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Calling all Stage Designers: Climate Change Theatre Action EcoDesign Charrette

The Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) and Triga Creative (Triga) invites you to our second Eco-Design Charrette taking place between September 19th and December 18th, 2021.  This year we will be hosting our events online, as part of the Climate Change Theatre Action Festival (Climate Change Theatre Action). The Eco-Design Charrette aims to fuel each participant with the knowledge and inspiration needed to design with an ecological consciousness. Through rapid design seeding and idea exchange we will expand how we imagine scenography and its power to change our world. 

This online Eco-Design Charrette is centred on the creation of concepts for each of the fifty Climate Change Theatre Action Plays (Playwrights). Over the span of the Charrette each participating designer will create a seed concept for at least one of the short plays. Our intention is not to ask designers for fully fleshed out designs, but to begin a design concept with ecological thinking at the centre of the creative process. In order to support this work and create a context for the cross pollination of ideas, Triga Creative will host a series of short play readings, design conversations and eco-scenography workshops.

The Eco-Design Charrette period will be an opportunity to develop your eco-scenographic practice alongside other designers and generate concepts for publication and exhibition with an international reach. All designs generated during the Eco-Design Charrette will be published in a two-part volume by the Centre for Sustainable Practices in the Arts (Books). The designs will also be exhibited at World Stage Design in Calgary in 2022 (WSD2022 Exhibition). The charrette will culminate the global participatory CCTA festival with an online closing celebration during which we will share the work created with our international community.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Send Triga Creative a statement of interest in the Eco-Design Charrette to hello@trigacreative.com with the subject line “Charrette Application” before midnight on September 6th, 2021. Please include an overview of your previous design experience, your interest in eco-scenography, and your availability to participate in up to two sessions of programming per week between September 19th and December 18th, 2021.

We will be creating the schedule with consideration of everyone’s availability and with the intention of making our programming as accessible as possible across all time zones. Please be specific about which time zone your availability is relative to. Note that availability for all of the programming is not required for participation.

We will review all of the submitted letters and be in touch with everyone before September 19th, 2021. If you have any questions please write to Alexandra Lord, Shannon Lea Doyle and Michelle Tracey at hello@trigacreative.com. We would be happy to hear from you!

Featured Image: Seed Concept for Nibi (Water) Protectors By Corey Payette, Designed by Kim Sue Bartnik for the 2019 CCTA EcoDesign Charrette

Report Launch and Discussion: Art and The World After This

The Metcalf Foundation invites you to join us for the virtual report launch of Art and the World After This, which will feature a presentation by David Maggs — sharing key ideas from the paper — and a thought-provoking panel discussion with leading international voices in the arts.

Date: September 15, 2021
Time: 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm ET (via Zoom)
We are delighted to announce that we will be joined by:

  • Marcus Youssef, International Associate Artist at Farnham Maltings in the UK and a Playwright in Residence at Tarragon Theatre
  • Diane Ragsdale, Director of Cultural Leadership at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
  • Hasan Bakhshi, Director of the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre at Nesta

Together, with David, they will discuss key questions posed by the paper as well as the wider implications for the arts sector and beyond.

Learn more: davidmaggs.eventbrite.ca

REGISTER TODAY


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Guapamacátaro Art & Ecology: Interdisciplinary Residency in Art & Ecology

3 WEEKS OF RENEWAL,
COLLABORATION AND 
CREATIVITY

Our program has been around for 15 years, granting space and production support for people who are doing innovative work worldwide, across the arts and sciences. During their stay (25 days), participants use the hacienda grounds as a laboratory for the creative process and engaging with the local community. They are free to work whenever desired in the provided studios and anywhere in the property. Experimentation is encouraged as is discourse and collaboration. 

