artist, filmmaker and activist

Emma Blake Morsi, Multi-Disciplinary Producer, and Director of Rising Arts Agency

Eric Njugunayouth climate justice and human rights organizer

Fehinti Balogunactor and writer

Feimatta ContehEnvironmental Sustainability Manager, Manchester International Festival

Gillian Burkebiologist, presenter, public speaker, and writer

Harpreet Kaur Paul, researcher and lawyer

Helen Starrworld-building curator

Ian Solomon KawallCEO of May Project Gardens

Immy KaurCo-Founder and Director, CIVIC SQUARE

Islam Elbeitimusician, cultural curator and radio presenter

Janet VaughanCo-Artistic Director of Talking Birds

Jessica SimCo-Founder of Nadas Istanbul

Lou Byng, Creative Director, CIVIC SQUARE

Magid Magidrace and climate justice activist and author

Nathan Thankihuman ecologist and writer

Noga Levy-Rapoportyouth climate activist, organiser, and speaker

Nonhlanhla MakuyanaCo-Founder of Decolonising Economics

Pravali VangetiWorld Heritage Education Programme Coordinator, UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Raj Palcurator/historian and activist

Saleemul HuqDirector, International Centre for Climate Change and Development

Zahra Davidson, Chief Exec and Design Director, Huddlecraft

…and more!

Further speakers and performers will be announced in the coming weeks. Full speaker bios can be found on this page.


Friends of We Make Tomorrow include:

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery 
The Climate Heritage Network
Culture Declares Emergency 
The Happy Museum 
LIVE Green 
May Project Gardens
Music Declares Emergency
The National Museum Directors’ Council
The Theatre Green Book 


With warm thanks to our supporters and sponsors for this event:

This event is run in partnership with Arts Council England as part of the environmental sustainability programme.

Good Energy is a pioneering, clean energy company whose purpose is to power the choice of a cleaner, greener future for everyone. Its mission is to help one million homes and businesses cut their carbon by 2025. It supplies customers with electricity from a community of over 1700 renewable generators, helps tens of thousands more generate their own clean power and is accelerating clean transport too. The company has a long history of working with the arts and cultural sector.

Sustainable Wine Solutions began its journey in 2002 as Borough Wines with its refillable wine on tap concept. Today Sustainable Wine Solutions are the true champions of sustainability within the drinks industry, with their fully circular business model supplying zero waste wines with UK’s only refill Kegs and the first Bottle Return Scheme, directly invested in tackling packaging and transport of wine (the biggest source of emissions in the wine industry), plus working with sustainably led winemakers.

Apply now for Creative Climate Leadership Canada Aug 1-5, 2022

We are happy to announce that the CSPA has partnered with Julie’s Bicycle (JB) to host for the first time in Canada the Creative Climate Leadership (CCL) program, with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.  Since 2017, JB along with multiple partners have been offering intensive training opportunities to creative leaders from the arts and culture sector to deepen their understanding and commitment to climate justice and the ecological crisis. The immersive course will take place at the Barrier Lake Field Station in Kananaskis, Alberta area adjacent to Banff National Park on the traditional territory of the Stoney Nakoda in the foothill of the Rockies, from August 1st to 5th, and is open to artists, curators, creative and cultural professionals and policy-makers that work and live across Canada. This CCL will be delivered in English. Please reach out to us if you would like to be notified of future CCL versions in French.

Application deadline: June 19th, 2022

We will notify successful candidates that they have been selected for participation by June 28, 2022

About the Creative Climate Leadership training course

CCL Canada, hosted near Banff, Alberta, will offer training for 24 individuals. Participants will learn, discuss and reflect on the topics of the climate crisis, climate justice, resilience and wellbeing, climate communication, and creative leadership for climate action, and will develop personal and professional tools and strategies to bring climate and ecological action to the center of their practices and organizations. The five-day intensive course enables participants to apply environmental frameworks and targets meaningfully to their work, and explore what leadership means in the context of a rapidly changing world.

For more information on the program or to check out some CCL alumni stories, visit https://www.creativeclimateleadership.com/ 

Eligibility 

The CCL is for artists from any form of art and practice or for other creative workers such as administrators, producers or policymakers, among others, who live and work in Canada. Don’t hesitate to apply if you are passionate and want to explore how to use your creative talents in service to the ecological crisis and climate justice. 

Logistics

Dates: August 1st to 5th, 2022

Language: English

Location: Barrier Lake Field Station, in the Kananaskis area adjacent to Banff National Park on the traditional territory of the Stoney Nakoda

Transportation, food & lodging: Participants will be provided with meals and lodging for the duration of the CCL, as well as transportation to the field station from Calgary. Participants will be responsible for their own transportation to and from Calgary.

Cost

The total tuition is 2000 CAD and includes the costs of the program, food, lodging; 6 months of mentoring, and inclusion in an ongoing international network of CCL alumni. 

We have a limited number of full or partial scholarships available for those who articulate financial need to support their participation. 

