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Following the Roots: Stories of Halewood

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Frances Disley in conversation - British Library

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Frances Disley in conversation - British Library

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Connecting to people, plants & place in urban environments with Frances Disley, Michael Smythe...

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The Greening Arts Practice Guide [GAP Guide] is a guide for artists and arts organisations who want to develop a more environmentally responsible arts practice. The guide is free, and can be downloaded from the Chrysalis Arts Development website. An online version will follow in the near future. It brings together what we at Chrysalis Arts have learned about addressing the climate crisis, and other related issues, through over a decade of work in the area. It also features 11 case studies from a diverse range of artists and some examples of our own recent work.

The Guide aims to offer a range of entry points and approaches for artists at different stages in their creative practice. It is not intended to be a 'how-to' or a definitive tool kit, but instead aims to create an opportunity for artists to question and develop their work, supported by the range of knowledge we can share. We hope that the Guide will help artists to tackle the issues and constraints which will inevitably arise in their practice by learning from the direct experiences and reflections of others.

As we all try to become more environmentally responsible, sharing the knowledge we have is of upmost importance. We plan to evolve the Guide over time, as we continue to focus our efforts in this area.

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If you're interested in GAP, ou may also be interested in hearing our recent interview with Artist in Residence Yambe Tam here.

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A guide for artists and arts organisations who want to develop a more environmentally responsible arts practice.

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The London Environmental Network helps protect our environment and build a sustainable community by doing everything we can to help our member organizations deliver on each of their own important missions.

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Welcome to Julie’s Bicycle | Homepage | Culture & Climate Non-Profit

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We are Julie’s Bicycle, a pioneering non-profit, mobilising the arts and culture to take action on the climate, nature and justice crisis.

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Join thousands of people and communities across the UK connecting to nature on their doorsteps and contributing to its protection.

Find a TCV activity or Green Gym near you

We believe it is important to inspire the next generation of children to care about the environment, understand the importance of biodiversity and to get excited about wildlife and nature.

Find TCV near you

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The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) works with people across the UK to create healthier and happier communities. We connect people and green spaces to deliver lasting outcomes for both.

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At the Fixing Factory, you can give your things a new lease of life. From tablets to toasters, a talented and creative group of fixers will help you repair your stuff and teach you new skills.

Say goodbye to buying something brand new at high cost, using it for a couple of years, and sending it to landfill. It's time to roll up our sleeves, use our hands, and mend our things. It saves you money, and saves the planet.

We're grateful to the National Lottery for funding our first two physical Fixing Factories in Brent and Camden, which will reduce waste and help people to truly value their stuff.

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At the Fixing Factory, you can give your things a new lease of life. From tablets to toasters, a talented and creative group of fixers will help you repair your stuff and teach you new skills. Say goodbye to buying something brand new at high cost, using it for a couple of years, and sending it to landfill.

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Climate Justice can't happen without racial justice

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Climate Justice can't happen without racial justice

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Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | David Lammy

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4-8 March 2024, a week of activities in response to the environmental and ecological crisis.

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Blue Health in a Time of Drought and Flood

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Blue Health in a Time of Drought and Flood

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Before I sat down to write this I dropped my son off at a holiday club for a day of canoeing on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Devizes, Wiltshire. He's a 12-year-old boy, with two dads and African-Carribean heritage. You might be wondering what this has to do with Blue Health and Climate Breakdown, and indeed what is meant by Blue Health.
'The concept of blue health emerged almost 10 years ago when researchers at the University of Sussex asked 20,000 people to record their feelings at random times. They collected over a million responses and found that people were by far the happiest when they were in blue spaces.'
The surprising benefits of blue spaces, BBC Future Planet

I've been exploring access to and perceptions of rivers and other wetlands for the past 3 years, or so, through my Queer River research project. As part of that research I've looked into the links between the Kennet and Avon and slavery ( Hidden Histories: Walking the Kennet and Avon Canal with Andy Marks), and written this piece on access to blue spaces for British Canoeing. So, dropping him off there today links all sorts of watery threads together in my mind.

One of the reasons that I set up Queer River was because of my increasing awareness of the subject of climate justice, supported through discussions among the Climate Museum UK team, with whom I'm an Associate Artist. I wanted to explore climate justice and access to blue spaces from the perspective of a Queer man, and to explore what Queer perspectives can offer the envonmental/climate movements. You can read more about that in this post - HIV/AIDS and The Earth Crisis and in a piece written after working with the University of Glasgow on the Queer River Wet Land project alongside COP26

Looking back on my time spent walking, talking and making with others along rivers and canals, it's clear that as well as seeking to learn from the perspectives of my collaborators, I also shaped the project to support my own wellbeing. I began to explore my neurodivergence, and to work out what I needed to stay well (see Neuroqueer Ecologies).
'From the early Greek and Roman physicians who recognized the healing powers of nature and bathing; to stressed out industrial workers in the nineteenth-century England and the United States who were advised to 'take the waters' by the seaside...to men and women today who treat their drug and alcohol addictions or PTSD with the dopamine rush of surfing... all these are examples of how water can help us transition to the healthier Blue Mind state of calm centredness.'
Blue Mind - Wallace J Nichols

I'm a big believer in the health benefits of experiencing our place within natural systems. In my arts practice, art is used as a way of focusing on our embodied, emotional and imaginative relationship with places, and one of the benefits can be an improvement in mental health, through feeling connected and supported. I do, however, have a bit of a problem with some of the language used in Green and Blue Health contexts, and what that says about our perceptions of our place within those systems.

When we talk about 'visiting nature' or 'spending time in nature' for example, what is it we are actually saying? To me it sounds like we are starting from a point of division, or separation. It is this division, I believe, that caused the climate and ecological crisis in the first place. If we visit 'Blue Spaces', seeking to benefit from time spent in them, we can feel reconnected, but isn't that a bit one-way/extractive? What do the watery ecosystems, the communities of life that make up rivers, lakes and coastlines get in return?

In 2021, partly as a result of my Queer River research, I set up and began working on The Ripple Effect ( The Ripple Effect: Blue Health with Wessex Archaeology) in partnership with Leigh Chalmers, Wessex Archaeology's Heritage Inclusion Manager. Leigh and I had noticed the publicity surrounding the planned Salisbury River Park Project in Wiltshire, whereby the River Avon as it passes through the city is to be given more room to flood, and biodiversity increased through swapping concrete and sluice gates for bankside vegetation and fish ladders. We developed a project idea in response, exploring the Avon's past, present and potential future, its ecology and archaeology, and invited a group of participants with some form of mental health need to take part in two years of creative river exploration.

I was keen that through The Ripple Effect sessions, we would explore the interelationship between individual and ecological wellbeing. The works in Salisbury plan to enrich the biodiversity of the river corridor, while increasing access to Blue/Green space for visitors and local people. The river will be given room to flood into marshy areas in times of heavy rainfall, rather than the flooding impacting on shops and houses.

Artist/Researcher Rachel Clive, who has carried out related research into the relationship between geodiversity and neurodiversity in the context of participatory practice with rivers, writes:
'Freedom Space For Rivers thinking is an approach to river/ flood risk management which seeks to work with rivers as they respond to a changing climate, rather than against them. It acknowledges that there are urban areas in which hard engineering approaches are necessary but advocates, where possible, for "more space for rivers to migrate and flood naturally" (Biron et al, 2014). When rivers have the freedom space to find their own way, they enrich the environment and nurture biodiversity in the process.'
For Freedom Space with Rivers - An Intergenerational Arts Project, Rachel Clive

Together, Leigh and I decided that we would look at how the path of the river has been altered over time, and how river restoration in this and other settings seeks to give rivers back some freedom and agency, and the space they need to rise and to fall.

I recently shared my work on Queer River and The Ripple Effect with Year 3 medical students at The Bristol School of Medicine, alongside Artist/Researcher Dr Catherine Lamont-Robinson. The students have been working on a Blue Health project entitled At Sea with Disability & Blue Health: ecological, embodied and global perspectives, co-developed and led by Dr Alan Kellas and Dr Catherine Lamont-Robinson.

During my time with the group, I invited each student to spend some time with their local river, using creative methodologies to record what they noticed. I'm hopeful that this work will not only support the student's own wellbeing, but expand their sense of what is possible in terms of social prescribing, and the value of creative, embodied experiences of Blue Spaces for staff and patients. (You can view short video clips of me sharing similar river based creative activities here as part of Ebb and Flow with Wessex Archaeology. I also used these previously with participants as part of an Acts of River Kindness project with Climate Museum UK).

Similarly to Blue Health, at first glance the concept of Blue Mind seems to focus solely on the positive effects of being alongside/in water, as illustrated by the full title of the book by Wallace J Nichols - Blue Mind: How Water Makes You Happier, More Connected and Better at What You Do. I'm conscious that, taken in isolation, this could be seen as a priviliged position, with leisure time spent near water available primarily to those without financial, cultural or physical barriers. I'm also increasingly conscious of the impact of climate breakdown on weather and the water cycle, leading to drought and flooding, and the fact that many people may come to associate water with traumatic events that threaten their lives and livelihoods.

Much of what I hear people talking about in terms of the benefits of Blue and Green Spaces, comes from the sense of safety and predictability that they can offer. A river keeps flowing, waves keep lapping at the shore, tides come and go. Water lifts and cradles us in a pool or bath. But for how long can we rely on the watery reassurance that Blue Health/Blue Mind speaks of? How long until our local river becomes a threat, or crops fail due to drought?

To date, these events haven't impacted me directly. My mental health has been affected, as I watch people being swept away by floods on the news, worry about my son's future, and feel a greater sense of unease at the unpredictability of seasonal weather. I'm scared, but my local river continues to follow its course, my home is still intact, my work continues, and I'm lucky that for now I have access to a range of healthy food.

As the effects of climate breakdown worsen, and move closer to home, my thinking is changing and will continue to do so, but for now, here's a few things that I think we need to consider when planning projects that seek the health and wellbeing benefits of being close to water:

Let go of some of the romance of Blue Health/Blue Mind, to embed an understanding of climate justice within the learning. Be explicit about the unequal ways in which wetlands benefit or threaten us in a time of crisis.

Try and remove as many barriers to accessing positive experiences of wetland environments as we can, and take into account people's historic experiences of rivers, lakes or the sea. Be participant-led rather than using a top-down, one size fits all approach.

Engage with wetlands with our whole being - our bodies, imaginations, emotions and more consciously too. This is what creative methodologies can provide us with, ways of being explorative, of reaching out to touch and be touched, recording our experiences and reflecting on them with others.

Combine time spent alongside rivers and other wetlands, with an expectation that we take actions that benefit them in return. We have a duty of care to the ecosystems that provide us with life, health and wellbeing.

