Sustainable Living

Sustainable Living Festival

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Febuary 8th – 23rd, 2014.

slffestivallogo

The Sustainable Living Festival raised awareness and provided tools for change by showcasing leading solutions to the ecological and social challenges we face. The Sustainable Living Festival aimed to inspire and empower everyday Australians to accelerate the uptake of sustainable living.

The Festival attracts over 150,000 visits annually and engages with hundreds of organisations and individuals to stage Australia’s largest and oldest sustainability festival.

SLF 2012 from SLF on Vimeo.

The Festival’s expanded program engaged individuals and communities across Victoria to host and promote sustainability events. Beyond this, the Festival has extended the reach of the sustainability message to the cities, suburbs and streets of the nation.

The Festival’s Big Weekend event at Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne celebrated the very best examples of ecological and social sustainability. The event embraced interactive workshops, talks, demonstrations, artworks, exhibits, films and live performances.

‘The Sustainable Living Festival is a manifestation of a commitment to healing our environment, a demonstration of diverse proposals for changing our behaviour and reducing the damaging impact we are having.’

Dr Moss Cass, Australia’s first environment minister, SLF patron.

Program

Visitor Info

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Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Emergence presents: Resilience in the Face of Challenge Creu Cymru at WSD2013

ImageFri 13 Sept 9.30 – 11.00

AHC Conference room

Creu Cymru is the development agency for theatres and arts centres in Wales. It currently has 44 member organisations who pay an annual fee to receive a range of services. With support from the Welsh Government’s Support For Sustainable Living Fund, Creu Cymru is working with Cardiff University, Julie’s Bicycle and Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales to develop a project to support the theatres and arts centres of Wales in becoming more resilient in facing the challenges of the 21st Century, particularly addressing the following 3 areas: energy and waste – consumption & treatment, the supply chain – examining theatre production and touring, communicating to audiences the issues and potential solutions

This session is designed to give theatre makers and producers an opportunity to hear how the project is progressing and work together on collaborating over programming and artistic response. The event will be a learning seminar to share best practice and showcase this project to an international audience.

Price: £6

BUY TICKETS 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

ARTSPACE FORUM:  SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2014  10AM – 2 PM in Chicago
TITLE:  Designing a Better Future: A Participatory Platform for Exchange
Session Producers: Jacki Apple & Mat Rappaport

LogoArtists and designers operating as thinkers and communicators, visualizers and producers can be leaders in changing how we think, live, and act, in order to make a better world.

Are we ready to discuss cultural production and the arts as viable and meaningful practices beyond the established system of commodity trading? What potential models of an effective creative practice can we envision and develop?

Artists, designers, media producers, photographers, filmmakers, architects, writers, theorists, educators, cultural historians are invited to submit proposals for presentation and discussion that will inspire others to join them in imagining, inventing, and actualizing a more sustainable and enlightened possible future, whether it be local or global.

What would you do to effect change?  What would that look like? Do esthetics matter?

We seek provocative and challenging theoretical concepts and/or models for practical application. Visionary, daring, unconventional ideas, collaborations across fields in the arts, sciences, and  humanities that conceive different ways to address social, economic, and environmental realities are encouraged.

General topics/themes to consider

  1. Climate Change, the Environment and Sustainable Living:
    • Consumption
    • Energy
    • Waste
    •  Food
    • Water
    • Air
    • Economic & Social Consequences.
  2. The Culture of Violence:
    • social
    • political
    • cultural
    • economic manifestations
  3. Technology and Human Rights:
    • biological
    • political
    • intellectual
    • spiritual.
  4. Other

PRESENTATION FORMAT

The format for presentation will be an interactive forum of exchange between speakers and audience. There will be no podium. Speakers will be placed within the audience. Presentations may include visuals – images, texts, charts, etc.

Each speaker will be given 7 minutes to present her/his proposal. The audience will then have equal time – 7 minutes to respond and discuss. Time may be slightly less or more depending on the number of outstanding proposals selected.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Please send a description of your topic and the theoretical concepts and/or model that you intend to propose in approximately 300 words, plus a brief bio/CV of no more than 2 pages. The 300 word proposal must include a title, name/s of author(s), address, email, phone number. Please submit all proposal files as PDF documents. 

