Features Interviews

The golden glow of arts funding

September 26, 2012Ashden Directory, Open CallsArt Competition, Associate Editor, Climate Change, Copper Mining, Core Principles, Core Values, Direc, Features Interviews, Gold Operation, Gold Website, Golden Glow, Interviews News, Leach, Metaphors, Mining Companies, Open Pit Heap, Residencies, Respect For The Environment, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Yamana Gold

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Wallace Heim writes:

Wooloo.org is the organisation in Copenhagen that came up with the idea of housing artists and activists in people’s home for the climate talks. Their website lists open calls for artist’s awards, residencies and other opportunities.

This week’s Special Call is for Passion to Perform – Art Competition 2012, for paintings, photography, sculptures and drawings, with prizes of Canadian $6,000, $2,500 and $1,000.

It’s not exactly an ‘open’ call.

The sponsor is Yamana Gold, one of the world’s leading gold and copper mining companies, with operations throughout the Americas, primarily Argentina and Brazil. They are asking for artworks that are inspired by the company’s core principles: “sustainability, dependability, respect for the environment and our communities, safety of our colleagues.”

“Passion to Perform is a competition which celebrates the success of Yamana Gold, and we are looking forward to engaging creatively in a way that reflects our company’s diversity and core values.”

Other views about Yamana Gold’s principles are here and here.

Photo above of the Gualcamayo open pit, heap leach gold operation in the San Juan province of Argentina, courtesy of the Yamana Gold website.

The first river to have legal rights

September 24, 2012Ashden DirectoryAffections, Aotearoa New Zealand, Associate Editor, Awa, Climate Change, Court Cases, Features Interviews, Grievances, Interviews News, Jem, Legal Entity, Legal Voice, Phil Robinson, River Aire, River Exe, River Frome, Robert Butler, Shipley, Southam, Twitter

The Whanganui River, Aotearoa / New Zealand, photo: Phil Robinson

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Wallace Heim writes:

For the first time, a river has been given a legal voice. The Whanganui Riverin New Zealandhas become a legal entity, and will be recognised as a person in law in the same way that a company is, giving it rights and interests.

The status of the river as Te Awa Tupua (an integrated, living whole) is a step in the resolution of historical grievances and court cases between the Whanganui iwi, the Maori peoples and nations living along the river, and the Crown. Two guardians, one from the Whanganui Riveriwi, and one from the Crown will be given the role of protecting the river.

In the UK, â€˜rightsâ€™ generally means the right to access for humans to rivers, or the right to flood protection.

But many artists are negotiating the relations between human use and the free-running of rivers, navigating the values and affections towards rivers. Just now, among these are Multi-Story Water on the River Aire in Shipley and the River Frome in Bristol, and River Runs on the Thames near Oxford. Jem Southam is exhibiting photographs of the River Exe, investigating what makes or defines a river. Earlier this year, Flow turned the Tyne into music in Newcastle. And two decades ago, Still Waters uncovered the buried rivers of London.

Weather presenter freaks out

September 19, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, blog, Climate Change, Colleague, Comedy, Features Interviews, Flowers, Freaks, Interviews News, Metaphors, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Strays, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter, United Kingdom, Weather Climate, Weather Presenter

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http://youtu.be/TmfcJP_0eMc

A colleague has emailed us this clip. A weather presenter strays into climate reporting, comedy and reality.

stagereads features Caridad Svich

September 11, 2012Ashden Directory15 September, 3 April, Artistic Associate, Associate Editor, Bp Oil Spill, Catastrophes, Cities In The United States, Climate Change, Features Interviews, Fishing In The Gulf Of Mexico, Goodman Theatre In Chicago, Gulf Of Mexico, Gutman, Henry Godinez, Interviews News, Lifetime Achievement, Obie Award, Playwrights, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Twitter

photo: stagereads, Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico

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Kellie Gutman writes:

A new website, stagereads, is publishing plays by emerging playwrights, which are e-readable on mobile devices. They are available by subscription, with a 155 discount for those subscribing before 15 September. Â The first featured playwright is Caridad Svich and her recent play The Way of Water.

Svich received the 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. Â The Way of WaterÂ has been traveling since 3 April, 2012, and has had readings in fifty cities in the United States as well as in the UK and beyond. Â The play, written after the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill, tells the story of two fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, who have to deal with the after effects of the spill. The introduction to the play is written by Henry Godinez, Resident Artistic Associate at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

He writes in his final paragraph:

Many a great play has been written about corporate negligence and devastating catastrophes, but what makes The Way of Water so compelling is the way it exposes the after effects of such sensational evens in the most real of human terms.