Lastly, and this is kind of an amalgamation of all the above, we need to move from 'spending time in nature', to being and acting as nature. A river for example isn't a linear strip of water, it is a community of life and we are a part of that community.

A few more links, with thanks to Dr Alan Kelas:

BlueHealth - BlueHealth is a pan-European research initiative that investigated the links between urban blue spaces, climate and health.
http://www.bluehealth2020.eu
Healthcare Ocean - We aim to conserve and protect coastal and marine ecosystems through minimising harm resulting from the procurement and delivery of healthcare whilst increasing awareness of the benefits to human health and wellbeing from healthy seas, coasts, and waterways.
http://www.healthcareocean.org/
Ocean Generation - We exist to restore a healthy relationship between humanity and the Ocean (includes programmes for young people).
http://www.oceangeneration.org
River Action - Launched in 2021, River Action is on a mission to rescue Britain's river by raising awareness on river pollution and apply pressure on industrial and agricultural producers, water companies, and other polluters.
http://www.riveractionuk.com/
Simon Hall, Coastal Tonic - A project exploring the historical relationship between healthcare and coastal waters. The work investigates local archival material and engages with community groups, alongside considering the legacy of human impacts upon the environment and future of the river Thames estuary.
http://www.simon-hall.co.uk/coastal-tonic
Voicing Rivers Through Ontopoetics: A Co-operative Inquiry - Peter Reason
How might we engage with the rivers through personal relationship, ceremony, and invocation? What are the possibilities for reciprocal communication? In short, how might rivers speak? http://www.peterreason.net/wp-content/uploads/Voicing_Rivers_through_ontopoetics.pdf
The Universal Declaration of Rights of Rivers - http://www.rightsofrivers.org

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Blue Health in a Time of Drought and Flood

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Before I sat down to write this I dropped my son off at a holiday club for a day of canoeing on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Devizes, Wiltshire. He's a 12-year-old boy, with two dads and African-Carribean heritage. You might be wondering what this has to do with Blue Health and Climate Breakdown,...

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I'm glad to be able to share this recording for those of you that were unable to make the Queer River, Wet Land sharing event last month, which took place as part of The Dear Green Bothy, with The University of Glasgow,

What can queer perspectives bring to creative explorations of river health and river futures in a time of climate breakdown?

Join this special sharing event to explore the learning that has emerged from the Queer River, Wet Land collaboration, and to deepen your own creative engagement with rivers.
The Dear Green Bothy

As well as my own reflections, the event featured presentations and discussions from Professor of Performance Practice Minty Donald, artist/geographer Sage Brice, theatre practitioner Rachel Clive, and Madrid-based landscape architect Malú Cayetano.

Please follow this link for the full recording:
https://deargreenbothy.gla.ac.uk/event/queer-river-wet-land-sharing-event/

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Queer River, Wet Land - Recording of Online Sharing Event

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I'm glad to be able to share this recording for those of you that were unable to make the Queer River, Wet Land sharing event last month, which took place as part of The Dear Green Bothy, with The University of Glasgow, What can queer perspectives bring to creative explorations of river health and river...

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Ebb and Flow is part of our package of events for the 2020 CBA Festival of Archaeology, speaking to the theme of Climate and Environment, the film sees us following Geoarchaeologist, Claire Mellett and Artist, James Aldridge, as they take a walk alongside the River Avon through Salisbury.

This was our Plan C. With so many revisions and alterations we changed our plan for a third time in order to fit in with the latest Covid-19 guidelines. There was never meant to be a film, rather a public engagement day, based at the Arts Centre with a series of river walks, talks and opportunities to be creative.

We met on a cold rainy Thursday in early October, myself, Claire, James and our videographer, Tom Westhead. James and Claire had never met each other in person, there was no script, we hadn't had the lead-in time to practice anything, but we knew what we wanted to achieve; to capture genuine conversations about the river from the two different points of view.

James and Claire had a conversation about what they'd like to get out from the day; an understanding of the river and of each other's work, the effect the river has on the city, the impact climate change has on the river and how we can record our experiences of the river. We also wanted to explore the connection to wellbeing and how the simple act of walking and noticing can improve this.
"Within ten minutes of meeting James we realised we both love maps! This is obviously quite niche so I was so happy to find a fellow map lover and I knew straight away we would have lots to talk about." Claire Mellett, Geoarchaeologist

Filming a conversation whilst maintaining physical distance outside is not without its challenges, there were several times when Tom and I could see James and Claire deep in conversation walking ahead of us, we worried about what they were saying, what drops of knowledge and insight were we missing? Turns out it was quite a few and I lost count of the times we said, ' that sounds like something we need to put into that film, you need to say it all again please '.

Conversation turned to the impact people have had on the river over time and Claire noticed that the river was currently in flood and whilst this was evident when we were in the countryside, structural constraints in the city meant that it was unable to flood - great for the city but this only means that the problem is pushed further downstream. They spoke about the interconnection between the river and the plant life, noticing the dendritic patterns that are replicated in nature, and the presence of large flint nodules within the chalk bedrock of the river, left behind when the river water dissolves the chalk.

We walked through the weather, wind and rain turned into blue skies and dappled sunlight. We passed through rural spaces, into built up urban areas and back out into the countryside. Along the route we stopped to listen and record, draw, take rubbings, and to breath in the fresh air.

The walk, "Completely changed my view of what art is. My view was based on school and it wasn't a negative view as I loved art in school, but it was a view that all art is judged the same and you have good art and bad art. I learned from James that art is what you make of it, if you like it, it doesn't mean everyone has to like it, and visa-versa.
Also, art is not just the end product, it's the process, similarly science isn't defined by the great discoveries, it is the years of exploring and failures that lead to those discoveries, I'm sure artists can relate to this."
Claire Mellett, Geoarchaeologist

A few days after the walk we were fortunate to visit James in his studio for a bit of reflection and to record the four video shorts which detailed the creative suggestions. To be honest, we were rather distracted by James' puppy, the aptly named River, but it was refreshing to have a conversation with James about his experience on the day.

"The Ebb and Flow walk provided me with an opportunity to learn from Claire's professional experience, as she explained the formation of the geology underlying the river, and I in turn supported her to respond to her direct sensory experiences, in an exchange of knowledge and skills. Together we explored the role of mapping in art and science, and what each could learn from each other. The conversation between us flowed naturally as we walked. There was real synergy between my concerns about the future of rivers in the light of climate breakdown, and Claire's knowledge of how rivers change over time. Often in my participatory work I will be concentrating on leading a group, and modelling ways of exploring/recording to each of them. With Claire, although we planned to work directly with a group too, the restrictions resulting from Covid-19 meant that it was just the two of us walking and talking, which enabled us to go deeper in our conversation, and really explore the interrelationship between our river-related practices. I think this resulted in a much more meaningful dialogue, with learning on both sides, and a richer experience for the viewers of the film."
James Aldridge, Artist

The film has received a warm reception and we have been delighted to see many responses to the creative suggestions. Viewers have taken walks along their local river, recording their journeys as they walk.
"Thank you so much for sharing - lovely to see sensory, embodied responses to place in action. Great messages about slowing down, noticing and feeling connected". Wonderful video! I really enjoyed listening to the conversation between Claire and James, it has inspired me to try different ways of engaging with my surroundings.
As an engagement and wellbeing resource Ebb & Flow is already showing its worth. It has been sent to some of the participants who have taken part in the Lost and Found project to an enthusiastic response, so much so, that one of the groups wants to meet up again in the new year and do the walk altogether.

I also need to mention all of the hard work Tom did on the film postproduction. The weather on the day was at times testing and kudos to him for the sound editing, along with the way in which his editing skills brought at 6 hour walk down to a 49 minute thoughtful and insightful film.

The impact of the day stayed with me for a long after time afterwards. I hadn't appreciated how much I need to get out of the house, to meet with colleagues, to be creative, to learn new things and to laugh. I needed to do something like this for the benefit of my own wellbeing. Where we started the day off as relative strangers, we finished it as friends and under normal circumstances we might have gone to the pub to carry on our conversations. Alas Covid-19 put paid to that idea as well, but when the restrictions are lifted, we have a plan to do just this. It will be our Plan A, our Plan B and our Plan C.

You can find out more about the work James Aldridge does here and read his blog to learn more about his experience on Ebb & Flow project.
By Leigh Chalmers Heritage Inclusion Development Specialist

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Follow Claire and James in this video as they take a walk along the river banks of Salisbury during COVID social distancing. Find out how art, the environment and even just a spot of fresh air can improve your wellbeing during lockdown.

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Because of the climate emergency, energy consumption is a key concern for museums and art galleries. Learn more about what sustainability can mean and design your own green gallery.

Design your own art gallery

Your challenge is to design your own sustainable art museum. You can propose changes to an existing museum or gallery or start from scratch. You'll make decisions about green space, the efficient use of resources, and how to make the institution meaningful to the communities it serves.

Not sure about what really makes a gallery green? You can read a short summary of key considerations on this page. You'll learn more about refurbishment, social sustainability, and more.

Getting started

Here are a few questions to get you started on the project:

Are you starting with an existing gallery or proposing a new one?

Does your location already have old buildings that could be reused?

Is your museum near a park or other green space?

Are there ways to include greenery around, inside, or on the building?

Does your museum interact with animal life around it? Could you include environments that would make it more welcoming for your other 'visitors'?

What kind of materials does your museum use? Are there ways to use more sustainable materials (i.e. switch concrete for timber) or reuse old materials?

Does your gallery need a building? Could it exist in multiple locations by moving the gallery from place to place?

How do you encourage visitors and museum employees to change their behaviours and make more sustainable choices?

Stepping back

Creating a green building often means taking a step back and thinking about how you can achieve more with what you already have. Even if you've decided to start from scratch, it's worth thinking about how to incorporate the existing landscape into your plans.

Green space

Trees, flowers, and shrubbery around your museum can be good for both the environment and people. Plants help reduce air pollution, create habitats for animals, and reduce the heat generated by transport and industry. Green space is good for people too: it's proven to benefit our mental health and reduce stress. This is why it's important for public institutions like museums and galleries to include green space in their design.

When we expanded the RA campus, the courtyard between Burlington House and Burlington Gardens-a space for staff and students to eat lunch and play table tennis when it's warm-was landscaped to include trees and grass.

Is there space for more trees or even a small park around your gallery? Can you create new habitats for birds and insects on the roof or the façade of the building?

Alternatives

An architect or designer doesn't always need to propose a physical structure to change things. It's worth considering whether you need to build anything permanent at all to make your green gallery or museum.

Think about what you hope to achieve. Can you make more of an impact through festivals, markets, performances or community workshops?

Sometimes you can find opportunities where a gallery can actually become smaller and still be there for its community. Interventions like this can be much greener than any high-tech project.

Share your work

You can take as long as you like on this challenge, and you can respond in whatever way you would like to!

