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Julie’s Bicycle on the Road

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Via Julie’s Bicycle.

Throughout November and December Julie’s Bicycles’ Environmental Sustainability team has been touring the UK, carrying out a series of workshops for Arts Council England organisations. Kicking off at the Shed at National Theatre London, they’ve been as far as Sage Gateshead, Leeds Art Gallery, mac Birmingham, Bristol Old Vic, Free Word London and Cornerhouse Manchester.

Feedback and results have been encouraging with 83% of attendees agreeing workshops were excellent or good. Thanks to everyone who has hosted or joined one of the 13 sessions across the country over this Autumn.

The team have also been sharing results and learnings from the first year of environmental reporting with Arts Council Relationship Managers, including next steps and how they can support organisations alongside Julie’s Bicycle. Julie’s Bicycle has already visited London, the North East, the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the North West, and will be visiting the East, South East and South West offices in early 2014.

Culture Change

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Via Julie’s Bicycle.

Julie’s Bicycle has partnered with the Royal Opera House and Creative and Cultural Skills to deliver Culture Change, a low carbon support programme for creative businesses based in the East of England.

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Culture Change will launch at a conference on 5th February 2014.

culture-change-save-the-date

Culture Change is a business support programme for the creative and cultural industries in the East of England.

It’s designed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and microbusinesses improve the environmental sustainability of their activities. The best bit is that it’s all for free.

The project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and provides a minimum of 12 hours free support to your organisation.

What does the conference offer?

Culture Change is supporting creative companies through a diverse programme of activity:

  • a series of conferences with three different themes focusing on business sustainability
  • a programme of specific low-carbon focussed business support seminars
  • use of the IG Tools carbon calculators and advice provided by Julie’s Bicycle
  • bespoke individual SME and microbusiness support and action planning around environmental sustainability
  • creation of a peer-to-peer business support network.

Who can participate?

SMEs and microbusinesses working in the creative industries within the East of England with:

  • Fewer than 250 employees
  • An annual turnover of less than 50 million euros

If you are eligible and are interested in being part of the programme or obtaining further information please register by contacting Sholeh Johnston: sholeh@juliesbicycle.com 020 8746 0400

SAVE THE DATE: 5TH FEBRUARY 2014 – ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN

To attend please register your name and organisation with Michelle.Flinn@roh.org.uk

Sustaining Creativity

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Via Julie’s Bicycle.

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Julie’s Bicycle has launched Sustaining Creativity, which is looking at what the creative community perceives as the critical drivers for change and the role of sustainability in this process.

The launch event occurred on November 19, 2013.

‘Sustaining Creativity’ is a series of conversations and events exploring environmental challenges, drivers of change, and the opportunities that transformative solutions offer to the creative community. 

‘Sustainability’ generally refers to an approach that balances social, financial and environmental considerations. Julie’s Bicycle’s focus is environmental sustainability. While Julie’s Bicycle recognises and seeks to reinforce the synergies between social, financial and environmental wellbeing, economic and social development are ultimately contingent on a healthy planet.

Sustaining Creativity will take a holistic approach, intent on shoring up strength and wellbeing over the coming decade. It will consider the likely systemic changes already influencing mainstream thinking and put sustainability at the forefront of creative and cultural innovation.

Sustaining Creativity will:

  • Discover what the business critical issues are perceived to be from a wide range of representatives from the creative community.
  • Extend ambition about what is possible using real examples.
  • Identify some key shifts needed to develop a creative infrastructure commensurate with global challenges.
  • Outline what might be done over the next five to ten years to create optimal conditions for change.
  • Foster confident decision-making that looks beyond political and funding cycles
  • Produce a series of events and publications

Julie’s Bicycle will gather and present this thinking at a national event in Spring 2014.

Sustaining Great Art

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Via Julie’s Bicycle.

The results are in! Arts Council England has published Sustaining Great Art, a report presenting results from the first year of environmental reporting by major revenue funded organisations, produced in partnership with Julie’s Bicycle.