TO: studio@meme01.com

DEADLINE: FOR PROPOSALS: June 1, 2013                                                             

NOTIFICATION OF SELECTION: June 20, 2013

Creu Cymru partner with Julie’s Bicycle to help fourty two Welsh arts venues go green

Whether a former miners’ institute, an Edwardian theatre or modern iconic buildings such as the Wales Millennium Centre or Galeri Caernarfon, arts venues occupy an important place in the communities of Wales. Today sees the start of a major, ground-breaking initiative to support forty two arts venues in Wales to become greener and leaner.

The venues are all members of Creu Cymru – the development agency for theatres and arts venues in Wales. They will be asked about the way they manage their use of energy and water, their waste disposal and other environmental issues. Those who choose to will take part in a more detailed investigation with on-going support.

Based on the results of the investigation venues will be given the tools and advice needed to strengthen their environmental, social and economic sustainability. By becoming more energy and resource efficient, managers of the venues will be able to save money. They will be helped to develop new strategies and communicate these to staff, contractors, suppliers and audiences. Overall, this initiative will make them fit for the future and better able to respond to the challenges of a changing world.

The initiative will address three areas;

  • energy and waste (consumption and treatment)
  • the supply chain (theatre production and touring)
  • communicating to audiences the issues and potential solutions (imagining the future)

The initiative is part of Emergence – an on-going programme of work led by Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales and Volcano Theatre Company that aims to make sustainable development a core organising principle of the arts in Wales. This Creu Cymru Emergence initiative has been made possible by the Welsh Government’s Support For Sustainable Living grant scheme through a partnership comprising Creu Cymru, Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales, the ESRC BRASS Research Centre (Cardiff University) and London-based arts and environmental sustainability experts Julie’s Bicycle.

BRASS and Julie’s Bicycle will provide the technical expertise. Both organisations have a track record of success in investigating and offering solutions for the environmental and social sustainability of the arts. Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales will use the information and learning that comes from the work to inform consultation on the development of the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Development Bill.

The Creu Cymru membership consists of Wales’ most cherished theatres and arts venues that have for generations acted as hubs of social and cultural activity. With this initiative, they will be able to continue to do this in the context of a changing world and make an important contribution to the development of a sustainable Wales.

Going Green the Wong Way going to Edinburgh

[iframe http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1886729744/bring-going-green-the-wong-way-to-the-edinburgh-fr/widget/video.html 500 380]

CLICK HERE TO VIEW KICKSTARTER

Going Green the Wong Way is being presented by CalArts Festival Theater this August 2012 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland– the world’s largest fringe festival.  This show looks at the hilarious trials and tribulations of sustainable living, most notably, creator Kristina Wong’s experiences of running a car on vegetable oil, and subsequently, living in Los Angeles without a car.

“Going Green the Wong Way might be one of the most ridiculous shows we’ve ever seen, and we mean that in the best of ways…. Wong took a seemingly overworked topic like sustainable living and turned it into a surrealist, hilarious ride.”                           — Miami New Times

See the show in Los Angeles before it goes to Edinburgh!

This Kickstarter campaign is also a way for us to get the word out about the Los Angeles run of GGTWW at the Bootleg Theater June 28- July 22.  A donation of $35 or more will secure general admission seats for the run of the show and help us get to Edinburgh!  (See details on your right!)

More About Going Green the Wong Way:  

In her lifelong quest for sustainable living, Kristina Wong purchased a 1981 pink Mercedes that ran on vegetable oil, and endured a nightmare of never-ending car repairs and near death pursuits for the used cooking oil to fuel it. When the car finally burst into flames on an L.A. freeway, Wong lost the largest line item in her monthly budget, and gained the inspiration for this premiere production.  GOING GREEN THE WONG WAY brings our contemporary urban environment to life, revealing just how tricky it is to “do the right thing.”  Based on Wong’s true-life adventures, but elevated to surrealist heights, the production takes us from Kristina’s confrontational 6th grade science project, to her wandering years as a missionary of recycling, to her true calling as Los Angeles’ patron martyr of carbon-free living.

Going Green the Wong Way was originally produced by Mad Cat Theatre Company in November 2010 and premiered at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, FL as an ensemble piece.  It premiered as a full length solo work in San Francisco last summer (produced by Mad Cat Theatre Company and Circuit Network).  It’s also played at the Comedy Central Stage, Upright Citizens Brigade, South Coast Rep, and the Contemporary Art Center’s “The Off The Strip” Festival in Las Vegas.