You could:
● Build a physical model to showcase the project
● Use collage to show how you would add to or change an existing building
● Work with a digital art programme to achieve a multimedia approach
● Make a mind map or diagram to show how you would change people's habits
● Write or draw an illustrated plan for installations and events

There are so many options and there's always something else you can do to improve things.

We would love to see what you've created! If you want to, you can share your responses with us by email

What does sustainability mean?

Green building

A green (or sustainable) building can mean a lot of different things. But ideally, green buildings follow sustainable principles throughout their life cycles. This means that the impact a building has on the planet and its people needs to be considered at every stage: planning, design, construction, use, maintenance, and any potential renovation or demolition.

Degrowth

Degrowth refers to the idea that society can reduce its impact on the environment by scaling back production and consumption. It recognises that there are benefits to sharing and cooperation that won't come from continued extraction or unmitigated growth. For architecture, degrowth means using on existing resources rather than building more and more.

Imagine how places would change if advertising billboards were replaced with art or public information, if empty buildings were put to use as community centres or housing, and if unused plots of land weren't used for new developments but rewilded or repurposed for community gardens.

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Making a green gallery | Royal Academy of Arts

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Because of the climate emergency, energy consumption is a key concern for museums and art galleries. Learn more about what sustainability can mean and design your own green gallery.

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This week on ArtEvolve, we discussed the materials used for exhibitions and other art world events, taking a closer look at how sustainable they really are.

Our guests were Maria Garcia, CEO of BindEthics and inventor of a sustainable, biodegradable adhesive, and Kim Kraczon, a conservator specializing in sustainable solutions for cultural heritage, Advisor at Gallery Climate Coalition, and Director of Materials at Ki Culture.

How sustainable are the materials currently used?

Often single-use

Where do they come from?

How are they disposed of?

Plastic protective coverings and their non-plastic alternatives

We're all familiar with materials commonly used during exhibitions and art fairs, such as bubble wrap, foam corners, tiebacks, and other coverings and packaging. How much do we know, however, about where raw materials are sourced? How transparent are supply chains? Are we making assumptions about terms like compostable and recyclable? Most soft plastics, for example, are not easily recyclable via curbside methods and require specialist recycling facilities.

Considering the ecological footprint of any product or material is complex and we can't just rely on what we're told from suppliers as the whole story. Biodegradable plastics are often said to be sustainable but are made from fossil fuels, create microplastics as they break down, and contaminate recycling streams.

Are all wooden frames, pallets, and crates recyclable?

Organizations looking to make more sustainable choices need to both be aware of greenwashing and start to consider materials and their ecological footprints in a more holistic way.

The art world uses wood products in many forms such as frames, pallets, crates, etc and it's often assumed all wood is recyclable in the same way. As Maria shared with us though, 90% of engineered wood uses formaldehyde-based (UF) adhesives, which are not only toxic but also make the end wood product non-recyclable.

BindEthic's bio-adhesives are derived from food waste and have a carbon footprint 80% lower than formaldehyde-based adhesives. They are non-toxic and biodegradable, and different formulations can be created depending on how the wood is to be disposed of (e.g. if the product doesn't need to be water resistant, a soluble adhesive will dissolve in about a week).

Click here to see BindEthic's slides on bio-adhesives and their applications in the art world.

Inventors of sustainable solutions may find it a challenge to bring them to market as manufacturers are resistant to change, especially if consumers are not aware of new products and technologies. We'd encourage anyone interested in trying out wood products made with bio-adhesive to contact maria@bindethics.com to find out more.

What other materials might we see more of in the future?

Cellulose foam - as we reassess plastic packaging, expect to see non-fossil-fuel-based alternatives, such as Papira, a lightweight and shock-absorbing cellulose foam. Kim spoke about how this is being tested in the art industry right now.

Honeycomb paper - a biodegradable alternative to plastic bubble wrap. The compact structure requires less resources to create, store, and transport, and expands when in use to protect objects.

Thank you to our guests, Maria Garcia of BindEthics and Kim Kraczon of Gallery Climate Coalition and Ki Culture, for joining us!

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Sustainable Exhibition Planning: Green Materials, Green Methods - Articheck

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﻿ This week on ArtEvolve, we discussed the materials used for exhibitions and other art world events, taking a closer look at how sustainable they really are. Our guests were Maria Garcia, CEO of BindEthics and inventor of a sustainable, biodegradable adhesive, and Kim Kraczon, a conservator specializing in sustainable solutions for cultural heritage, Advisor [...]

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Digital Compendium of Climate Literacies

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Digital Compendium of Climate Literacies

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This is the digital archive of the experimental intensive/symposium ' Turbulence / Emergence / Enchantment: A Compendium of Climate Literacies' that took place at Cove Park between 4-7 November 2021. It brought together artists, writers, performers, academics, and activists from a wide range of backgrounds to discuss climate literacy.

In the Western tradition, language has been viewed as our most powerful tool for ordering and mastering the world around us. And yet more and more we are having to acknowledge our struggle in communicating the current environmental crisis and its unequally distributed effects. How do language and action relate to each other in climate science, narrative and activism? How can we rethink our responses to classical and premodern legacies of environmental thinking to create new understandings for the present? How can we open ourselves to new kinds of environmental literacies that give space to the agency of the other-than-human and more-than-human worlds? How do we ensure that languages have an impact on global discourse, in a context where the privilege of climate speech is still dominated by the elite discourses of the Global North?

TURBULENCE, EMERGENCE and ENCHANTMENT, with their unsettling mix of positive and negative connotations, acted as guiding metaphors for the week.
The SoundCloud link below features:
Introduction to Turbulence, Emergence, Enchantment by Maureen Penjueli, Coordinator of Pacific Network on Globalisation.
The first chapter includes discussions around the theme of 'Turbulent are climate, geo-politics, and living beings.' The Turbulence YouTube playlist features:
Video 1: Climate Clarity/Confusion/Change by Derya Akkaynak (Oceanographer)

Video 2: Disaster, grief, apocalypse and empire in ancient ecological thinking by Jason König (Professor of Greek, Centre for Ancient Environmental Studies, University of St Andrews)

Video 3: After Ice by Kieran Baxter (Heritage Landscape Visualiser, University of Dundee)

Video 4: 'Restore to us the necessary blizzards' by Christina Alt (Lecturer in English, University of St. Andrews)
The Turbulence SoundCloud playlist features:
Track 1: Purple Haze by Deborah Dixon (Professor of Geography, University of Glasgow)

Track 2: Turbulence by Andreas Malm (Associate Professor of Human Ecology, Lund University)

Track 3: Turbulence by Oana Aristide (Novelist)
The second chapter includes discussions around the theme of 'Emergent is metamorphosis.' The Emergence YouTube playlist features:
Video 1: The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes by Radha D'Souza (Professor of International Law, Development and Conflict Studies, Westminster Law School)

Video 2: Worm: art and ecology by Angela YT Chan (Independent Researcher, Curator and Artist)

Video 3: Listening with Another Ear by Annalee Davis (Artist, Cultural Instigator, Writer)

Video 4: Oceans in Transformation by Territorial Agency (Artists)

Video 5: The Swamp - a theory, a school, a design by Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas (Artists)
The Emergence SoundCloud playlist features:
Track 1: At the far end of the cave of gold by Col Gordon (Farmer & Podcaster) and Iain MacKinnon (Assistant Professor, Centre for Agroecology, Coventry University)

Track 2: World Making by Ashish Ghadiali (Film-maker and Activist)

Track 3: An Inland Promenade by Fernando García-Dory (Artist)

Track 4: Emergence by Karen Guthrie (Artist, Film-maker and Gardener)
The final chapter includes discussions around the theme of 'Enchantment is possibility of participating in the creation of just and environmentally thriving futures.' The Enchantment YouTube playlist features:
Video 1: Small Acts of Hope and Lament by Janice Parker (Choreographer, Dance-maker)

Video 2: Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils by David Farrier (Professor of Literature and the Environment, University of Edinburgh)

Video 3: The Ecological Literacies of St. Hildegard of Bingen by Michael Marder (Ikerbasque Professor of Philosophy, University of the Basque Country)

Video 4: Marginalia by Katharine Earnshaw (Lecturer in Classics, University of Exeter) & Laura Hopes (Artist, Researcher)

Video 5: Language, silence & storytelling: to survive in the marine environment by Zoé Le Voyer & Justine Daquin (curators and co-founders of collective Calypso36°21)
The Enchantment SoundCloud playlist features:
Track 1: Epistemology of Caring by colectivo amasijo (Artists, Researchers, Food-makers)

Symposium participants also included: Tamara Colchester & Hermione Spriggs (Artists), Aka Niviâna (Poet, Activist), and Nada Tayeb (Architect, Food-maker).

This event signals a pivotal stage in the development of Cove Park. In its 21st year the organisation is moving beyond the boundaries of the traditional 'time, space, freedom' residency to include an enquiry-based model for facilitating cross-disciplinary work and collective intelligence around pressing global concerns. We are expanding the artforms and disciplines that are welcome to the residency, and enlarging its horizons towards other sectors, such as those of academic and scientific research, including the creative industries as a whole. On the occasion of COP26, Cove Park launched its first - and soon to become permanent - enquiry focussed on the environmental crisis and the radical change that our collective intelligence can affect in terms of climate action.

"Turbulence/ Emergence/ Enchantment: A Compendium of Climate Literacies" was organised in partnership with the Centre for Ancient Environmental Studies and Professor Jason König at the University of St Andrews, London-based curator Lucia Pietroiusti, TBA21-Academy and Markus Reymann, and the School of Classics and the College of Arts and Humanities (Environmental Humanities Research Strand) of University College Dublin and Dr. Giacomo Savani. The symposium was made possible by funding from Arts & Business Scotland: Culture & Business Fund. Thanks to the Green Art Lab Alliance for their support and friendship.

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This is the digital archive of the experimental intensive/symposium ' Turbulence / Emergence / Enchantment: A Compendium of Climate Literacies' that took place at Cove Park between 4-7 November 2021. It brought together artists, writers, performers, academics, and activists from a wide range of backgrounds to discuss climate literacy.

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The Institute of Queer Ecology (IQECO) is a collaborative organism looking to find and create alternatives. The solutions to environmental degradation are found on the periphery and we seek to bring them to the forefront of public consciousness. Guided by queer and feminist theory and decolonial thinking, we work to undo dangerously destructive human-centric hierarchies-or even flip them-to look at the critical importance of things happening invisibly; underground and out of sight.

We seek to democratize the production and reception of artistic research so that marginalized voices are given the space to tell their own stories, and audiences that have been historically excluded from institutions are invited into this one. We pass as an Institute as a means of infiltration: mimicking the academic model to support subversive ideas.

