On Tuesday (26 February), Primary 6 students of Fernielea Primary School performed two co-created songs about flooding as part of a project to connect local residents with flood risk and their environment through the medium of music as part of ‘Creative Approaches to Engaging Flood Risk Communities’.

“The Den Burn is flooding, don’t panic” was the key message of the first song, “The Burnie Journey”, sung by Mrs Leslie’s class to their fellow pupils and representatives from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), the Scottish Flood Forum and the Dee Catchment Partnership. The song aims to reassure students and local residents about flooding in their local burn and creatively inform them of some of the flood management schemes the council have set up including at the Den of Maidencraig and Stronsay Park, both of which are designed to store floodwater upstream, protecting roads and properties further downstream in the heart of Aberdeen.

As part of the project, Simon took the class on a walk of the Den Burn pointing out some of the flooding and flood management issues. The pupils took recordings of the sounds they heard and learned verses of the Burnie Journey song along the way

The second song, “The Flood Kit”, is a memory song to the tune of “Rattlin’ Bog”, and was written with the class to remind them what useful items to include in a flood or emergency kit.

On working with the Primary 6 class, Simon Gall said:

“It’s been heartening to see the children engaging so enthusiastically with the Den Burn and flooding issues more generally. I think our hands-on, creative learning approach to the topic is key. The children use their creative skills to process and convert fairly pedestrian information – gathered first-hand – into something unique and memorable. I hope the experience leaves a lasting impression on them while also leaving some lovely creative work for others to use and enjoy.”

The project has been developed in partnership by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scotland’s culture and sustainability charity Creative Carbon Scotland. The project explores how creative approaches could be used by Scotland’s flooding authorities to engage with communities vulnerable to future flooding and raise levels of flood awareness and preparedness in a way that is meaningful and relevant to the community.

Some of the primary 6 student musical stars.

SEPA is Scotland’s national authority for flood forecasting and warning and works with communities to help them be more flood resilient. Recently, SEPA has significantly enhanced its existing warning service in north east Scotland with the addition of a new coastal flood warning scheme, covering 2033 properties in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Angus, giving people time to take preparatory action against the impact of flood events.

Stewart Prodger, from SEPA’s Flooding team, said:

“Every day SEPA works to protect and enhance Scotland’s environment, including helping Scotland prepare more powerfully for future increased flooding. Getting the next generation involved in understanding how flooding happens is a vital part of how we do that, helping local communities become more resilient. More traditional engagement will always have its place, but making learning more fun and the message memorable can be a far more effective way to get young people interested and spreading the word to their friends and families on how they can be flood-prepared. This could include encouraging their parents to sign up to SEPA’s free public flood warning service, so free messages for home and travel areas can be delivered direct to their phone. Register online at https://floodline.sepa.org.uk/floodupdates/ or call 0345 988 1188.”

Director of Creative Carbon Scotland, Ben Twist, said:

“We’re thrilled to be working on this project with SEPA. As a charity which promotes, supports and harnesses the role of culture in addressing the climate crisis, we see a key role for creative practitioners, such as musicians, to help draw out the creativity and imagination of communities in their response to climate change and offer different skills and approaches to contribute to the work of organisations like SEPA.”

Councillor John Wheeler, Education Operational Delivery Convener, said:

“Our schools have a great record of getting involved in environmental projects across the city and in getting the local community involved. Only last week Orchard Brae School earned a prestigious Green Flag from Eco-Schools Scotland and it’s great to Fernielea School involved in a project like this with SEPA. I’m sure all the pupils and staff involved will find the day really rewarding”.

Creative Approaches to Engaging Flood Risk Communities is a partnership between SEPA and Creative Carbon Scotland support from Aberdeen City Council, has been commissioned by SEPA with via SEPA’s Research and Development Fund.

Creative Carbon Scotland’s involvement is part of its Culture/SHIFT programme which supports cultural and sustainability practitioners to explore new ways of working together to address complex problems and bring about transformational change.