An outstanding 90% of all 704 major revenue funded Arts Council organisations got involved, 79% felt that it  has made a positive difference to their organisation, and 86% felt that it can make a positive difference to the arts and cultural sector.

The results have been compiled into the single largest data set on the carbon emissions of arts organisations globally, and this achievement is already having ripple effects both in the UK and internationally.

Read the full report and see an infographic of the results here.

YearOne-Infgraphic.121647

Sexy Peat Exhibition

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

drawing-bug

Highland Print Studio in partnership with Cape Farewell currently has an exhibition of contemporary visual art at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh called Sexy Peat/Tìr mo Rùin, celebrating the ecology and heritage of the Lewis blanket bog and highlighting the significant role that peat plays in global climate regulation. The project also celebrates the Gaelic heritage relating to the bog and the significance of the bog to the people who have lived with it.

Beyond their initially austere or barren appearance the peatlands reveal an abundance of colour, texture and life forms in constant interaction with dynamic weather systems. These features have inspired the people who have lived with the moor for generations. This project will investigate and celebrate that land, those people and their heritage.

The exhibiting artists are:

  • Anne Campbell
  • Jon Macleod
  • Kacper Kowalski
  • Deirdre Nelson
  • Murray Robertson
  • Fabric Lenny
  • Alex Boyd

Find out more about the artists involved in the Sexy Peat project here.

Sexy Peat is part of the Year of Natural Scotland, a partnership between EventScotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Creative Scotland.

The exhibition runs from 8 November 2013 – 26 January 2014

Image: Christine Morrison, http://www.christinemorrison.co.uk/

The post Sexy Peat Exhibition appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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

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

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

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

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

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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The Green Arts Initiative – Creative Carbon Scotland

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The Green Arts Initiative supports Scottish arts organisations to be at the forefront of growing an environmentally sustainable Scotland. Run by CCS and Festivals Edinburgh, it’s an ambitious project designed to give venues and organisations the advice, support and tools they need to become greener and let audiences and the public know what they are doing.

The project comes with a simple accreditation scheme: everyone we work with is entitled to use the Green Arts branding to demonstrate their commitment to becoming greener.

CCS will also support Green Arts organisations to get further industry accreditation where appropriate, including Industry Green and ISO20121.

To download the Green Arts Initiative one-pager click here (90KB).

To find out more or to sign up to the scheme contact Harry Giles for Edinburgh (harry@festivalsedinburgh.com) or Gemma Lawrence for the rest of Scotland (gemma@creativecarbonscotland.com)

Organisations signed up to the Green Arts Initiative:

Assembly

Centre for Contemporary Art 

Dance Base 

The Edinburgh International Book Festival 

Fringe Central 

The Filmhouse 

The Fringe Society 

The Hub 

Gilded Balloon 

The Lyceum Theatre 

 Northern Stage

Out of the Blue 

The Pleasance Theatre 

Puppet Animation Scotland

The Traverse Theatre 

Scottish Poetry Library 

Spring Fling

St Johns Church Venue 

The Quaker Meeting House 

Via The Green Arts Initiative – Creative Carbon Scotland.

Opportunity: CCS Board Members Required

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

dalziel-and-scullion

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations aiming to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. Our vision is of a Scottish cultural sector that is a key player in shaping a sustainable Scotland through the work it makes and presents, through the way it operates and through both what it says and how it speaks to the wider public.

Creative Carbon Scotland’s Mission:

  • To engage the sector in actively promoting environmental sustainability and addressing climate change
  • To help the sector take a lead in shaping an environmentally sustainable Scotland
  • To help the sector run itself as environmentally sustainably as possible

Activities

We have two main strands to our work:

  • We provide support to arts organisations and individuals in practical carbon measurement, reporting and reduction, including direct training, one-to-one support and a unique website with tips and resources for carbon management in the arts. This will increase in 2014 in line with Creative Scotland’s recent announcement that recipients of their funding will be asked to report their carbon emissions from 2014/15 onwards.
  • We collaborate with partners on artistic, audience facing and research projects aimed at engaging the sector and the public in shaping a sustainable Scotland.

For more information about our work, go to www.creativecarbonscotland.com.

New Board members

Creative Carbon Scotland is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, initiated by Festivals Edinburgh with key partners the Federation of Scottish Theatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network. Our Board, comprising Morag Arnot, Mike Bonaventura, Euan Turner (representing the FST) and Gary Stewart (representing Festivals Edinburgh), provides advice, ensures governance and oversees execution of the work of the Director Ben Twist and Project Officer Gemma Lawrence and new colleagues expected to join shortly. We want to extend the board and so we are looking for two new members who:

  • Have knowledge of sectors in the arts other than theatre, dance and festivals, or the world of sustainability
  • Have experience at a senior level working in an organisation or as a freelance in the arts or sustainability
  • Have senior management or Board experience or are keen to get it
  • Are able to commit to attend meetings 4-6 times per year and support CCS with additional work as necessary. (These roles are unremunerated but expenses are payable if required.)

CCS is keen to broaden the diversity of its Board and staff membership and will particularly welcome applications which will help achieve this.

For more information, please contact Ben Twist on ben@creativecarbonscotland.com or 0131 529 7909/07931 553872. To apply, please send a short statement of why you would like to join the Board and a copy of your biography or CV.

Image: Dalziel + Scullion, film still from Speaking the Land, http://www.dalzielscullion.com

The post Opportunity: CCS Board Members Required appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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

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

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

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

Changing their own behaviour;

Communicating with their audiences;

Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Liberate Tate Stages Performance at Tate Britain

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

liberatetatepartspermilliontatebritain2013-e1385473983967Fifty veiled figures dressed in black carried out a performance art installation entitled ‘Parts Per Million’ throughout a series of rooms in the ‘BP Walk Through British Art’ at Tate Britain during the art gallery’s official re-opening (Saturday 23 November 2013). The piece critiqued the role that Tate is playing in exacerbating climate change by bolstering the public perception of BP through its long-standing sponsorship relationship.

The art at Tate Britain was reordered chronologically this year. The Liberate Tate performance began in the ’1840′ room, when the industrial revolution started to significantly impact emission levels, to the present day room with contemporary art created as carbon dioxide levels reached an all-time high of 400 parts per million (ppm). Leading climate scientists consider 350 ppm to be what must be returned to in this century for earth to be safe for human life for generations to come. In each room the Liberate Tate performers arranged themselves in a different configuration and counted aloud en masse the increase in atmospheric carbon ppm during that time period.

‘Parts Per Million’ is the tenth performance at Tate by Liberate Tate: a group that has become internationally renowned for artworks aimed at ending the relationship of Tate and other cultural institutions with oil companies. One of the performers, Fiona Edwards said:

“Any celebration of British art that prominently bears the BP logo is also endorsing that company’s business model which explicitly involves the destruction of a safe, liveable climate. Tate Britain celebrates with a ‘House Warming Party’, but the presence of BP, one of the companies data shows is most responsible for climate change due to its carbon emissions, makes it more of a ‘Global Warming Party’.”

The national collection of British art housed at Tate Britain – art owned by the public – was rebranded the ‘BP Walk through British Art’ in May: in the very week it was announced carbon dioxide levels had reached 400 ppm. A report published earlier this week estimated that BP was responsible for 2.5% of global historic emissions.

Terri Fletcher of Liberate Tate said: “Tate’s vision statement says that it will ‘demonstrate leadership in response to climate change’. Yet oil companies like BP are actively looking for ways to expand their markets and find new reserves at a time when the world needs to be dramatically reducing the amount of fossil fuels that are being burnt. By actively promoting BP, Tate is positioning itself on the side of the fossil fuel companies that are actually creating dangerous climate change.”

There is growing alarm from artists, Tate members and visitors that Tate is providing support to a corporation creating climate chaos and forcing climate-conscious gallery visitors into an uncomfortable position if they want to enjoy art at Tate (the mission of the art museum is to promote public enjoyment of art). Last year Tate said in a reply to a freedom of information request that it had received more representations raising concerns about BP’s sponsorship than any other issue since the oil company became linked to the gallery in 1990.

Since 1990, when BP first attached itself to Tate and its collection, much has changed: the scientific evidence of climate change due to burning hydrocarbons and the negative social and environmental impacts of oil companies, BP in particular, is now clear and far more widely known amongst the public, including art lovers.

Tate has placed BP sponsorship “under review”. BP has dominated the Tate Members Annual General Meeting (AGM) for years. In 2012 Tate Director Sir Nicholas Serota promised Tate members ethical alternatives would be explored so that Tate trustees had a choice not to continue BP sponsorship. A progress report is due at the 2013 AGM on 6 December.

Liberate Tate (www.liberatetate.org) is an art collective exploring the role of creative intervention in social change dedicated to taking creative disobedience against Tate until it drops its oil company funding. Contact: email liberatetate@gmail.com twitter @liberatetate.

The post Liberate Tate Stages Performance at Tate Britain appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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

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

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

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

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

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Julie’s Bicycle Sustaining Creativity Sector Survey

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Sustaining-Creativity-282-e1386070645110

Julie’s Bicycle wants to understand how the creative community is thinking about the coming decade, what it perceives as the critical drivers for change and where sustainability fits into the picture. ‘Sustaining Creativity’ is a series of conversations and events exploring environmental challenges and the opportunities that transformative solutions offer to the creative and cultural sectors.

To take part in the survey follow this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/75JFV68?c=a6a2f208c0

Sustaining Creativity will take a holistic approach, intent on shoring up strength and wellbeing over the coming decade. It will consider the likely systemic changes already influencing mainstream thinking and put sustainability at the forefront of creative and cultural innovation.

Sustaining Creativity will:

  • Discover what the business critical issues are perceived to be from a wide range of representatives from the creative community.
  • Extend ambition about what is possible using real examples.
  • Identify some key shifts needed to develop a creative infrastructure commensurate with global challenges.
  • Outline what might be done over the next five to ten years to create optimal conditions for change.
  • Foster confident decision-making that looks beyond political and funding cycles
  • Produce a series of events and publications

You can participate in Sustaining Creativity and share your views by answering this 10 minute survey. It is aimed at directors and senior managers of creative and cultural organisations.

The survey will close at 5pm, on Friday 13th December.

All participants will be invited to an event in spring 2014 to announce the results and discuss next steps, and will be entered into a prize draw for a case of English champagne in time for Christmas.

For more information, please visit www.juliesbicycle.com/Sustaining-Creativity

The post Julie’s Bicycle Sustaining Creativity Sector Survey appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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

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

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

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

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

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Extended Call for papers, Seismopolite Journal of Art and Politics, Issue 6

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Seismopolite Issue 6
Theme: The future of the biennial: experimental places to reinvent political space?

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The upcoming issue of Seismopolite Journal of Art and Politics will discuss the political future of the contemporary art biennial. How can biennials become experimental «sites» to rethink the relationship between art and politics, without lending themselves too easily to the confines of the contemporary art market and neoliberal political geography? While biennials have been criticized for subjecting themselves to urban/ regional marketing strategies, they have also been defended as valuable places for the formation of new alliances among art scenes of the ‘periphery’, that are today steadily changing the global art map.

For this issue we invite reviews, essays and interviews that discuss the future of the biennial and its potential to rewrite the history, political geography and epistemology of places and regions.

Topics may include (but are by no means restricted to):

– The art biennial as a global and regional phenomenon

– Biennials and political activism

– Art biennials as utopian political «sites»

– Mobility, relational geography and regionalization in contemporary art after the Nation State

– The biennial as a potential site for (re)negotiation of political geography, artistic interventions in geopolitical discourses and decolonization strategies

– Biennials as experimental regimes of bodily orientation and their politics of sensation

– Biennials as reimaginations of territorialities, and renegotiations of the concepts of space and place

Please send your proposal, CV and samples of earlier work to submissions@seismopolite.com within December 13, 2013.

Via Seismopolite.com