Center for Sustainable Practice

International Award Celebrates a Greener Edinburgh Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Applications are now open for the 2014 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award, celebrating the greenest and most sustainable shows on the Edinburgh Fringe.

This project, a partnership between Creative Carbon Scotland and the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, rewards shows which engage their audiences with sustainability, take responsibility for their environmental impacts, and think big about how the arts can help to grow a sustainable world.

Applications are open from February 19th to July 18th, with a shortlist announced in The List on July 30th, and the winner announced in a ceremony at Fringe Central on August 22nd.

“We believe artists and cultural organisations are uniquely placed to address the challenges brought on by climate change,” says Ben Twist, Director of Creative Carbon Scotland.

“This major award celebrates and publicises their innovative work during the Festival Fringe.”

The award for Sustainable Production on the Fringe was first launched in 2010 at the Hollywood Fringe and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“We see the arts as the best driver of sustainable societies and it’s not just our opinion: data shows that performance promotes positive environmental, social, and economic impacts,” says Ian Garrett, Director of the CSPA.

“The fringe model provides an ideal platform to start working with sustainable ideas through all of the freedoms and restrictions the festival allows!”

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of cultural organisations using the arts to help shape a sustainable Scotland.

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts is in the Arts is a Think Tank for Sustainability in the Arts and Culture.

Shows can apply now at https://www.sustainablepractice.org/fringe/

Previous Edinburgh recipients include: The Pantry Shelf (2010), a satirical comedy that takes place in any ordinary pantry shelf, produced by Team M&M at Sweet Grassmarket; Allotment (2011) by Jules Horne and directed by Kate Nelson, produced by Nutshell Productions at the Inverleith Allotments in co-production with Assembly; The Man Who Planted Trees (2012) adapted from Jean Giono’s story by Ailie Cohen, Richard Medrington, Rick Conte and directed by Ailie Cohen, produced by the Edinburgh’s Puppet State Theatre; and How to Occupy an Oil Rig (2013), by Daniel Bye and Company, produced at Northern Stage. Awardees have gone on to future success on the Fringe and presentations around the world including as close as Cardiff for World Stage Design, and as far as New Zealand and all across the US and Canada.

Contact:

Ben Twist, Director, Creative Carbon Scotland
ben@creativecarbonscotland.com
0131 529 7909
www.creativecarbonscotland.com

www.sustainablepractice.org/fringe/

Image Credit: EFF

The post International Award Celebrates a Greener Edinburgh Fringe appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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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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Apply now for the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

EFSPA-Green-Logo Applications are now open for the 2014 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award, celebrating the greenest and most sustainable shows on the Edinburgh Fringe. This project, a partnership between Creative Carbon Scotland and the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, with media partner The List, rewards shows which engage their audiences with sustainability, take responsibility for their environmental impacts, and think big about how the arts can help to grow a sustainable world. Applications are open from February 19th to July 18th, with a shortlist announced in The List on July 30th, and the winner announced in a ceremony at Fringe Central on August 22nd.

“We believe artists and cultural organisations are uniquely placed to address the challenges brought on by climate change – through the art they produce, the audiences they speak to and the way in which they operate,” says Ben Twist, Director of Creative Carbon Scotland, “This major award celebrates and publicises their innovative work during the Festival Fringe.”

Shortlisted shows will receive coverage in a special feature in The List on the Fringe Sustainable Practice Award, published on July 30th, and reviews of shortlisted shows will be highlighted in The List’s festival issues and website. The organisers of the Award are seeking to bring new publicity and audiences to productions working hard to do their best work and to do it sustainably. The winner will receive the Award itself along with a special feature and coverage in the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts’ Quarterly Magazine.

The award for Sustainable Production on the Fringe was first launched in 2010 at the Hollywood Fringe and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Previous Edinburgh recipients include: The Pantry Shelf (2010), a satirical comedy that takes place in any ordinary pantry shelf, produced by Team M&M at Sweet Grassmarket; Allotment (2011) by Jules Horne and directed by Kate Nelson, produced by Nutshell Productions at the Inverleith Allotments in co-production with Assembly; The Man Who Planted Trees (2012) adapted from Jean Giono’s story by Ailie Cohen, Richard Medrington, Rick Conte and directed by Ailie Cohen, produced by the Edinburgh’s Puppet State Theatre; and How to Occupy an Oil Rig (2013), by Daniel Bye and Company, produced at Northern Stage. Awardees have gone on to future success on the Fringe and presentations around the world including as close as Cardiff for World Stage Design, and as far as New Zealand and all across the US and Canada.

 “We see the arts as the best driver of sustainable societies and it’s not just our opinion: data shows that performance promotes positive environmental, social, and economic impacts. This award is intended to reward those artists and companies which embody all of these positive points in an intentional way. It’s not just about going green,” says Ian Garrett, Director of the CSPA. “The fringe model provides an ideal platform to start working with sustainable ideas through all of the freedoms and restrictions the festival allows!”