The post “The Den Burn is flooding, don’t panic!” appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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The fourth in a series of blogs from playwright Lewis Hetherington about his work with Glasgow cycling charity Bike for Good and Creative Carbon Scotland.

We’re all just back from a cycle ride. exhausted, smiling, happy, we’re already talking about where we might cycle tomorrow. We start to chat about other things…

him:     you know what it’s only six years ’til I get my driving licence!!!

me:      Are you excited about that?

him:     YES!

me:      how come?

him:     cos I can DRIVE A CAR!

me:      Maybe in five years there’ll be no cars!

him:     Looks at me in complete confusion

me:      So no one will need a driving licence because there’ll be no cars!

him:     continues to stare as his disbelief grows… as though I’ve just started making bizarre and incomprehensible wailing sounds.

There I was, on a glorious sunny afternoon the other week, having ridden through the park with some of the brilliant youngsters who regularly attend the after school bike club. We were all buzzing, from feeling the sunshine stream down as we free wheeled our bikes around the park. Not to mention some exhilarating games of ‘Sardines’ and ‘Find the Cones’, I did very well in the first and was terrible in the latter, but we all had a great time. Back at the hub, the conversation turned to cars and a number of the group expressed mega excitement about learning to drive.

him:     but you couldn’t have no cars. how would anyone get anywhere? how could you do that? how would anyone get to work?

Pavements are for people, train tracks are for trains, roads are for cars

This isn’t the first time these ideas have come up, I chatted to some of the same youngsters before Christmas around the same idea. It was a much needed jolt to my naive thinking that these young cyclists might not be interested in cars. I remember looking out at the streaming traffic on Victoria Road behind them as we chatted and it hit me like a brick that of course they want to drive. As much as they love cycling, car usage is the model of transport that is presented to them all day, every day. Pavements are for people, train tracks are for trains, roads are for cars, and our cities are built around roads. It’s the model we all take part in everyday.

me:      but imagine the whole of Victoria Road didn’t have cars, we could all cycle, or skateboard!?

Now, I have a car. I am very much part of this problem. Myself, my partner and our two dogs rely on it to get us round the country to visit family and friends, he uses it for his work which takes him all over Scotland. Doing any of those things would be much harder (not impossible!) without a car. We avoid using it wherever we can. But still here I was, trying to sell the idea of a car-less city.

him:     I want to drive so I can get places, go wherever I want, get to work, drive to Romania.

Towards beautiful acts

I’m reminded of an Arne Naess quote I read recently:

“the extensive moralising within environmentalism has given the public the false impression that we primarily ask them to sacrifice, to show more responsibility, to show more concern, better morals”

Now of course this is all connected to an urgent discussion which is happening about the (in?)significance of individual action which we won’t go into in length here, other than to say that for the shift to active transport to be meaningful requires change on a civic scale where going by a car is the least preferable option for travel within our urban areas at the very least. Cleaner air, healthier and cheaper travel is what we are aiming towards, not people feeling they have to ‘sacrifice’  their right to drive a car.

There’s another Arne Naess quote where he wonders if

“perhaps we should primarily try to influence people towards beautiful acts“

which seems to capture a lot of what I’m trying to capture at Bike For Good. It feels to me like a pleasingly poetic encapsulation of what they’re doing. It almost feels uncomfortably lofty and wide eyed, but I think that’s why I like it, we need to be wide eyed and giddy and lean into the profound beauty of this living planet we are part of.

Face the terror that is imminent

Planet not profit! Credit: Geraldine Heaney

Now I can feel certain people flinching at their screens – we don’t just need wafty sentiment about the beauty of the earth – we need to face the terror that is imminent! We need to be shocked into action at the catastrophic damage we’re doing to our planet! We need to get out on the streets and make our resistance seen and heard where we can!

Plural and abundant and wildly variant

Sunset on the park. Credit: Lewis Hetherington

But I suppose something I’m trying to resist is the binary framing that sometimes frames contemporary debates, I don’t find it helpful to think in terms of hope or fear, individual or societal action. Those sorts of dualities are not an honest reflection of the world we’re part of. Nature is plural and abundant and wildly variant and diverse, and we are part of nature.