Our mission is to make space for collectively imagining an equitable, multispecies future. With interdisciplinary programming that oscillates between curating exhibitions and directly producing artworks/projects, the Institute of Queer Ecology enacts utopia with a goal towards building a future that prioritizes a (bio)diverse world.

Founded in 2017, the Institute of Queer Ecology is supported in part by a Knight Arts Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with additional project specific support by DIS and ICA Miami.

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The Institute of Queer Ecology (IQECO) is a collaborative organism looking to find and create alternatives. The solutions to environmental degradation are found on the periphery and we seek to bring them to the forefront of public consciousness.

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Wastiary, or Bestiary of Waste, is a creative exercise that occupies letters, numbers, and symbols of Western academic language to compose a list of 35 short entries on the uncomfortable but pressing topic of waste in the contemporary world. The collection is richly illustrated with artwork, photography, collage and mixed media.
The book is a heterodox compendium of 'beasts of waste', playfully re-imagining the medieval treatise on various kinds of animal. It conveys the message that various forms of waste and pollution have achieved a beast-like or untameable quality, at times pungently transferring to considerations of 'the human', or humans treated as waste.
Praise for Wastiary
' Wastiary is a rich, stimulating and beautifully composed volume, not least courtesy of a very welcome emphasis on the visual. The comprehensiveness and variety of views, styles of writing, as much as disciplinary stances, and the embedded diversity of the book make for a recognisable intervention into waste/discard studies that can certainly capture the eye of the expert but also pique the appetite of the novice.'
Michele Acuto, University of Melbourne

List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Foreword by Clare Melhuish and Nicola Miller

Introduction by Michael Hennessy Picard, Albert Brenchat-Aguilar, Timothy Carroll & Jane Gilbert

| for Strips of paper, by Nina Mathijsen

A for Architecture of ruins, by Jonathan Hill

B for Bomb ecologies, by Leah Zani

C for Capitalism (plastic), by Amanda Boetzkes

D for Data waste, by Roxana Vatanparast and Elettra Bietti

E for Excrement, by Franziska Neumann

F for Fire, by Stamatis Zografos

G for Ground up, by Onya McClousand

H for Hairs, by Robyn Adams

I for Identity, by Caitlin DeSilvey

J for Junk bonds, by David Sim

K for Kinship (chemical), by Angeliki Balayannis

L for Land waste, by Sonia Freire Trigo

M for Microbes, by Elaine Cloutman-Green

N for Nalu, by Mellissa McCarthy

Ñ for Ñiquiñaque/extraÑo, by Adriana Laura Massidda and Hanna Baumann

O for Outsourcing, by Matthijs de Bruijne

P for Problem, by Bruno Vindrola-Padrós and Ulrike Sommer

Q for Queer liveliness/Queer matter/Queer toxin, by Mel Y. Chen

R for Rubble, by Adam Przywara

S for Space junk, by Alice Gorman

T for Time and Tower; Grenfell, by José Torero Cullen

U for Underground, by Luke Bennett

V for Vastus, by Véra Ehrenstein

W for Wasteland, by Miranda Griffin

X for Xenophobia, by Huda Tayob

Y for Yawning and Yearning, by Tatiana Thieme

Z for Zero waste, by Pushpa Arabindoo

* for Corona shapes, by Albert Brenchat-Aguilar

1 for 1%, by Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos

2 for HS2, by Chia-Lin Chen

3 for From a 3rd World to included 3rds, by Lucy Bell

4&6 for 4th Industrial Revolution and 6th extinction by Everisto Benyera

5 for 5G, by Sy Taffel

7 for 7 dear things, by Maja and Reuben Fowkes

8 for Octopus, by Tina Beigi

9 for 9/11, by Michael Hennessy Picard

Epilogue, by Tamar Garb
Bibliography
' Wastiary is a rich, stimulating and beautifully composed volume, not least courtesy of a very welcome emphasis on the visual. The comprehensiveness and variety of views, styles of writing, as much as disciplinary stances, and the embedded diversity of the book make for a recognisable intervention into waste/discard studies that can certainly capture the eye of the expert but also pique the appetite of the novice.' Michele Acuto, University of Melbourne, Australia

67 colour illustrations

Publication: July 03, 2023

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Wastiary, or Bestiary of Waste, is a creative exercise that occupies letters, numbers, and symbols of Western academic language to compose a list of 35 short entries on the uncomfortable but pressing topic of waste in the contemporary world. The collection is richly illustrated with artwork, photography, collage and mi

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 READ 'Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature'

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 READ 'Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature'

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The line up:

Adéọlá Dewis - Trinidadian artist whose work engages transformation, diaspora and performances of fragments. She is founder of Laku Neg, an artist run company interested in African diaspora knowledge exchange.

Alycia Pirmohamed - co-founder of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, co-organiser of the Ledbury Poetry Critics Programme and author of Another Way to Split Water, shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award 2023 & longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2023.

Durre Shahwar - writer and PhD researcher. She is the co-editor of Gathering (404 Ink) and also the co-editor of Just So You Know (Parthian Books). She is a Future Wales Fellow, looking at climate justice through art and the Co-Founder of 'Where I'm Coming From' open mic. Durre is working on her debut non-fiction book about language, belonging, and identity.

Hanan Issa - current National Poet of Wales and prolific writer, poet and artist whose debut pamphlet My Body Can House Two Hearts was published by Burning Eye Books.

Jasmine Isa Qureshi - Founder of organisation Queer Rootz, journalist, wildlife television/media, Engagement Officer for the youth led organization A Focus On Nature, Activist, marine biologist, poet and speaker/presenter.

Kandace Siobhan Walker - writer and artist. Her debut pamphlet, Kaleido, was published by Bad Betty Press in 2022. Her collection, Cowboy, will be published by CHEERIO in 2023.

Kate Cleaver - Anglo-Indian writer studying for a PhD with Swansea University. In 2019 she was long listed in the New Welsh Writers Award and has had a memoirs published by Parthian in 'Just So You Know' and Honno in 'Painting the Beauty Queens Orange'.

Khairani Barokka - Minang-Javanese writer and artist, and Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation. Her work has been presented widely internationally, and aims to centre disability justice as anticolonial praxis. Okka's latest book, Ultimatum Orangutan (Nine Arches), was shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize. (Picture description: A black and white photo of an Indonesian woman in profile, with short hair, a visible silver earring and dark dress. Picture credit: Matthew Thompson.)

Louisa Adjoa Parker - writer, poet, and consultant on anti-racism, and equity, diversity and inclusion. She is of English-Ghanaian heritage and based in the southwest. Her books include How to wear a skin (Indigo Dreams), Stay with me (Colenso Books), and She can still sing (Flipped Eye). She has a memoir forthcoming with Little Toller Books. (Photo credit Robin Mills)

Maya Chowdhry - writer and multidisciplinary artist. Her poetry collections include The Seamstress and the Global Garment (Crocus) and Fossil (Peepal Tree Press). She was artist in residence for the Critical Poetics Summer School with Nottingham Trent University. (Photo credit Ean Flangers Photography)

Nadia Javed - Musician, writer, band member of 'The Tuts'.

Sharan Dhaliwal - founder the UK's leading South Asian culture magazine Burnt Roti and author of debut non-fiction Burning My Roti (Hardie Grant). She is the Director of Middlesex Pride and was on the list of global influential women for the BBC 100 Women 2019.

Sofia Rehman - independent scholar specialising in Islam and Gender. She works as a knowledge building consultant for Musawah Movement and as a PhD candidate she was a PG Impact Fellow at the Centre of Religion and Public Life and PRHS Scholar. She is founder of the Islam and Gender read alongs & is the author of a Treasury of Aisha bint Abu Bakr (Kube publishing) and the forthcoming monograph, Gendering the Hadith: Recentering the Authority of Aisha, Mother of the Believers (Oxford University Press).

Susmita Bhattacharya - Indian-born writer whose debut novel, The Normal State of Mind (Parthian) was long-listed at the Mumbai Film Festival, 2018. Her short story collection, Table Manners (Dahlia Publishing) won the Saboteur Award for Best Short Story Collection and was a finalist for the Hall & Woodhouse DLF Prize. She received funding from Arts Council England in 2021 to write a radio drama and is a mentor for underrepresented writers.

Taylor Edmonds - poet, writer and creative facilitator from South Wales and author of debut poetry pamphlet Back Teeth (Broken Sleep Books). Taylor was the 21-22 Poet in Residence for the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales and has received a Rising Star award from Literature Wales and Firefly Press. Taylor is currently working on her first YA novel.

Tina Pasotra - artist, writer, director and filmmaker whose credits include films and projects 'I Choose' (2020), nominated for Best Short Film BAFTA Cymru 2021, 'But Where Are You From?' (2017) and 'Sisters' (2018). In 2022 Tina received funding from Arts Council Wales to create a project called 'Mycelium'.

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Gathering - Durre Shahwar, Nasia Sarwar-Skuse - 404 Ink

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"The beautiful rolling hills and coastlines are for all of us. Together, we can reimagine the British countryside (and all it represents) and make space so that everyone is welcomed." Gathering brings together essays by women of colour across the UK writing about their relationships with nat

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In order to register as a member, we will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in any emails.

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In order to register as a member, we will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy . You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in any emails.

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Open, community-facing Carbon Literacy courses are being put on more and more frequently. Below is a list of the organisations which arrange these course, sorted by area in which they operate. To find out more about course dates and availability in each locality please click through to the respective websites.

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Welcome on this collective journey of declaration and action in the face of the Climate and Ecological Emergency. There are many resources here to help you craft your declaration statement and consider where your areas of influence may be and what your journey might look like. You can also attend our declarer breakfasts to discuss your declaration and pathways to action.

If you are declaring as an organisation, ensure agreement is in place and that one person is named as liaison. You'll be able to login and update your details once you've declared.

By declaring you support our shared Vision, Mission and Values and will be added as a Declarer on the Culture Declares Emergency (CDE) website. Apart from this, the journey you take is up to you. When announcing your Declaration and beyond, you can use our Culture Declares kitemark on any of your material, and please use @culturedeclares and the hashtag #CultureTakesAction on your social media messages.

Any questions? Read our FAQs or email us at culturedeclares@gmail.com if you need any support.
Declaration
( you are invited to adapt this declaration to make it meaningful to you and your practice and to add your own context statement)

We declare that the Earth's life-supporting systems are in collapse, threatening biodiversity and human societies everywhere.

Alive to the beauty of our planet, we unite to challenge the dominant global power structures that fail to protect us as they disregard scientific consensus, silence marginalised voices and perpetuate ecocide.

As Declarers, we take action to harness the power of arts and culture to express heartfelt truths and address deep-rooted injustices, to care for and create adaptive, resilient and joyful communities, and to influence the urgent and necessary transformation of harmful global systems.