“Kristina Wong is a funny — no, make that an extremely funny — performer with a wildly imaginative, sometimes raunchy sensibility.”  — Miami Herald

“Kristina Wong is a terrific physical comedienne whose love of dry humping, scrambled TV porn, reusable female necessities, scatology and vegetable oil make her highly qualified to be an ecological martyr.”   — Miami Art Zine           

“When things go wrong for performance artist Kristina Wong, you know it’s going to be a spectacular mess… There are hundreds of ways to go wrong when attempting to go green, but going Wong can only ever be right.”
— San Francisco Bay Guardian

“While her hilarious tales of being a “missionary of recycling” might make her audience laugh, the sustainable schtick isn’t just an act. Wong is serious about practicing what she preaches.”  — Good Magazine

ASEF: Publication of the Connect2Culture dossier

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Arts. Environment. Sustainability. How can Culture Make a Difference?

There is a growing awareness that culture and the arts can help dealing with global challenges by means of alternative, creative approaches to pressing problems. Therefore society as well as governmental stakeholders start to see culture as an important value for sustainable development, environment, education, health and social cohesion.

After a four years program investigating the role of arts and culture in society, the Asian Europe Foundation (ASEF) published and presented the Connect2Culture dossier: Arts. Environment. Sustainability. How can Culture Make a Difference? at the ASEF-supported roundtable at the 5th World Summit on Arts and Culture in Melbourne, Australia.

The Connect2Culture programme was initiated in order to answer the question which role culture plays in the global debate on environmental sustainability. In the course of the program, Asian as well as European experts from all fields addressed issues related to art and environmental sustainability through artistic projects, workshops and policy meetings. The program has facilitated bi-regional dialogue and collaboration on the value of culture and the arts.

The resulting dossier is a summary of  ASEF’s work with arts and environment in the last four years and a reflection on the issues raised by the people involved. It constitutes the reaffirmation of culture as the fourth pillar of sustainability and is expected to serve as inspiration for further discussions and cooperation, especially with the imminent United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in June 2012.
The dossier includes discussion papers from two Connect2Culture projects: Arts, Culture and Sustainability: Visions for the Future and The Art of Sustainable Living: A Creative Approach to Global Social and Environmental Crises. Furthermore it contains a collection of visions for the future, an overview of the ASEF projects as well as a directory of cultural professionals and ASEF partners.

Culture has an instrumental part connecting many areas of human development such as education, human rights, economy, sustainable development, health awareness and environment, as well as science and technology. For David Haley and Jaya Iyer, who held the workshop Climate Leaders: Release Your Creative Powers – How can art enhance our ability to think and act differently? in Bangkok in 2009, it is of high importance to include artists in the global debate: “A dialogue is not so much about generating new knowledge, as it is about changing the way we think.”

As a result of the Connect2Culture programme a strong network of almost 100 professionals in arts and culture was established, which is committed to strengthen the voice of arts and culture. These experts share the belief that the arts and culture sector can play an active role to support the identification of, engagement with and positive adaptation to important changes in our societies.
Ada Wong (politician, environmentalist, educationalist and cultural advocate) is one of the experts that took part in the workshop Arts, Culture and Sustainability: Building Synergies between Asia and Europe held in Copenhagen in 2009. She states:
„While the environmental lobby targets and criticizes governments and vested interests, the arts and cultural sector can work with the people and start,bottom up, from the community. The cultural sector is a natural change agent, instigator and provocateur in paradigm shifts and mindset changes.“

Sacha Kagan (founding coordinator of the international level of Cultura21) points out the challenge that society has to face in dealing with complexity:
“The deep and qualitative complexity of the world does not fit with the clear, coherent, uni-dimensional logic of theories and world views we have learned to design. We have to engage in an unprecedented creative leap towards complexity, which will require giant transdisciplinary advances in all cultural sectors (and especially in arts education and education through art&science) or we will miss the 2050 mark for an “ecological age”.”

As Rosina Gomez-Baeza Tinturé, director of the LABoral Centre for Art and Creative Industries (Spain), stated during the 2009 Connect2Culture project, “The mission of artists is to inspire, educate and engage themselves with society. Creativity is the capacity to produce things that are new and of value; it is the capacity to reach new conclusions and come up with original solutions to problems.”