Trees like skyscrapers and housing as many. Grass the height of hedges, nuts the swell of pumpkins. Sardines that would take two men to land them. Eggs, pale-blue-shelled, each the weight of a breaking universe. And underneath, mushrooms soft and small as a mouse ear. A crack like a cut, and inside a million million microbes wondering what to do next. Spores that wait for the wind and never look back. Moss that is concentrating on being green.^[1]

We must be terrified, joyful, patient, demanding, thoughtful, hopeful, optimistic, sceptical, generous, angry, rebellious, mindful and instinctive… sometimes all at once.

him:                 how would it work with no cars?

me:                  I don’t know. How do you think it would work?

we don’t finish the conversation at this moment, as it’s time to huddle together for a group photo.

her:                  ok everyone in position? We’re going to take ten photos and try and make a GIF. So just keep moving the whole time ok? Let’s go!

Bike excitement! Credit: Geraldine Heaney

^[1] from Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson

Lewis is working embedded with Bike for Good for two years in their VeloCommunities project to contribute to their activities widening access to cycling and helping Glasgow to become a more sustainable city.

This artist in residence is part of Bike for Good’s VeloCommunities Project, which is funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund. We’ll keep you posted of updates and developments on this blog, and please get in touch with any questions or ideas!

The post Guest Blog: I CAN’T WAIT TO DRIVE A CAR! appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Road vehicles such as cars, trucks and buses are Scotland’s largest – and growing – source of carbon emissions but what role can artists play in increasing  active travel and contributing to a more sustainable Scotland? Listen to the podcast from Green Tease: Arts and Active Travel, a collaboration between Sustrans Scotland and Creative Carbon Scotland. 

Can art get people travelling more sustainably?

To allow you to hear the full presentations and a summary of discussions we have created Creative Carbon Scotland first ever podcast “Can art get people travelling more sustainably?”! 

The podcast is available on Itunes, Google Podcasts (on your phone), Spotify and a bunch of other platforms. We welcome your feedback on the podcast as we’re aiming to produce recordings of more of our events, to allow a wider audience to benefit from the information and to ensure that there’s a means of participating when environmental or other considerations mean people choose not to travel.

You can also get the visuals from the presentations by taking a look at the slides, linked to in the section below.

In brief

Cosmo Blake, Arts and Diversity Officer at Sustrans Scotland, kicked off the event by showing diverse examples of public art works commissioned on Scotland’s cycle paths. He also gave an update on the ArtRoots Fund which offers grants to communities for artistic and aesthetic improvements to the National Cycle Network.

• Cosmo’s Green Tease presentation slides

Arts producer and consultant Ben Spencer then gave a presentation on how artistic practices and projects have sought to affect social change.

• Ben’s Green Tease presentation slides
  

Freshly inspired, Green Teasers then discussed how artists can influence the different stages of active travel projects (Inception, Design, Construction, Completion), as well as the potential challenges and opportunities. Questions were raised and explored such as;

• If an artist was involved from the very start of projects (for example path building), could they be more visual and appealing?
• How can health and safety requirements be managed while also encouraging the creative flair of an artist?
• And how can you evaluate the impact of public artwork on cycle ways?

Green Tease

This event was part of Green Tease, a network and ongoing informal events programme, connecting creative practices and environmental sustainability across Scotland.  Creative Carbon Scotland runs the Green Tease Open Call, which is a funded opportunity supporting sustainability practitioners and artists to exchange ideas, knowledge and practices with the aim of building connections and widening understanding of the role of arts in influencing a more sustainable society.

For more information please click on the links above or email gemma.lawrence@creativecarbonscotland.com 

Image: Slow Down C Jacqueline Donachie (2014)

The post Green Tease Podcast: Can art get people travelling more sustainably? appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

The third in a series of blogs from playwright Lewis Hetherington about his work with Glasgow cycling charity Bike for Good and Creative Carbon Scotland.