Required fields marked *

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Declare now - Culture Declares Emergency

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Join the growing movement of individuals and organisations in arts and culture declaring a climate and ecological emergency.

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Sponsored by Supercool, this sector wide research took place throughout July, with 86 organisations gathering 17,500 responses. The report published today explores the role of cultural organisations and their audiences in tackling the climate crisis.

The 17,500 survey responses told us that:

87% of cultural audiences are worried about the climate crisis and 93% have made changes to their lifestyle to help tackle it.

Audiences and visitors think organisations are not doing enough or feel that they are not communicating what they are doing effectively. 77% of think cultural organisations have a responsibility to influence society to make radical change in response to the climate emergency.

Younger respondents are even more likely to think organisations have a responsibility to influence society to address the climate emergency.

Audience members have high expectations of cultural organisations. 93% expect organisations to ensure their buildings are as energy efficient as possible, while 94% expect organisations to be reducing and recycling waste.

3 in 4 audiences want information from organisations about how they can act more sustainably. 66% want more information about how to travel sustainably.

Audiences and visitors want to play their part to help organisations fulfil their sustainability goals but need information and infrastructure to help them do that.

Results webinar: Watch again

On 11 September 2023, we presented the results of Act Green on a Supercool Session, attended by nearly 200 people from across the sector. The speakers were:

Kate Mroczkowski - Strategy Director, Supercool

Katy Raines - CEO, Indigo Ltd

Flo Carr - Associate Director, Indigo Ltd

Catrin John - Arts Consultant and MSc student in sustainability and behaviour change

Methodology

Cultural organisations in the UK, including theatres, arts centres, festivals, touring companies, museums and galleries, were invited to participate in the Act Green research. The research was open to all cultural organisations in the UK, and it was free for organisations to take part.

Organisations were each provided with a unique link to send out to a recommended sample of around 3,000 - 5,000 of their previous attenders. They were provided with a link to see the results from their own organisation in real time, and the results from all organisations were then aggregated to form the baseline data set.

The survey ran throughout July 2023 and during that month, 17,479 complete responses were gathered through 86 cultural organisations.
Indigo CEO Katy Raines says:
"The results of this year's Act Green clearly show what audiences and visitors perceive the role of cultural organisations to be in tackling the climate emergency. They have high expectations for what organisations should be doing to reduce their own carbon emissions, and how they should be facilitating conversations and inspiring action in their communities.

"There is a challenge for organisations to effectively communicate what they're doing and engage audiences to help them reach their sustainability goals through provision of information and infrastructure.

"We are so grateful to the 86 cultural organisations who took part in Act Green 2023, and to research sponsors Supercool whose sponsorship meant we could offer the research free to the sector.

"This was a collective effort, and we hope the results will benefit the whole sector."

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this sector wide research took place throughout july

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500 responses. the report published today explores the role of cultural…

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Act Green 2023: Report released | Indigo

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The results of Act Green 2023 are ready to view.

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What is it?
A 4 x half day course certified by the Permaculture Association and delivered online by Liz Postlethwaite, Permaculture Designer and Director of Small Things Creative Projects. Read Liz's profile on the Permaculture Association website here. And explore her creative portfolio here.

The course has been designed specifically with artists and creatives in mind and will introduce the basic concepts of Permaculture. It will also explore how these ideas can be used to deepen creative practice and to bring a new ethical basis to projects, particularly in relation to ecology, natural systems and regenerative cultures.
What is Permaculture Design?
A set of tools, based around the ethics of earth care, people care and fairshare, which help us reconnect with the natural world and to create projects and work with a strong ethical, ecological and regenerative foundation.
Who is it for?
Anybody working as an artist, creative or facilitator in the cultural / creative sector who would like to explore how Permaculture Design could help to develop and deepen their creative practice.
We will:

Learn about the Permaculture Ethics and Principles and think about how they can be used to deepen creative practice.

Learn more about Permaculture Design and how it can be used in creative contexts.

Explore examples of Art / Culture and Permaculture projects.

Explore practical ways that Permaculture Design can be used within creative projects.

Learn more about the Permaculture Network and explore how it can support you to expand your Permaculture learning beyond the course.

Upcoming Courses:

Online: 11th May, 18th May, 25th May, 1st June. 6pm - 9pm (BST) Find out more and book a place

Online: 28th October, 4th November, 11th November, 18th November. 10am - 1pm (British Time) Find out more and book a place.

All online sessions are recorded and can be watched back online by attendees for six months after the course has finished. All notes and slides from the in person sessions will also be shared.

You need to attend 3 out of 4 sessions live in order to achieve certification.
How much does the course cost?
Full : From £100

Reduced rate : £60
There are also a number of free bursary places - see the booking form for more information. How do I decide what to pay?
We choose to use sliding scale to encourage people to pay according to their available resources. It encourages those with greater financial privilege to contribute more, allowing those with less access, to pay according to their means. This allows us to run our courses while making accessibility as broad as possible. This image, based on the Green Bottle sliding scale may help you decide which price to choose.

Green Bottle is a Sliding Scale model that is inclusive of different financial experiences. Developed by community healing practitioner Alexis J. Cunningfolk, the Green Bottle Method is an economic justice tool that enables participants to adjust payment based on access to resources.

If you feel that you would be able to make a contribution which is different to the outlined figures please let us know when you book your place.

Feedback from previous participants:
"I completed this course this weekend and cannot recommend enough. It is enlightening, hopeful and really transformational for thinking about practice. To be honest it should be compulsory for all of us in the sector" "It felt so rich and stimulating. Even though it took place on Zoom, it felt dynamic and collaborative. There were lots of chances to talk together, make notes and feedback, meaning I felt like a active participant in the course" "I loved learning about the design tools and how they could be used. The group work was invaluable in helping me see varying perspectives on the same tools. I loved meeting so many inspirational people." "I thought you illuminated the permaculture ideas and concepts so clearly and beautifully, in a way that made it accessible and relevant to artistic practice. I also loved the spirit of open enquiry that was fostered and sharing of discussions and ideas with a diverse and interesting community of artists."
Still got a question about the course? Or would you like us to run a bespoke course for your organisation or group?

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Introduction to Permaculture for Artists and Creatives

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What is it? A 4 x half day course certified by the Permaculture Association and delivered online by Liz Postlethwaite, Permaculture Designer and Director of Small Things Creative Projects. Read Liz's profile on the Permaculture Association website here. And explore her creative portfolio here. The course has been designed specifically with artists and creatives in...

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Browse our bookable webinars and training events in the calendar below, or for support tailored for your organisation, read more about our bespoke training and Family Friendly Museum Audits.

Training

We offer webinars and training events on a variety of themes to support your work with children, young people and families. Our training events expand on different aspects of the Kids in Museums Manifesto, covering everything from accessibility to co-creation.

They bring together leading experts in their field and a range of different organisations, exploring the successes and challenges of their work. You will have the opportunity to share issues and best practice, and explore the next steps for implementing ideas. In 2022, 88% of participants rated our training as 'excellent' or 'very good', with 78% saying they would share learnings with colleagues.

Training events are open to museum staff of all levels in the UK and internationally. They are delivered in English, or sometimes English and Welsh for Wales only training events. We can support a range of accessibility requests, such as provision of audio description or closed captioning and providing presentations in advance.

Webinars will be available to purchase as recordings for up to three months after the live event.

Please check back to see when further training events are added. Make sure you are signed up to our Training Mailing List for the latest updates.

We also hold regular training events with Museum Development organisations across the UK. Please check your local Museum Development website in the first instance. We will list upcoming opportunities below where possible.

Bespoke training for your museum

Kids in Museums can offer training tailored to the needs of the staff and volunteers in your museum. Sessions can be delivered virtually or in person. Our four standard bespoke training courses are listed below - click on the title for full details.

Please note Kids in Museums is not VAT registered so prices quoted are the full cost and no VAT will be incurred.

Front of house training: Creating family friendly interactions

Kids in Museums can offer training tailored to the needs of the front facing staff and volunteers in your museum to help them create family friendly interactions. Sessions can be delivered virtually or in person.

"This training session was fantastic. The facilitators were very knowledgeable and used real life experience to back up the theory. The session was carefully planned and bespoke elements added to make it very relevant to our site and our staff. All of the participants were engaged and came away buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm for improving our family offer."
Maya Harrison, Principal Keeper at Temple Newsam

During the training, delegates will:

learn why family visitors are an important part of your visitor profile

gain an understanding of the key concerns families have about visiting museums

come up with solutions to resolve common scenarios together

explore playful ways to interact with families that are relevant to your site.

This training course is delivered in partnership with Sarah Shaw, former National Family Interpretation Manager for English Heritage.

There are two delivery options, all of which can accommodate a group of up to 25 attendees:

Front of house training: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) families

We offer training tailored to the needs of the front facing staff and volunteers in your museum to help them interact with SEND families. This session can be delivered virtually only.

"Sam Bowen was so engaging and knowledgeable. She gave great examples from lived experience and practical suggestions."
Training attendee, April 2023

A 2019 study from Ecclesiastical surveyed SEND families who had visited museums, castles and heritage sites and found that 42% of parents with special needs children reported that staff or visitors were unfriendly or made them feel uncomfortable.

This session will ensure that your museum avoids becoming part of this statistic, offering ideas for fun and accessible interactions with SEND families.

During the training, delegates will:

learn why SEND family visitors are an important part of your visitor profile

understand the barriers SEND families face when visiting museums

come up with ways to tackle common scenarios together

explore playful ways to interact with SEND families that are relevant to your site.

This training course is delivered in partnership with Sam Bowen, SEND in Museums Consultant.

This session can only be delivered virtually as a one half-day virtual session (two and a half hours with a short break) and can accommodate a group of up to 25 attendees: £800.
View a full sample schedule.

Working meaningfully with young people

This training is aimed at staff who work in museums, art galleries and heritage sites who are interested in developing or improving their provision with young people.

"Thank you so much for coming down and delivering the training, the whole team really enjoyed it, and it gave us a good understanding of working with young people, and a lot of ideas that we are hoping to try out!"
Sarah Stewart, Assistant Museum Manager at the Queen Street Mill Textile Museum

The session will help delegates to:

understand the importance of this work

think about how to develop or improve short, medium and longer-term engagement with young people

gain inspiration from case studies to take your own work forward

gain an insight into how young people experience these programmes.

There are three delivery options, all of which can accommodate a group of up to 25 attendees:

Option 1 - One half day virtual session (two and a half hours with a short break): £500.
Option 2 - One half day face to face session (two and a half hours with a short break): Cost available on request.
View a full sample schedule.

Option 3 - One long half day face to face session (three hours and fifteen minutes with a short break). Cost available on request.
View a full sample schedule.