You are able to download the dossier at:
http://asef.org/index.php/projects/themes/arts-culture/1999-connect2culture-at-the-world-summit-on-arts-and-culture

Further information can also be found here.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

The National Circus – a gathering, Berlin

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Berlin

27th of October

On the 27th of October The National Circus takes place in the Gartenstudio in Berlin. On this occasion poets and storytellers of all kind meet in order to celebrate the  ‘being in the moment’ and the beauty of the ephemeral. In this way you are able to find the foundation of the evolution and sustainability of life and of every interaction between ecosystems: It all emerges from a moment. The project’s aim is to generate a change of thought: We should see ourselves as part of the environment and not distinct from it. Following this, the perceivers are supposed to be part of the Natural Circus rather than only witnesses.

The event starts on the 27th of October at 20.30 in the Naunynstraße 53 in Berlin.
The initiator of the project is poet and artist Lars Schmidt, who deals with ecological thinking and sustainable living. He facilitates ways of thought and expression that work with nature instead of destroying it.
The musician and composer David Rothenberg accompanies him in the project. His work includes music with whales, birds and artists like Glen Velez. Furthermore he is a philosopher-naturalist and the author of several books, including „Why birds sing“.

For further information see: http://naturalcircus.org/

This post is also available in: German

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Open Call: Amplify Action

“Amplify Action: Sustainability through the Arts” will be presented in Spring 2012 by the Skylight Gallery, a department of BSRC’s Center for Arts and Culture. The exhibition is conceived to demonstrate how arts, culture and media are powerful catalysts for social change, and aims to engage neighborhoods in a dialogue about sustainable living, making healthy consumer choices, and taking environmental action. Works in the exhibit will directly and indirectly examine the different components of sustainability such as, but not limited to: ecology, economy, equity, environmental consciousness, resource conservation and efficiency, agriculture, architecture, infrastructure, environmental justice and health.

 

The exhibition “Amplify Action: Sustainability through the Arts,” is a collaborative project of the Pratt Center for Community Development, Pratt Institute’s Initiative for Arts, Community and Social Change (IACSC), and the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. The project is a part of the Arts Implementation Fund of the Pratt Center, recently established through a generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund. The projects of the Arts Implementation Fund, in partnership with community based organizations in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills create projects that support the execution of visual and performance art works created by local artists, artist groups, and artists abroad that promote a civic dialogue about community sustainability.

 

More Information: http://www.amplifyaction.org/p/call-for-artists.html

Online Application: http://www.amplifyaction.org/p/online-application-form.html

Sam’s Post #5: Keep Moving, It’s the American Way

NEWS FLASH! Sam Accepted at Edinburgh Fringe Festival  (details to follow)

Sam and other Cal Arts Actors to Showcase in NYC

Sam's 1951 Spartan Royal Mansion, viewed from a hill at Cal Arts. Photo credit: Scott Groller

My trailer, our trailer, which I inappropriately refer to as “The Mansion”, was acquired in August 2010, in Torrance CA. Shortly before, my mother– a one time filmmaker for the United Nations, once a Katrina refugee, currently a freelance journalist with a fervent passion for social justice and a newly developed interest in sustainable living – and I, a one-time private banker employed by philanthropist and all around jolly good guy, Mr. John Pierpont Morgan.

Well, my mom and I we’re on the phone..Truth is we’ve grown apart quite a bit over the last 10 years. More often than not we’ve been on opposite sides of the country, opposite sides of the Atlantic, sometimes unintentionally (and admittedly) sometimes with quite a bit of intention.

We’ve been through a lot, and it’s just the two of us. So, you know, tension ensues, occasionally, sometimes, often, whatever. So we’re on the phone, and the topic of this particular conversation is one that comes up every couple years.

It goes something like this:  “So, whaaaaaat’s next ?” You see, my mom’s been a nomad for a little while now. That tends to happen when a storm like Katrina hits an already fragile community like New Orleans.

But me? I’ve been in denial about my nomadic nature. I had a proper desk job for a couple years before coming here, a serious girlfriend. I had a PLAN, a checklist, which I adhered to methodically: a sequence of suit-and-tie jobs, then auditions, which eventually, allowed me to be here, right here, at this very moment.

At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2010, Sam played Godzilla in Eric Ehn's adaption of the play. Here he hawks the production in the streets of Edinburgh.

