Top 10 Most Pioneering Art/Sustainability Initiatives in the UK
With climate change rapidly becoming a bigger issue for society, Arts Council England are the first funding body to recognise the environmental role that the cultural field can play. They also deeply believe that what artists have to say about climate change will shape our values and behaviours for years to come. Here’s Artists and Climate Change’s top 10 list of art organisations doing their bit for climate change, including our amazing partner, Invisible Dust.
We will be sponsoring an art event in partnership with Invisible Dust at the ‘Under Her Eye’ climate change summit! The event will be hosted at the British Library on 1–2 June 2018. A key area of focus for the event is climate’s link to health, wellbeing and social justice, and how art can play a major role in influencing thinking and sparking debate. Read on for more art organisations that are key influencers all over the world in addressing the climate change debate!
1. Open Jar Collective
The collective of socially engaged artists and designers that form Open Jar Collective operates mostly out of Scotland and actively share food, ideas and possibilities for change.
“We use food as a vehicle for bringing people together, as a common language to understand the global economic system, and as a tool for exploring people’s fundamental relationship to the land.”
2. Invisible Dust
Reporting daily on the level of air pollution in London, Invisible Dust aims to make the invisible visible — particularly environmental challenges that don’t necessarily register to the naked eye. This awareness is brought through artists’ commissions, events, education and community activities. We are sponsoring their upcoming project with Under Her Eye, featuring the amazing Margaret Atwood in a summit on Women and Climate Change at the British Library this summer.
“I love working with Invisible Dust — it’s a fantastic platform for collaborations between artists and scientists who are natural collaborators; both are explorers and storytellers, seeking out new ways of understanding, communicating (and indeed, changing) the world around them. So when it comes to the dry (and let’s face it, often frankly terrifying) language of climate change, the marriage of the two can be particularly effective. Artists can respond to environmental data in work that provokes real engagement — and scientists in turn can consider more creative and impactful ways of sharing (or indeed conducting!) their research.” — Lucy Wood
3. Creative Carbon Scotland
Inspired by the ladies at Julie’s Bicycle, Creative Carbon Scotland supports Scottish arts organisations with training in carbon measurement, reporting and reduction. Though their work involves a lot of strategy and policymaking, the direct involvement of artists remains key. Projects such as The Green Tease, but also various themed residencies, allow for a good relationship with the local community and places artists in both arts- and non-arts organisations.
4. Grizedale Arts
Tucked away in the English Lake District, Grizedale Arts is a self-proclaimed “curatorial project in a continuous state of development.” The site is a productive farm (which includes livestock), where artists can’t be afraid to get their hands dirty. The program, consisting of events, projects residencies and community activities, engages with the complexities of the rural environment.
5. Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World
Now part of a family of art and ecology organisations, which includes art.earth at Darlington Hall in Devon, CCANW is an educational charity which brings together curators, artists and researchers to give people a deeper understanding of their responsibilities within nature.
“In the coming years, we hope to encourage a new generation of artists and curators to engage more people with the urgent ecological challenges we face globally. We believe that the arts can effect change in ways that complement the work of conventional education and science.” — Clive Adams
6. ONCA
ONCA, a gallery and performance space in Brighton was created when founder Laura Coleman met a puma in Bolivia. She connected with the puma, who was terrified of the jungle. In 2011, Laura came back to the UK wanting to find a way to tell Wayra’s story, intertwined with the stories of all the other animals (human and non-human) she met in the jungle. ONCA is therefore an art space dedicated to performance and storytelling about issues that affect animals.
“We work really hard at ONCA to provide a space, and a support network, for artists, young people and the general public to explore, question and creatively reimagine the world. How can art, and art spaces, contribute towards better nows, and better futures, for all?” — Laura Coleman
7. Deveron Projects
“The town is the venue” describes the framework of Deveron Projects’ work, as they inhabit, explore, map and activate the place through artist-driven projects. They bring together people from all walks of life through public gatherings, symposium, forums, workshops, farmers markets, seasonal cafés, music events, street festivals, slow marathons, gardening sessions, internet conferences and lunches.
“Our town, like many rural places is facing the signs of globalisation with shops, banks, services closing. We need to join forces and think of responses for creative regeneration.”
8. The Morning Boat
The Morning Boat is a program of public art projects, exploring and reflecting on agricultural and fishing practices in Jersey and the impact these have on people’s lives. At the centre of the program is an international artist residency, inviting artists from around the world to collaborate with local farmers, fishermen, politicians, chefs and retailers and consumers, to encourage public discourse on complex critical issues that are central to the island’s economy and way of life.
9. Scottish Sculpture Workshop
Located in the foothills of the Grampian Mountrains, in the rural village of Lumsden, Scottish Sculpture Workshop promotes a dialogue that considers the place of this rural locale within a globalised society. They are an active bunch, organising residencies, talks and lots of courses, including ceramics.
10. Arts Catalyst
Through its continuous work with artists, scientists, communities and interest groups, Arts Catalyst commissions and produces large-scale projects, artworks, and exhibitions that connect with other fields of knowledge, expanding artistic practice into domains commonly associated with science and specialist research. They also commission research and are great advocates for cross-disciplinary thinking and working.
“Arts Catalyst promotes new artistic practices, ideas and ways of inquiring in to the world. We work with artists, scientists, and people from myriad backgrounds and perspectives to create imaginative, inspiring, engaging projects addressing important issues of our time, from extractive capitalism and climate change, to histories and representations of race and migration.” — Nicola Triscott, Artistic Director