Creating family friendly resources

Do you want to explore ways to improve your self-guided resources for families at your museum or heritage site?

"I have gained new ideas, tips and a lot of information on the learning styles of children and how you can achieve these within your own setting."
Training attendee, October 2021

During the training, delegates will:

gain an understanding of play and learning styles to help you create resources to suit a wider range of children and young people

find out how to adapt your resources to children of different age groups

develop your resources for families to enjoy together as a group

gain inspiration from a range of examples to take your own work forward.

This training course is delivered in partnership with Sarah Shaw, former National Family Interpretation Manager for English Heritage. Her work included designing family friendly experiences at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Birdoswald Roman Fort, which won the Best Family Day Out UK Heritage Award in 2020.

There are two delivery options, both of which can accommodate a group of up to 25 attendees:

Option 1 - One half-day virtual session (two and a half hours with a short break): £550.
Option 2 - One half-day face to face session (two and a half hours with a short break): Cost available on request.
View a full sample schedule.

We are also able to offer training on welcoming autistic families, engaging families with under 5s in museums, marketing to families, creating museum youth panels or family focus groups, loose parts play or playful prompts, creating sensory backpacks for families with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), meaningful consultation with children and families, encouraging intergenerational interactions, and family friendly interpretation.

If you are interested in commissioning bespoke training, please contact Laura Bedford, Head of Programmes: [email protected]

Family Friendly Museum Audits

"Thank you very much for this opportunity. Auditing our provision ourselves felt very much like we couldn't see the wood for the trees and we got bogged down and distracted by all the other issues we face, so it's really helpful to have a focused, clear and realistic report to work from to improve." Carrie Canham, Curator at Ceredigion Museum

Do you want to get an external perspective on how your site can be more welcoming to children, young people and families? Then a Family Friendly Museum Audit might be for you. There are two delivery options:

Option 1

We will:

meet with staff to talk through what you want to get out of the audit, so we can tailor it to your organisation's needs

carry out the audit and create a report with photos of your site, assessing the areas that work well and those that might need improving

make suggestions for how improvements might be made and bring in real examples from other organisations to inspire you.

Option 2

We will:

meet with staff to talk through what you want to get out of the audit, so we can tailor it to your organisation's needs

carry out the audit and create a mini report focusing on suggestions for how improvements might be made and bring in real examples from other organisations to inspire you

provide three hours of virtual mentoring time with the consultant to help you implement the changes following the mini audit report.

Cost including VAT: £1,500.
Optional mentoring add-on: £200 per session.

If you would like to book an audit for your organisation, please contact Laura Bedford, Head of Programmes: [email protected]

Consultancy

We can also offer a range of bespoke support for individual organisations or regional groups.

To learn more and discuss your museum's needs, please contact Laura Bedford, Head of Programmes: [email protected]

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Training and Consultancy - Kids in Museums

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We provide a range of training events and consultancy for the museum sector in the UK and internationally, including bespoke Family Friendly Museum Audits.

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A - Z of ideas for The Great Big Green Week

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A - Z of ideas for The Great Big Green Week

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""We ran an event during Great Big Green Week 2023, inviting local people to visit a Victorian retrofit house to understand how to upgrade old homes to be more energy efficient. Visitors swapped tips on things like insulation, ventilation, sustainable heating and solar panels, learning how to make their homes warmer and more eco-friendly to save money as well as the planet. We're looking forward to more swaps events for Great Big Green Week 2024!"

Judith, Sustainable St Albans, SusFest and Great Big Green Week event organiser

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The Great Big Green Week is a nationwide celebration of action on climate change, taking place across the UK from 10th to 18th June 2023.

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2 case studies responding to our November Sharing Practice theme ‘Human Impact’.

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Welcome to Sharing Practice

With c.800 members in the UK and around the world, the Engage team is lucky to be in regular contact with colleagues working in gallery and visual arts education who are leading the way with fascinating and diverse practice in a great variety of areas.

In order to share this learning with the wider sector, and promote our members' work, we have invited members to present examples of their practice that fit within a set theme. These case studies are available to both members and non-members alike.

In April 2018, members were invited to respond to the theme 'The great outdoors'. Contributions from Leeds Industrial Mill, Compton Verney and Jupiter Artland celebrate learning in outdoor locations across the UK.

How Ya Doing? was a pan-Wales artist support programme commissioned by Arts Council Wales in response to the need to...

Image : Credit: The Turnpike CIC

About the project Project dates: September 2020 - March 2022 Region: Greater Manchester Website: https://www.theturnpike.org.uk/artists Partner organisations: True Colours CIC,...

Bridging the Divide between the Arts and Health sectors. The recording of the webinar is available to watch: https://youtu.be/_GJbHvG4UIU

The National Portrait Gallery launched a new digital resource focussed on mindful drawing on 10th May 2021. This was the third in a series of new resources developed in response to COVID-19 to continue supporting the mental wellbeing of children and staff in London hospitals remotely, as part of the Hospitals Programme.

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Welcome to Sharing Practice With c.800 members in the UK and around the world, the Engage team is lucky to be in regular contact with colleagues working in&nbsp

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Jessica Hartshorn - Magnificent Mushrooms Project - Boundary Way

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Jessica Hartshorn - Magnificent Mushrooms Project - Boundary Way

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Art is essential to help us understand and see the world differently. As a freelance illustrator, artist, and educator in the cultural and heritage sector, I use art to tell stories. With over 18 years' experience advocating and engaging schools and families in the arts, my practice is divided between illustration commissions, murals and art education delivery. My work with children and young people often includes focusing on core drawing and painting skills and then developing these into something more playful, focusing on narrative. I'm really passionate about innovative ways of working to encourage children to explore creativity in different ways.

I also work with students to create illustrations or mark making onto 3D objects and materials, such as wood, Perspex, card or everyday objects to create sculptures, public art or installations.

During projects and workshops, I develop connections and draw out stories and ideas with students helping to develop vocabulary and develop ideas.

The 'Magnificent Mushrooms' project took place at an allotment called Boundary way in Wolverhampton, funded by Kew Gardens and I was commissioned to work with a year 3 class to create artwork inspired by mushrooms.

The project included a school visit with a specialist in this area to the allotment to find and learn about mushrooms. During my workshop which followed, we carefully held and looked at the shape, texture and colour of mushrooms on each table, and drew what we saw with sticks and mud. We then drew and painted designs onto wooden discs with acrylic, before hanging them together to create an installation. It was important to use good quality brushes and materials to ensure the children were valued as artists and it helped to produce better results. Finally, we created clay mushrooms discussed their habitat and how they would sit within it... how they might stand, curving and bowing. The completed clay mushrooms were installed onto a large organic log, creeping out from the sides, as if they were engulfing the tree. The creations were added to a final project exhibition and sharing day at the allotment polytunnel, in which the children could admire their work on display. The project enabled children to take the mushroom knowledge they had learnt and creatively bring it to life. Children were filled with pride to see their creations on display, to be artists themselves and talk about the process and skills they had learnt along their journey. The impact of art was powerful and enjoyable, it improved the children's wellbeing and supported their connection with nature and the world around them. Art is Essential.

Please visit my website for more examples www.jessicahartshorn.com

You can see videos on my You tube channel Jessica Hartshorn - YouTube and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8SF7d-bmQU&t=7s

Submission - Najia Bagi, Creative Learning Curator at The Mosaic Rooms About the project Project title: Together Apart: Lockdown Diaries Project overview: The Mosaic Rooms worked with two local secondary schools to plan and deliver a four-week art project online. Students from The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School and Kensington Aldridge Academy worked with artists Aya Haidar, Marwan...

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Jessica Hartshorn - Case Study - Magnificent Mushrooms project - Boundary Way

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Art is essential to help us understand and see the world differently. As a freelance illustrator, artist, and educator in the cultural and heritage sector, I us

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Addressing the Climate Emergency: Engaging Young People

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Addressing the Climate Emergency: Engaging Young People

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Addressing the Climate Emergency: Engaging Young People
In September 2021, Creative Carbon Scotland ran a series of workshops for Engage Scotland, exploring the visual arts/gallery sector's response to concerns around environmental sustainability, and opportunities to engage young people in climate action. These resources will help to continue the learning of those who attended the sessions and help organisations and practitioners to address the climate emergency through their work.
Resources to help you understand your carbon footprint

Understanding the environmental impact of your work - the carbon emissions it creates and the opportunities to reduce these - are one way to take climate action.

Creative Carbon Scotland's Guide to Environmental Policies. Creating an organisational (or individual) environmental policy can help you to define what you are seeking to achieve, why it is important to you, and how you can best have a positive impact. This guide helps you to create your own policy as well as sharing examples from around the cultural sector.

Understanding Your Carbon Emissions. Understanding the sources of climate-change-causing carbon emissions in your work is a good first step in taking climate action. Creative Carbon Scotland has helped many cultural organisations to measure, monitor and understand their emissions, and identify ways to manage this. This webpage gives an overview of the process.

Creative Carbon Scotland's Guide to Preventing, Reducing and Recycling Waste. Waste is often the most physically visible environmental impact of our work. Often there are ways to reduce waste, change materials to avoid waste or even design differently to give new life to old materials. This guide explores the waste hierarchy and opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle in Scotland.

Creative Carbon Scotland's Guide to your Digital Carbon Footprint. Increasingly cultural work is taking place online or being delivered through digital means, and this raises questions about the environmental impact of digital production. This guide explains the questions organisations and individuals should consider, and what you can do to reduce your digital carbon footprint.

Claimexpenses.com. From our work with the wider cultural sector, Creative Carbon Scotland knows that for many individuals and organisations (particularly those who do not own or manage a building), their biggest source of carbon emissions will be from staff and artist travel. The ClaimExpenses tool enable cultural organisations to seamlessly account for travel emissions as part of an expenses claim system.

Resources contextualising climate justice

The concept of climate justice recognises that the poorest and most vulnerable in society have often contributed the least to causing climate change, but will be the people who will suffer the most severe impacts. Therefore, we must address the root causes of climate change and inequality for truly transformative change.

Creative Carbon Scotland's Guide to Climate Justice. This guide gives an overview of climate justice, and examples of what it means in practice. It outlines the ways climate justice is relevant to those in the arts and cultural sector, how to run your work in a climate just way, and how to promote and develop your understanding of climate justice further.

10 steps towards a just and green recovery in the cultural sector . Culture for Climate Scotland is an independent working group that was initiated by Creative Carbon Scotland in 2021. Its intention is to increase engagement with carbon reduction and climate justice by empowering a group of representatives from the sector to explore these issues, generate ideas and encourage their peers to join the discussion and take action as well. As part of this project, the group developed 10 steps toward a just and green recovery: suggestions of how to reach the Scottish Government's 'net zero' emissions target in a collaborative and inclusive way.