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of cultural organisations using the arts to help shape a sustainable Scotland. The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts is in the Arts is a Think Tank for Sustainability in the Arts and Culture.

Shows can apply now at https://www.sustainablepractice.org/fringe/

For more information, contact:

• Ian Garrett – fringe@sustainablepractice.org – US 818-687-6655 – UK 0759 744 1915

• Ben Twist – ben@creativecarbonscotland.com – UK 0131 529 7909

Soil Arts Call for examples

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

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James Brady suggested that the Soil Arts Call might be of interest to readers of ecoartscotland (and Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts).  Alex Toland who is behind the site is a visual artist and environmental planner.

The Soil Arts Call says: If you have used earth materially or symbolically in your creative practice, or in some way addressed the value, function, or meaning of soil in your art, we invite you to submit work to our blog.

There are already some really interesting and diverse examples of work in the links section.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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What are you going to do with that?

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts has three things going against it. It 1) concerns the arts, 2) focuses on environmentalism and 3) is a non-profit. To the untrained eye, a group like this is doomed to fail. It is defined by three things often associated with bleeding hearts, off the wall hippies, and do-gooders with no real direction. No one takes it seriously. How do I know this? Because whenever someone asks me what my post-undergraduate plans are and I talk about sustainable theater or arts and the environment or working for a non-profit, I often get the same reply: “Well what are you going to do with that?” thinly veiled behind a smirk and smiling eyes. It’s a horrible feeling, having to justify hours of work and something I am intensely passionate about. It makes me question the worth of what I and other artists do, as though it is just a waste of time.

I think people feel that professionals in the arts, specifically, are shallow or foolish for a number of reasons. In all reality, it’s not the most stable career path. Unless you can guarantee commissions or roles, it can be difficult to stay in the game and maintain work. But what the layman doesn’t realize is that it is exactly that kind of aloofness, that uncertainty and inconsistency that makes artists resilient and competent workers. I spent a week in San Diego this past August doing some field research for CSPA. I had the opportunity to meet numerous artists, including dancers, actors, designers, and directors. In our conversations and my observations I learned a very valuable lesson: It takes an enormous amount of strength to stay passionate about the arts. Because they don’t always know when their next paycheck may come, artists learn to budget, they work harder to perfect their resumes, they constantly try to improve upon their talents and hone their craft. They are flexible and can think quickly on their feet and survive in the fast-paced, competitive world in which they live. It’s the backstage world of an artist that the general population doesn’t see and doesn’t understand. And artists aren’t dumb. That is another misconception, that artists do art because they aren’t smart enough to have “a real job.” I have met not only some of the most talented, but some of the most intelligent individuals during my time at CSPA. They are well-read, articulate, driven, passionate and funny. They just also happen to work in a field with a reputation.

The image of environmentalism is changing. What used to be considered only for drugged-out college kids has turned into quite the market. From organic foods to solar panels, the term “green” has become a label on which many industries are capitalizing. But there is still a definite aura of elitism around the nature of, well, nature. It just seems so nice to do things to benefit the environment, but it’s not always the most practical. That’s something I’m finding out in this research. When talking to directors at Eveoke Dance Company in San Diego, they were genuinely upset that they couldn’t do more than basic recycling. So in our current world, environmentalists are sometimes considered to have superiority complexes, because we advocate something that is not always readily available or accessible. I also believe this to be an unfair assessment. Am I a better person than someone else because I recycle and use FSC paper? Not necessarily. What must be understood is environmentalism is about doing what you can. Ok, so he or she can’t afford FSC paper or non-toxic paints. Fine. But that person can reuse lumber, or recycle metal scraps or even simply invest in a Brita filter rather than buying bottled water. Organizations like CSPA and the people who run them want to spread information, not beat you over the head with it.

Finally, of course, is the dreaded label of being a non-profit company. I have a limited understanding of what it means to work in the not-for-profit sector but for me, it has always been something deserving of respect. It acts as an agency for change and advocacy, for the benefits of others. Some may consider this charity. And charity is good, but not always respected. It comes back to that idea of the bleeding heart. I think in our society, corporations tend to draw more people and fame than not-for-profits. Being a Good Samaritan or having more than a daily dose of compassion is not always applauded. Some think of it as a waste of energy and resources. Such is the case when dealing with something as obscure and intangible as art and the environment. Providing food and shelter to orphans in Myanmar is one thing. A company devoted to sustainable performance spaces is something completely different.

Or is it? Sure, saving people is wonderful. But saving the environment is just as important. Without it, people couldn’t be saved. Art is humanity’s best way of documenting our existence. Through our writings, our art, our music, we are recorded into history. Without sustaining the practices in which we create that documentation, there is no guarantee that we will be able to continue our human existence into the future. At the end of the day, that’s all the people at The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and other artists and environmentalists are striving to do.