COVID-19 related information

We will follow all local public health requirements and all requirements directed by the University of Calgary throughout the program. Given that this event involves close interaction with others, we require all participants to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Individuals will be encouraged to take COVID-19 precautions to keep themselves and others safe, and hand sanitizer, disposable masks and rapid testing kits will be available for use as needed throughout the program. 

Please note that this information is subject to change. We will closely monitor the public health situation in Canada in the weeks leading up to the event and inform participants about any changes to our CCL health and safety guidelines. 

Contact

Please contact us at ccl@sustainablepractice.org if you have any additional questions about the CCL or application process.

Creative Climate Leadership is a Program of Julie’s Bicycle.

Creative Climate Cities Profiles

Every city needs culture to animate action on the environment and rehearse new ways of co-existing. So we are delighted to launch a new report produced with World Cities Culture Forum titled Tackling Climate Change Through Culture. We highlight 14 cities across the world that are becoming smarter and more sustainable with creative climate initiatives explored across four thematic areas: policy and strategy; resource and support; partnerships and innovation; and creative programmes and campaigns. The full report and each of the individual city profiles are available to download below.

To launch these cities profiles, Lucy Latham took presented in a panel session duringLondon Climate Action Week, and has shared her reflections in this blogpost on Smart and Sustainable Cities.
Check out: The Creative Climate Cities Profiles

Music Declares Emergency

Julie’s Bicycle has joined forces with the Music Industry to declare a climate and ecological emergency. In the last week we’ve received more than 1,000 signatures on the declaration, from those who represent a broad spectrum of the UK music community, including institutions such as:

Abbey Road Studios, AIM, the Association of Independent Festivals, Beggars Group, Believe, The BRIT School, Festival Republic, Kambe Events, Music Venue Trust, Powerful Thinking, Sony Music UK, United Talent Agency, Universal Music UK, Village Underground, Warner Music UK, Warner Chappell Music UK

plus artists such as: 
Bernard Butler, Beth Orton, Bonobo, Caribou, Carleen Anderson, Ezra Furman, Fay Milton (Savages), Floating Points, Foals, Geoff Barrow, Hot Chip, IDLES, Imelda May, Jon Hopkins, Kathleen Hanna, Maribou State, Mick Hucknall, Nadine Shah, Nitin Sawhney, Pretenders, Radiohead, Sam Fender, The Cinematic Orchestra, This Is The Kit, Tom Odell, plus hundreds of other artists and businesses.Music professionals can sign up below or you canfollow it all on social media:#MusicDeclaresEmergency.JB is also a signatory to Culture Declares Emergency, representing the broader performing and visual arts community – sign up to Culture Declares here.
Join: Music Declares Emergency

Podcast launch: The Colour Green

The first series of The Colour Green podcasts are now live! In these podcasts, as part of the Arts Council England environmental programme, Baroness Lola Young speaks with artists and activists of colour who are at the forefront of social innovation – connectingclimate justice, race, power and inequality. Guests include speculative fiction writer and pleasure activist, Ama Josephine Budge; artist and honorary president of the Black Environment Network, Judy Ling Wong; musician and founder of the Rural-Urban Synthesis Society, Kareem Dayes; and poet and creative facilitator Zena Edwards

“Congratulations on the podcasts they have entertained and informed me on last weeks commute, I can’t wait to listen to the next in the series.” - Feedback from Richard Clinton, Luton Culture

Please have a listen, join the conversation, follow and share widely with #ColourGreenPodcast

Arts Council England Environmental Report 2017/18

Julie’s Bicycle has been working in partnership with Arts Council England since 2012 to inspire environmental action across the arts and culture sector, with a focus on long-term funding partners, the National Portfolio Organisations. The Sustaining Great Art and Culture report celebrates the successes of arts and cultural organisations in acting on national and international climate targets. 

“Arts and culture are some of the most effective drivers of transformation. They change our minds, move our hearts and spur us into action. So it’s wonderful to see the collaboration between Julie’s Bicycle, the Arts Council and the creative sector succeeding in bringing together so many different cultural organizations to transform the public conversation on climate change, while tackling their own impact as well. Thank you for all your commitments so far and let’s keep blazing the trail, this work has never been more important.” – Christiana Figueres, Founding Partner, Global Optimism and Former Executive Secretary, UNFCCC 2010-2016

Over the past six years, theatres, galleries, museums, music venues, festivals and other cultural organisations across the country have taken great strides to improve their environmental practice. From Royal Court Theatre and The Poetry Society, toTurner Contemporary and Glyndebourne Opera House, these organisations are emerging as leaders and key collaborators in sustainability. They are also presenting artistic and creative work that raises environmental awareness among their audiences in innovative ways.

Key findings of the report include:

Organisations are consistently reducing carbon emissions: CO2 emissions have decreased by 35% across the National Portfolio since the programme began.

Organisations are more energy efficient: Direct energy consumption has been reduced by 23% since 2012/13.

Organisations are increasingly financially resilient: The ongoing drive to reduce energy consumption has led to financial savings of £16.5 million since the programme began.