Green Tease Reflections: Climate Justice in Arts and Culture. This blog summarises discussions hosted in 2020 on the topic on climate justice in culture: what it is, why is matters, and what the cultural sector can do to embody and promote it.

Glasgow Caledonian University Centre for Climate Justice. This is the primary hub in Scotland for climate justice research. Their blog, Twitter feed, regular webinars and research archive is a good resource for more in-depth information on the topic.

CULTIVATE (led by Creative Dundee). CULTIVATE is part of the Culture Collective network, and seeks to bring together creative practitioners, community groups and a community steering group to explore climate justice in a practical and meaningful way. 12 commissions are taking place over 18 months, with half of these commissions being exclusive to young people between 16-24 years old.

Inspirational examples and support in the cultural sector

There are lots of cultural organisations, projects and people who are leading on climate action in Scotland. Learning from others, collaborating on projects and sharing ideas and resources can help us address our climate emergency in a more impactful way.

The Green Arts Initiative. Over 330 cultural organisations in Scotland are members of the Green Arts community: a network of people and projects committed to reducing their environmental impact. It is free to join the initiative, and members receive regular communications to support their green activities, as well as being connected to others who share their goals.

Green Arts Case Studies. Members of the Green Arts Initiative also share their experience and learning in addressing our climate emergency. These are published as case studies on the Creative Carbon Scotland website to help inspire and support others.

Further projects, blogs, networks and resources on arts and sustainability. This is an ongoing list of useful organisations, websites, networks and information sources that can be helpful for anyone working in the arts, environmental sustainability, and their intersections.

CAN - Circular Arts Network. Initiated by the Sculpture Placement Group, the Circular Arts Network is a circular economy tool for the arts. Users can redistribute spare or unneeded resources to help save waste, or find useful things affordably or for free for their own projects (rather than buying new!).

#ArtUnlocks Climate Action - Scottish Contemporary Art Network. Part of SCAN's #ArtUnlocks series, this blog from Chris Sharratt explores contemporary art projects that focus on climate action, and how artists and arts organisations are taking imaginative and creative action around climate change.

Sources of knowledge, support and funding

There are several organisations in Scotland that exist to support charities and SMEs to address the climate emergency. Although not specific to the cultural sector, many of their programmes are relevant for this work.

Zero Waste Scotland. ZWS works in resource efficiency and the circular economy to create a society where resources are valued and nothing is wasted. They have lots of tips and offer free advice and online training to Green Champions.

Keep Scotland Beautiful. KSB is a charity working to support a sustainable environment in Scotland. They have a wide range of projects, including working with the Eco-Schools programme, providing training on the climate emergency and supporting sustainable tourism.

Energy Saving Trust. EST, and its sister organisation Home Energy Scotland, focus on energy efficiency, energy conservation and sustainable energy generation. They have particular expertise on grants and loans for energy efficiency improvements (domestic and workplace) and information on electric bikes and vehicles.

Learning for Sustainability Scotland. LfSS helps to connect education, learning and the Sustainable Development Goals. It offers CPD opportunities for teachers and practitioners, and its policy advice, workshops and resources could be useful for creative practitioners working in schools or other educational institutions.

Creative Carbon Scotland regularly shares emerging knowledge, projects and events on our social media channels. Take a look at Twitter for the latest updates.

Tags: Climate Change, Engage Scotland, Environment

Our ART evolution partners have blogs where you can follow their projects progress.

Engage champions children and young people's engagement and participation with the visual arts and supports the visual arts sector to...

Engage Scotland has secured Creative Scotland Targeted Youth Arts Funding to develop a collaborative and responsive programme to support both...

Impact survey completed by Conor McConville, Recovery & Support Coordinator, Feeling Strong To celebrate the Year of Stories 2022, Feeling...

Resource type:
Evaluation report

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Addressing the Climate Emergency: Engaging Young People

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In September 2021, Creative Carbon Scotland ran a series of workshops for Engage Scotland, exploring the visual arts/gallery sector's response to concerns around environmental sustainability, and opportunities to engage young people in climate action. These resources will help to continue the learning of those who attended the sessions and help organisations and practitioners to address the climate emergency through their work.

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Wanderland: Wildways - a project by Wigan STEAM

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Wanderland: Wildways - a project by Wigan STEAM

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Steph Peet, Creative Project Coordinator, Wigan STEAM

About the project

Project title: Wanderland: Wildways

Project dates: April - September 2022

Region: Greater Manchester

Partner organisations: Lancashire Wildlife Trust (Carbon Landscape Partnership)

Funders: Wigan Council

Website: www.wigansteam.co.uk

Project summary

In partnership with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust as part of the Carbon Landscape Partnership 'Wanderland' programme, the Wildways project commissioned four artists; Jayne Seddon, Sally Gilford, Joe Ford and Natalie Linney to deliver site specific projects intended to connect children, families and schools with their environmental and ecological issues within their local green spaces in the Wigan Borough. The artists were each commissioned to deliver school workshops, a family event in their chosen green space and one group celebration event at Pennington Flash, Leigh. The group celebration event invited the schools involved with the project and the local community to engage in free workshops whilst celebrating the work that had been created, bringing people, art and nature together.

... it combined art and nature into one organic, collaborative, wholesome project ...
Steph Peet, Creative Project Coordinator

Project description

Greater Manchester based artists Jayne Seddon, Joe Ford, Sally Gilford and Natalie Linney were commissioned to work across four schools (Britannia Bridge Primary School, Bickershaw Primary School, Leigh St Johns Primary School, and Platt Bridge Community School) and four green spaces (Bickershaw Country Park, Amberswood Nature Reserve, Pennington Flash and Wigan Flashes) to produce site specific projects that would engage members of the community with their local green spaces through creativity. The selected green spaces in the Wigan Borough were part of LWT's Carbon Landscape programme and a successful bid to gain National Nature Reserve status in 2022, recognising their importance as former coal-mining industrial sites now transformed into valuable natural resources.

Each artist delivered in-school workshops, CPD sessions for teachers, and events for families in their chosen green space. The project culminated in a celebration event at Pennington Flash, during which all artists delivered workshops and invited people they had worked with throughout the project to celebrate what they had created together.
Partnership working: Development and Delivery
Wildways was conceived by The Turnpike CIC prior to the organisation's closure in 2021, and was then developed, coordinated and delivered by Wigan STEAM in partnership with Lancashire Wildlife Trust (LWT). Once the artists had been commissioned, Wigan STEAM facilitated the schools partnerships and managed all communications between the commissioned artists and LWT. Wigan STEAM and LWT shared responsibility for marketing for the project - Wigan STEAM actively promoted the events and shared more in depth news about it, whilst LWT hosted and shared the events on their online platforms in order to draw on their wider audience. All communications regarding site permissions and transportation of equipment were managed by LWT, and was a key element of the success of the partnership.

Schools workshops took place in primary schools. Some artists chose to deliver full days of activity in class whilst some chose to visit their school over a number of weeks for after school activity. In order for the pairing between artist and school to be as successful as possible, we did not prescribe what form the activity needed to take other than it should total around 5 "sessions" - decisions were made between artist and school whilst considering what would be of maximum benefit to both parties. Alongside workshops with students the artists also delivered CPD with teachers. Teachers participated in the same activities that were delivered with students, but with additional context from the artists so that they could gain an understanding of the creative processes involved and how they might be delivered with children and young people. The aspect of the project was intended to instil confidence in teachers to continue delivering creative activities beyond the project.

The family events were open to all, free, and could be booked online. The schools involved also sent letters home to further promote and invite students who'd participated in activities at school. We had a great uptake in terms of bookings and attendees, and engaged with many people in the green spaces who just happened to be present during the events. We were extremely lucky with the weather, we had barely any rain and most events took place on sunny days which definitely helped with the attendance and enthusiasm around the activities.

Wildways artists and their projects

Jayne Seddon was the lead artist for Wildways, and worked primarily within Pennington Flash's bird watching huts. Jayne Seddon's project gave participants the chance to have a go at specimen drawing and closely observing natural, found objects by using a smartphone microscope. Jayne helped people to observe leaves, flowers and feathers so they could draw or trace their own interpretation of them. Jayne encouraged people to draw around their specimens using line drawing, using a magnifying glass to detail the close up lines and to try out pointillism. Jayne also invited people to create cyanotypes which is a slow - reacting photographic printing formulation. Jayne's school sessions with Leigh St Johns Primary School took the form of a six week after school club.

Sally Gilford's project was called 'Smitten with Bitterns', and activities centred on a campaign to 'save the bitterns' and raise awareness of the local bird wildlife. Working with Britannia Bridge Primary School, Sally screen printed fabric 'Save the Bitterns' banners with several classes over two days. For her public event, Sally invited people to forage for natural materials and try out gel printing to create intricate prints of found natural forms which they could keep to display at home. At the group celebration Sally screen printed wooden Bitterns, which could be placed within the natural landscape.

Nataline Linney chose to focus on Bickershaw Country Park, and was particularly interested in the native moths that could be found in the park. Working with Bickershaw Primary School, Natalie took children to the park to collect flowers and leaves. On arriving back to school, students used the flowers and leaves to naturally dye previously prepared screen printed Bickershaw Country Park tote bags, using hammers and boards in a process called Hapa Zome. During this activity, Natalie invited students to undertake the same process but on some larger textiles. Using the pattern created on these larger pieces, Natalie created a pattern which was printed onto fabric and stitched to created moth wings that would be wearable for adults and children. At her family events, Natalie invited people to try on the wings and be photographed, as well as create their own miniature wings using the Hapa Zome process.

Joe Ford worked with Platt Bridge Community School and delivered activities in Amberswood Nature Reserve. Joe sourced film cameras and took students on a walk to Amberswood, where they engaged with their surroundings through photography. Joe developed the photographs and later took them back to the school for the students to reflect upon and keep. She also replicated this process during her family event - participants enjoyed learning to use the film cameras and experimenting with photographing their surroundings. At the group celebration Joe displayed all of the photographs taken during the school sessions and family event, and invited people to write poetry about the imagery and take photographs home.

Activity pack

To further enable families to engage with their local green spaces through creativity we created an online activity pack. The activities outlined follow similar processes to those that the artists delivered during the project and can be downloaded here: https://www.wigansteam.co.uk/post/saying-goodbye-to-wild-ways

Outcomes

Overall the project ran smoothly and everyone involved with the project thoroughly enjoyed each aspect, from each school workshop, CPD session and activities that were delivered to the public within each greenspace.