I’m currently Artist in Residence with the brilliant Bike for Good documenting their Velocommunities project which has two main aims; Firstly, to increase the number of short journeys made by bike in Glasgow and secondly, to raise awareness of climate change.

This is my third blog in this series and has been by far the hardest one to write. As we’ve stopped to take stock of where we are in the process, I’ve been reminded of the scale and the urgency of the issues which this residency is engaging with.

Before Christmas we made a short film launched at the Climate Challenge Fund Gathering in Perth. We’re now working towards a longer film which we’ll share as part of Climate Week later this year.

Geraldine and I have been talking about everything that our next film could, and maybe should contain. So of course we’ve found ourselves in conversations about potholes, asteroids, politics, religion, education, schools, alien life, transatlantic flights, shopping, central heating, children, cars, pavements, air quality, skeletons, traffic, motorways, accessibility, solar power, dancing and much much more.

So this has been the hardest blog to write because we’re not at the beginning and we’re not at the end, and when you’re in some way grappling with the climate crisis, you’re kind of dealing with everything all at once.

I was going to write about being warm in a T-shirt in February.

I was going to write about the rift between legislation and culture.

I was going to write about the tension between wanting to provoke and wanting to be thoughtful.

I was going to write about the fact that even some of the most enthusiastic young cyclists I’ve met still talk with mega excitement about getting a car when they’re older, and I think how can we challenge that when of course they would want a car when they look out the window everyday and see a city built for cars.

I was going to write about a children’s TV show that is basically Top Gear for kids where an extremely excited rally driver grins as she enthuses about sports cars and super yachts.

I was going to write about the striking students across the world that have made me feel genuinely hopeful and inspired and overwhelmed.

I was going to write about Greta Thunberg.

I was going to write about what role art can have in advocating for social change.

I was going to write about how some people don’t want art to have a role in advocating for social change, they just want it to distract people and make them feel better for a bit.

I was going to write about the crocuses appearing in Queen’s Park. The purple, yellow and white flowers poking out and reaching up to the sky.

I was going to write about international travel.

I was going to write about how it’s easy to point fingers elsewhere.

I was going to write about how we have to point fingers elsewhere because none of us can solve this on our own.

I was going to write about how pointing fingers sometimes feels abrupt and uncomfortable.

I was going to write about how awful it would be if the world burned just because we didn’t want to do anything abrupt or uncomfortable.

I was going to write about how there are so many people, who are doing SUCH TERRIBLE things for the environment that it’s really easy to go ‘oh well they’re worse’ and slip into atrophy.

I was going to write about the fact that I’m just supposed to be documenting what’s happening at Bike for Good on Victoria Road so no one needs to hear my free wheeling, nervy musings on this climate catastrophe we’re all facing.

I was going to write about how the first film made some people think and smile and debate and we have some exciting ideas for the next film.

I was going to write about a robot who comes back from the future and tells us a moving story of how we destroyed the earth and convinces us to all change our ways, and that’s when I knew I was really going into freefall.

I was going to write something that was breezy and upbeat and made it seem like broadly I’ve got everything under control.

But instead I wrote this.

I’m reminded of a quote from Timothy Morton;

We are losing a fantasy – the fantasy of being immersed in a benevolent Mother Nature –  and a person who is losing a fantasy is a very dangerous person.

And also of Joanna Macy’s call for us to have Active Hope.

Active Hope is not wishful thinking. Active hope is not waiting to be rescued by the Lone Ranger or by some saviour. Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life on whose behalf we can act.

I was going to try and write an eloquent, robust yet empowering closing statement, but there isn’t an end yet. We’re right in the middle. And it’s how we write the present that will determine what the end is.

Lewis is working embedded with Bike for Good for two years to document their VeloCommunities project and contribute to their activities widening access to cycling and helping Glasgow to become a more sustainable city.

This artist in residence is part of Bike for Good’s VeloCommunities Project, which is funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund. We’ll keep you posted of updates and developments on this blog, and please get in touch with any questions or ideas!

                                      

The post Guest Blog: Crises. Crocuses. Creativity. appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico