The CSPA Institute gives artists the tools, knowledge, and inspiration to incorporate sustainability into their practice as part of their professional training through workshops and partnerships established with academic institutions.

Background for Academic Programs

The cornerstone of this program was laid by a course taught by CSPA Director Ian Garrett and CalArts School of Theater Associate Dean Leslie Tamaribuchi called Sustainable Theater, offered in the spring of 2008. After which we have developed a two additional courses: Sustainability Seminar, which offered an open forum for students to pursue ideas of sustainability with guidance; and Management Technology, which offers a more complete understanding of how to integrate technology into the infrastructure of production. These skills both lay the ground work for sustainable organizations and are address issues that are essential to decreasing material and energy waste in theater production.

After joining the faculty of York Univeristy in 2012 as Professor of Ecological Design for Performance, Ian Garrett continues to develop course work for sustainability in arts making in higher education. Current courses developed under this model are the undergraduate course Sustainable Staging Techniques and graduate course Sustainability in Performance.

Workshops and Professional Development

Outside of traditional educational frameworks, the CSPA offers a variety of talks, lectures and workshops ranging from an hour to multiple days. Overlapping with the Convergence program, these learning opportunities are for a variety of settings to offer a variety of points of engagement for art makers to consider shifts.