The monitoring and evaluation process were managed by Wigan STEAM, evaluation forms were given to all the students involved within the project and their teachers. At the public events, evaluation forms were given to adults, families and children in order for us to capture a range of viewpoints. By the end of the project we worked with:

Schools School Children School Teachers Family Events Group Celebration Event Total

5

362

47

70

107
586

Feedback from project participants

'It's good for children whose parents can not take their children to events that cost money' - Group celebration event (Grandmother)

'The walk around Pennington Flash really filled my heart, I'm going to come here more often' - School Student

'I am thankful for teaching me how to do art properly and taking me into the nature 10/10 day'- School Student

"This is exciting isn't it, we don't ever see anything like this is Pennington Flash" - Group celebration attendee (Parent)

"My daughter's school report said that taking part in the art workshops at school has brought her alive" - Parent of child participant in school workshop with Jayne Seddon

Reflections

When looking at the project as a whole, I think what we would change is who managed certain things. For example, it would have been more beneficial if Wigan STEAM had managed the Eventbrite instead of our partner LWT, as we managed the social media and were in direct communication with the artists. Another change we would be to send permissions for the green spaces earlier to the Council as this took a while to be processed and this caused delays at some points of the project.

When debriefing with LWT after the project had ended, they re-stated their commitment to creative projects like this, reflecting that as an non-arts specialist organisation it works out better for them to collaborate with arts organisations who have access to a pool of artists and have the experience and knowledge to work with artists on large scale events. They stated that going forward they will always call upon arts organisations who have that access and knowledge. I found this to be a useful insight into how organisations such as LWT can approach partnership working on projects like ours, where the main aim is to bring art together with another theme or specialism.

In the end, Wildways successfully brought together a lot of people; it combined art and nature into one organic, collaborative, wholesome project that benefited not only those that participated but also the partners and artists by expanding our understanding of the ways we can interact with, work within and view our local green spaces.

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Wanderland: Wildways - a project by Wigan STEAM

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Steph Peet, Creative Project Coordinator, Wigan STEAM About the project Project title: Wanderland: Wildways Project dates: April - September 2022 Region: Greater Manchester Partner organisations: Lancashire Wildlife Trust (Carbon Landscape Partnership) Funders: Wigan Council Website: www.wigansteam.co.uk Project summary In partnership with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust as part of the Carbon Landscape Partnership 'Wanderland' programme, the Wildways project commissioned four artists; Jayne Seddon, Sally Gilford, Joe Ford and Natalie Linney to deliver site specific projects intended to connect children, families and schools with their environmental and ecological issues within their local green spaces in the Wigan Borough.

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James Steventon, Director, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art

About the project

Project title: The Chimera Plantarium

Project dates: May - Oct 2022

Region: East Midlands

Partner organisations: Exeter - A Learning Community

Funders: Arts Council England, Leslie Church Memorial Fund, Northamptonshire Community Foundation

Website: https://fermynwoods.org/tag/chimera-plantarium

Twitter: @fermynwoods

Project summary

The Chimera Plantarium is a project by artist, curator and facilitator Chiara Dellerba investigating urban spontaneous plants to map, rethink and redesign public places from the perspective of "weeds".

For Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Chiara worked with children at Exeter - A Learning Community Academy, in Corby. Outcomes included two large "plant propaganda" posters shown on billboards in the town, and a beautifully produced Herbarium publication made in collaboration with the pupils.

The project culminated with a weekend of public engagement workshops for local people to discover the wonder and beauty of our urban plants and to create wilder streets where we live.

Project description

Chiara Dellerba's The Chimera Plantarium is an ongoing project focused on mapping, rethinking and redesigning public places from the perspective of urban plants - with the ultimate goal of revealing the beauty and biological wealth of these great protagonists of the living world.

We tend to think of towns and cities as concrete jungles, but our urban environment is immersed in plant life. Wild plants have taken root along roadsides and chain-link fences, between cracks of pavement, and within vacant lots, rubble dumps and highways. Spontaneously propagating, these resilient plants find distinctive niches to thrive in and they inhabit our most derelict landscapes. The environmental benefits of these "weeds" go widely unrecognised, however reframing this often invisible urban ecology as a beneficial amenity offers a fresh perspective on our neighbourhoods.

Commissioned by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art to work in Corby, Northamptonshire, Chiara connected children with nature through a series of workshops with Year 6 pupils at Exeter - A Learning Community, and later members of the general public, to help discover and celebrate the beauty and biological wealth of forgotten plants in their neighbourhoods, to reflect and reframe on the concept of citizenship and identity while opening up new perspectives on their relationship with the urban natural world.

Beginning with a game of consequences, pupils each secretly drew half an imaginary plant, with their partner drawing the other half, before revealing surprising hybrid species to one another. Once revealed, pupils named their plants and ascribed properties to them, such as healing and making people calm, giving bees energy, making you fly, or giving the ability to see in the dark once consumed. One plant allegedly communicated telepathically with others to discuss and plot against humans!

Existing weed specimens were given to pupils in sealed envelopes, which became more exotic as their partners drew what they imagined from spoken descriptions of the original. Human-plant hybrid species were created as the children drew blind portraits of one another on leaf shaped backgrounds, evolving into imaginative masks made from paper shapes of human and plant characteristics. These formed the basis of "plant propaganda" images later shown on billboards around the town centre.

Children worked in groups to create their own plant-alien communities who were visiting Corby on a trip to earth, using post-it notes to record group and species names, descriptions of how they travelled to earth, where they lived and what they ate. Maps were drawn of areas of Corby the plant-aliens would colonise, with lists of rules the plant-aliens would live by. The Vegan Plant Aliens classed themselves as cannibals who ate other plants, living in a scientific farmer's compound, and weren't allowed to go outside unless they were in groups, to stay safe from humans. The Green Pack had an island that grew trees, chrysanthemums and other flowering plants. One table described War Plant Aliens that would kill all the carrots and Brussels sprouts on earth! Another decided they were LGBTQ Aliens, that would hold protest marches through Corby and the woods that they live in.

Chiara led a short expedition around the boundary of their school playground and estate, sharing examples of some of the useful properties of these species growing nearby. Children picked a favourite plant from their expedition, making rubbings with charcoal and recording information about their selection. Back in the classroom samples were combined with rubbings and descriptions to begin to form a Herbarium publication, with pupils writing letters to nature from the perspective of their chosen plant, considering what changes the plants might like to see in the world.

In a third workshop Chiara shared some graphic design techniques with pupils to develop content for their forthcoming "plant propaganda" posters. Pupils developed their own typographic alphabets by using cut up letterpress blocks to print their own letterforms and messages with rallying cries from the perspective of plants . "YOUR future is in MY hands and I AM in YOURS. Without ME there is NO YOU!", "Get off your musty phone for once and touch the grass!" Pupils also snuck in other messages to Chiara such "You are the best art teacher we have ever had!"

Outcomes

Billboard designs generated by pupils featured ambiguous and uplifting images reflecting the abundance of wild plants which had taken root alongside roadsides, fences and between cracks in the pavement, whilst suggestive of pupils' human-plant hybrid species. The billboard nearest to the school contained the words "SEEDING. IMAGINING. BREATHING. NURTURING" and "WE ARE THE FUTURE". The estimated public engagement with the billboards was in excess of 300,000 views.

The finished publication took the form of a pressed plant Herbarium in an engraved wooden case, printed in environmentally friendly Risograph, featuring unique teal and fluorescent pink colours made with Dizzy Ink in Nottingham especially for this project. Inside are 11 cards of plants and their properties found in and around the school grounds, a booklet with an explanation of the project and plant communities, plus Letters to humans (from plants) - a collection of creative writing produced by the children imagining a world ruled by weeds. All children who participated in the project received their own copy with additional copies available for the public to purchase, contributing towards future Fermynwoods education activity.

Through working with the school over a sustained period and the resulting public-facing outcomes, we were able to engage parents and the local community more closely with the participating school. This has already led to partnering with the school on a further creative project. For adults that may find participation in the arts intimidating, our work with children can often be an entry point. To maximise this effect we are continuing to blur boundaries between what may traditionally be considered as separate artistic and education programmes, contributing to Arts Council England's Let's Create Strategy's Cultural Communities outcome.

Project culmination

The Chimera Plantarium project with Fermynwoods culminated with a weekend of public engagement workshops for local people to discover the wonder and beauty of urban plants and to create wilder streets where they live. These included a walk around the local area, led by wild.NG botanist Tim Allman, to learn about plants and trees growing in the neighbourhood. Beginning in Corby Town Centre, the walk incorporated Hazel and Thoroughsale Woods, an established area once part of Rockingham Forest and now thought to be one of Europe's largest urban woodlands. As the town expands around the 76-hectare wood, the forest remains at the heart of the town centre.

Artist Rebecca Beinart led a session at the new community led and voluntary run space KHL Community Workshop, where participants explored the healing properties of common local plants, making their own plant-based balms to soothe aches, pains and injuries. Rebecca set an intention that to work with plants that linked to Corby's industrial and pre-industrial history. Where the morning walk began at Corby's Steelman statue we learned from local participants many examples of connections between plants and industry. Corby's population is famous for the migration of Scottish workers to the town which led to conversations in our group about seed dispersal and the perception of "invasive" species or weeds. Amusingly we even heard a story about workers walking from Scotland to Corby actually sleeping in hedgerows. All of this knowledge infused the resulting "Corby Balms" which might use plant properties to treat many industrial injuries such as burns, scrapes and bruises.

After a sensory mapping walk with participants, Chiara Dellerba concluded the project with a final session combining gathered knowledge and plant specimens to make new recipes for tinctures and perfumes of the neighbourhood.

Project funders

The Chimera Plantarium was generously funded by Northamptonshire Community Foundation's Leslie Church Memorial Fund and commissioned as part of Xylophobia, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art's two-year programme funded by Arts Council England. Named from the fear of wooden objects or forests, Xylophobia addresses issues of place and belonging which go to the heart of community feelings of exclusion from both the art world and woodland spaces.

Links to further information
https://fermynwoods.org/tag/chimera-plantarium/https://fermynwoods.org/chimera-plantarium-publication/http://www.chiaradellerba.com/https://www.exeterschool.co.uk/

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James Steventon, Director, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art About the project Project title: The Chimera Plantarium Project dates: May - Oct 2022 Region: East Midlands Partner organisations: Exeter - A Learning Community Funders: Arts Council England, Leslie Church Memorial Fund, Northamptonshire Community Foundation Website: https://fermynwoods.org/tag/chimera-plantarium Twitter: @fermynwoods Project summary The Chimera Plantarium is a project by artist, curator and facilitator Chiara Dellerba investigating urban spontaneous plants to map, rethink and redesign public places from the perspective of "weeds".

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Gathering Momentum 2023, Recording - Day 2

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Gathering Momentum 2023, Recording - Day 2

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Gathering Momentunm 2023 - Day 2 (March 17)

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Gathering momentum 2023, Recording -  Day 1

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Gathering momentum 2023, Recording -  Day 1

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Gathering Momentum 2023 - Day 1 (16 March)