Organisations are experiencing benefits beyond reductions: Environmental practice and carbon literacy are being linked to improvements in other organisational priorities, including team morale and strategic decision-making.

Organisations are contributing to a new creative ecology: The above trends drive demand for – and generate new skills and knowledge that support – clean technologies, sustainable goods and services, greener waste solutions and the emergent circular economy. A quarter of the Portfolio are now on a green energy tariff.

In response to the growing commitment demonstrated by the sector, Arts Council England and Julie’s Bicycle will now shift focus towards accelerating impact and stretching ambition. This includes two new strands of work: The Accelerator Programme, which offers organisations resources and expertise to develop innovative ideas into deliverable projects for greater impact, and a targeted carbon reduction scheme for organisations with large infrastructures, The Spotlight Programme.

Don’t forget to follow JB on Twitter and use the hashtag #COPtimism to join in the conversation.


DOWNLOAD SUMMARY

DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT


Image: Passage for Par, Rosemary Lee. Photo © Steve Tanner

Julie’s Bicycle hosts Creative Climate Leadership session at COP24 in Poland

Thu 6 December 2018 – 11:00 – 17:30 CET

Łaźnia Nowa. Teatr
25 Osiedle Szkolne
31-978 Kraków
Poland

REGISTER:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-climate-leadership-at-cop24-tickets-52257450441

What can culture and creativity do for the climate challenge?

The climate crisis is unfolding all around us as the defining episode of the 21st century.

While the international climate change negotiations take place in Katowice, we will gather artists and those working in the arts and creative industries to share their inspirational projects, and tell the story of how culture and creativity are a critical part of the solution to climate change and other environmental challenges.

Creative Climate Leadership is a Creative Europe co-funded programme for artists and cultural professionals to explore the cultural dimensions of climate change, and take action with impact, creativity and resilience.

This one-day event will be a dialogue between the cultural sector, artists, environmental experts and policymakers.

What will the programme cover?

As our Creative Europe co-funded project draws to a close, this event will weave together the learning, creativity, and experiences of the Creative Climate Leadership programme and lay the foundations for what comes next.

We will explore the different ways artists and creative professionals are engaging with questions of climate change and environmental sustainability: from reducing the environmental impact of their own work, to programming, experimentation, creativity and design spilling over into environmental themes. We will discuss what it will take to support and scale up this work across the globe, how we can work effectively in different political and cultural contexts, and how we make visible the Creative Climate movement across the world.

Full agenda and timings TBC.

Who is this event for?

Artists and creative professionals, individuals working at cultural and educational institutions, culture and environment funders, national and regional policymakers, political and civic participants attending the COP24 international climate change conference in neighbouring Katowice – anyone who wants to learn more and be immersed and inspired by the spectrum of creative action on climate change and other environmental challenges.

How can I take part?

Register and show up! Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Note: this event will be held in English.

Please inform us at the time of booking if you have any specific access requirements to participate fully in the event and we will be happy to accommodate these as far as possible. Please email chiara@juliesbicycle.com directly with any queries.

How do I get there?

If you’re in Katowice for COP24, travelling to Krakow to join the Creative Climate Leadership event is easy.

You can:

  • Take a train from Katowice train station to Krakow Glowny train station, which takes around 2 hours and costs 35 PLN (ca 8 EURO)
  • Take a flixbus from Katowice bus station to Krakow MDA, which takes just over 1 hour and costs from 2 EURO (prices may go up if fewer seats are available)

Teatr Laznia Nowa is around a half hour tram journey from the train station (which is also where the flixbus terminates). Trams run every few minutes. Take the number 5 eight stops towards Wzgorza Krzeslawi to stop Czyzyny, then take the number 73 four stops towards Kopiec Wandy to stop Struga. The theatre is ca 500m or 7 minutes’ walk from the stop. 40-minute tram tickets cost PLN 3,80 per journey (ca 0.88 EURO).

Book train

Book flixbus

Tram journey planner Remember to stamp/validate your tram ticket on boarding!

How did this event come about?

Creative Climate Leadership is a Creative Europe co-funded project coordinated by Julie’s Bicycle involving seven partners from across Europe: Pina, On the Move, Ars Baltica, COAL, EXIT Foundation, and krug/Green Culture Montenegro.

Two five-day intensive residential Creative Climate Leadership training courses took place in Wales, UK and Koper, Slovenia in 2017, with participants from all over the world including Australia, Belgium, China, France, Indonesia, Ireland, Montenegro, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK, and Zimbabwe. Participants included artists and cultural leaders and practitioners, freelancers and representatives from organisations, policymakers, and funders across a wide range of creative disciplines including theatre and performing arts, music festivals, fashion design and visual arts. Their work expresses the breadth of the creative movement: from activism to design, from institutional leadership to policy–making.

For more information, please visit www.creativeclimateleadership.com

Leading on the organisation and curation of this event in Krakow on the occasion of COP24 are Green Culture Montenegro, EXIT Festival, and Julie’s Bicycle.