The thing is, I’m about to graduate, as an Actor. (Did I mention that?) And my future is quite uncertain again. And so…

My mom and I are on the phone, my grandmother has passed away and left her a little bit of money, and she wants to buy a trailer and live in it.  And I have been wanting to restore a trailer – I want to MAKE something, something living, and useful to someone, something longer lasting than a two-hour play.   And that’s as far as my thought process went ..

So a month later we buy the trailer. And I park it on campus, THIS campus, tucked away behind the basketball courts and I start BUILDING and my mom starts BLOGGIN’ and we call it “Trailer Trash” because it’s a GREEN restoration, and we’re using recycled materials.

So after having grown apart over the years, here we are collaborating, truly collaborating, in a way that’s completely new to me. We’re collaborating on a project that’s very personal to both of us. We are building, in fact we are RE-building from old fragments, a new home that is both unconventional and yet, in the most American way, as conventional as can be.

I don’t know about building houses, or little. I don’t know about trailer living. I don’t know about doing all this while going to school full-time and sometimes feeling like I’m losing my mind!

This project has been a true experiment, from the beginning. The most amazing thing about embracing the experimental nature of this project has been to watch it grow and evolve. What began as a guerrilla building project has become–because of this place [Cal Arts] this faculty, this student body– a PERFORMANCE PIECE.  (Why the hell not?)  And it’s about building a HOME for a family that’s been without one for a while. About learning to work the system of a higher education establishment [to get permission to put the trailer on campus.] It’s about learning to become an artist- and not just a performer. Learning to put my thoughts into words (believe it or not this is not something that comes naturally.) It’s about figuring out what this project is, what it means to me, to us, and so this thing is THERAPEUTIC, baby.

I’m starting to ask myself, with no real expectation of reaching any answers: Why is it that I still haven’t unpacked my stuff after Katrina? And why do I still refuse to settle down and put pictures up on the wall?

…maybe it’s not just me…[he stops to address conference participants] If I were to stop and ask: How many of you in this room consider yourself in TRANSIT? How many of you have ever lost a home?

I realize that most artists are nomadic by nature. We have to be, to survive, to pursue our dreams, to make, to MAKE .. We gotta’ keep on moving. And if possible, we ‘gotta do it in STYLE.

It’s the American Way.

This post is part of a series documenting Sam Breen’a Spartan Restoration Project. Please see his first post here and check out the archive here. The CSPA is helping Sam by serving in an advisory role, offering modest support and featuring Sam’s Progress by syndicating his feed from http://spartantrailerrestoration.wordpress.com as part of our CSPA Supports Program.

The Otesha Project – Volunteer Opportunities

Cycle Tour Liaison Internship

Otesha are seeking six dedicated, organised, fun-loving liaisons, aged 18 to 28, to join their summer 2011 cycling, performing and workshop presenting tours.  Further information below.

Roam around in a two-wheeled community, explore the UK, meet some great friends, and make a real difference in the world.  Tour members get trained in theatre, workshop facilitation, public speaking, bike touring, bike maintenance, group living, media relations, consensus decision-making, and sustainable living.

As the tailwind that helps the tour up hills, tour liaisons will offer invaluable support to team members, and share the excitement of downhill descents!  Liaisons will spend two weeks in the Otesha office in London before the start of the six-week tour.

Take a look at our website to find out more about our tours: http://www.otesha.org.uk/programmes/tours and download a full tour liaison role description and application form: http://www.otesha.org.uk/about-us/opportunities-with-otesha-uk#tours.

If you’re bursting with questions or just want a chat about it please contact Iona or Calu on 0207 377 2109 or cycletours@otesha.org.uk.

Cycle Tour Member

Gear up for a two-wheeled revolution – join a 2011 Otesha UK cycle tour!

Want to do something fun, challenging and worthwhile with your summer? This year there are two tremendous six-week tours to choose from: Northern Soul and Tartan Trail.   We’ll be taking in the delights of the UK from our saddles, performing a play, making the world a better place, learning new skills (bike maintenance, theatre, consensus decision-making, sustainable and group living… the list goes on), meeting new friends, and generally making mischief.

If you’re 18 to 28 and passionate about creating a sustainable future, then come ride with us. Find out more at www.otesha.org.uk/cycletours. Places are first come, first served, so get your skates on!

If you have any questions or would just like to have a chat about it, then give Calu or Iona a call on 0207 377 2109 or email cycletours@otesha.org.uk.

More information about joining: www.otesha.org.uk/cycletours

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