Jonathan Jones faces the empty museum

September 10, 2012Ashden DirectoryAnimals And Plants, Art Critic, Associate Editor, Climate Change, Features Interviews, Foundations, Human Culture, Imaginations, Interviews News, Jonathan, Jonathan Jones, Meaning Of Life, Metaphors, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Sixth Extinction, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter

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GuardianÂ art critic Jonathan Jones on the sixth extinction:

“Human activity endangers entire species, yet human culture is profoundly rooted in nature. The loss of a species is also a loss of the images, stories, symbols and wonders that we live by â€“ to call it a cultural loss may sound too cerebral: what we lose when we lose animalsÂ is the very meaning of life…The range of animals and plants threatened by the sixth extinction is such that it menaces the foundations of culture as well as the diversity of nature. We are part of nature and it has always fed our imaginations. We face the bare walls of an empty museum, a gallery of the dead.”

Speedier spring

July 11, 2012Ashden DirectoryApril 4, Associate Editor, Atlanta Georgia, Climate Change, Daffodils, Eastern Seaboard, Features Interviews, Fort Kent, Gutman, Interviews News, Metaphors, Miles Per Hour, Northernmost Point, Paideia School, Robert Butler, Route 1, Six Ways, sustainability, Twitter, Warm Spring

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‘Progress of Spring’ final report

Kellie Gutman writes:

The Â fourth and fifth grade class at the Paideia SchoolÂ in Atlanta, Georgia, has completed their year-long project documenting the progress of spring, as defined by the first blooming daffodil reported along the length of Route 1, from Florida to Maine. Â Their results confirm the general impression that this was a very warm spring on the eastern seaboard. Â At the northernmost point, Fort Kent, Maine, daffodils were spotted on April 4, 2012 – nearly a month earlier than last year, and the earliest in the twenty-two years that the class has been keeping records. Â The rate that spring advanced, 1570 miles in 93 days, was approximately 17 miles a day, or .7 miles per hour, which is about average.

Edinburgh’s greener Fringe

June 20, 2012Ashden Directory, FringeAssociate Editor, Bevy, Climate Change, Consumerism, Ecological Themes, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Japanese Earthquake, Macbeth, Nuclear Leak, Oil Spill, Remarkable Number, Robert Butler, Sensibilities, Silent Prayer, Six Ways, Theatre Pieces, Twitter, Urban Architecture

Fukushima – A Silent Prayer of Poetry

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Wallace Heim writes:

Among the bevy of shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe about Hitler, adolescence, Macbeth and stage spiritualists, there is a remarkable number of dance and physical theatre pieces with ecological themes. Consumerism and happiness, oil and politics, the Japanese earthquake, undercover policing, urban architecture and fear of the woods are among the ideas and sensibilities these shows are expressing.

Theatre shows number highly this year, too, with around 70 that have ecological themes varying from the strongly activist to the bucolic. Shows about animals, food and an apocalypse always feature. This year, there are three shows walking to Edinburgh; shows about abattoirs, about the Deepwater oil spill and the Fukushima nuclear leak; and shows about a swamp, plastics, population and the price of milk.

The right environment

June 5, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Climate Change, Ecology, Extinction, Features Interviews, Flowers, Fringe, Interviews News, Jonathan, Jonathan Brown, Last Of The Curlews, Lunch, Metaphors, Playwright, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Triptych, Twitter

from The Last Lunch

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Wallace Heim writes:

The Best New Play Award, offered collaboratively by New Writing South and the Brighton Fringe, is an award that has nothing to do with ecology. But this yearâ€™s award was given to two productions that have something to do with ecology.Playwright Jonathan Brown won for his play about meat-eating, The Last Lunch.

The company Feral Theatre won for Triptych, three productions on loss and extinction: Papusza, The Last of the Curlews and TreeStory.

One Day on Earth

June 2, 2012Ashden DirectoryArts Programming, Associate Editor, Center Materials, Charities, City Materials, Climate Change, Department Of Cultural Affairs, Features Interviews, Gutman, Interviews News, June 3, Materials For The Arts, Metaphors, Proceeds, Reuse Center, Robert Butler, Showings, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter

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Kellie Gutman writes:

On Friday June 1, and Sunday June 3, New York’s premier reuse center,Â Materials for the Arts, will be the recipient of proceeds from screenings of One Day on Earth. Â It was made in 2010, and filmed in every country on earth on the same day. Â There will be a week of showings to benefit local charities in New York City.

Materials for the Arts is a program of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Â It collects unneeded materials from businesses and individuals and donates them to arts programming across the city.

Tom Toles wedding cartoon

May 31, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Caricature, Cartoonist, Climate Change, Doodle, Editorial Cartooning, Environmental Issues, Features Interviews, Gutman, Herblock, Interviews News, Metaphors, Pulitzer Prize, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Toles Cartoons, Tom Toles, Twitter, Washington Post, Wedding Cartoon

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory Kellie Gutman writes: Pulitzer-Prize-winning Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles‘Â latest cartoon on climate change. Toles has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning, winning in 1990. Â He replaced the legendary cartoonist Herblock at the Washington Postin 2002. Toles’ cartoons are syndicated in over 200 newspapers. Â He is known for tackling complicated subjects such as environmental issues. Â He often includes a small doodle, a caricature of himself, in the corner.