WINTER SESSION: JANUARY 10 – 30, 2022

Up to 8 people per session are selected from a mix of the following disciplines:

  • Performing Arts (Music, Dance, Performance, Theater, Puppetry, etc)
  • Visual Arts (Painting, Drawing, Mixed-Media, Photography, Video, etc)
  • Sculpture and Installation
  • Design and Architecture
  • Humanities and Social Sciences (Anthropology, Philosophy, Writing, etc)
  • Natural Sciences (Ecology, Hydrology, Biology, Geology, etc)
S U P P O R T
  • LIVE/WORK SPACE: Single or double occupancy bedrooms and studios, plus common areas at the hacienda, at NET COST.
  • PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE to realize one or more projects while in residency.
  • PUBLIC EXHIBITION at the Open House event on the last week of the residency.
C O S T S
  • LIVING EXPENSES: All utilities, cleaning services, drinking water and three prepared meals per day at NET COST: $1,200 USD for the 25 days ($40 USD per day).
  • TRANSPORTATION: We do not cover transportation expenses beyond the arrival and departure van from/to Mexico City, but can assist you in pursuing additional funding with other sources, to cover expenses such as international flights and additional local transportation. Some funding options here:
A D D I T I O N A L    S U P P O R T
  • 1 HALF SCHOLARSHIP (pay only 50% of the living expenses) for participants residing in Mexico, Central America, South America or the Caribbean. Awarded based on merits and financial need. Must provide proof of residence. 

SIMPLE ONLINE APPLICATION – DUE SEPTEMBER 1st AT MIDNIGHT

——

The Guapamacátaro Center for Art and Ecology is a site-basedand community-oriented initiative where artists from different disciplines, scientists, educators and activists converge to foster culture, collaboration and sustainable development.

M I C H O A C A N,  M E X I C O
www.guapamacataro.org

Biocenosis21 exhibition at the World Conservation Congress of IUCN

Biocenosis21 is an international exhibition of contemporary art on the theme of biodiversity, organized by Art of Change 21 within the IUCN World Conservation Congress and at La Traverse, next September in Marseille.

Curated by Alice Audouin, founder of Art of Change 21, it brings together Marie-Sarah AdenisArt Orienté ObjetThijs BierstekerJulian CharrièreMarcus CoatesAbdessamad El MontassirJohn GerrardJérémy GobéCaroline Halley des FontainesCamille HenrotJanet LaurenceLin-May SaeedTomás Saraceno and Michael Wang.

France is hosting from September 4 to 11, 2021 the next IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) World Conservation Congress at Parc Chanot in Marseille. Organized every four years, it is the world’s largest meeting on biodiversity. The Congress brings together the best international experts, countries, institutions and companies, to draw up a detailed inventory of biodiversity, raise public awareness and obtain ambitious international commitments. This highly anticipated edition incorporates contemporary art for the first time, commissioned by the French Office for Biodiversity, with the exhibition Biocenosis21.

This highly anticipated edition incorporates contemporary art for the first time, commissioned by the French Office for Biodiversity, with the exhibition Biocenosis21.

Biocenosis (the term was introduced into scientific language in 1877 by the German biologist Möbius) is an association of different organisms forming a closely integrated community. It corresponds to all living beings (animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, etc.) established in the same living space and linked by reciprocal dependence. At a time when biodiversity is collapsing in the face of the destruction of natural spaces and global warming, Art of Change 21 is activating an artistic biocenosis at the heart of Marseille’s biotope, around the challenges of the 21st century. Together, the artists form a community to provoke emotions, exchanges, ideas and engagement.

Biocenosis21 brings together 14 of the most inspiring French and international artists, committed to biodiversity, and gives a carte blanche to Photoclimat.

The exhibition allows visitors to see, feel and understand differently the challenges of biodiversity and global warming, and highlights a relationship between humans and non-humans, a bearer of hope. The selected artists are not only just inspired by nature, they are also researchers, activists and activators of solutions.

The Biocenosis21 exhibition integrates eco-design into its approach. Selection of artists is based on criteria such as: same geographical area, grouping of transport, more ecological printing solutions, movement of artists and teams by train… These are among the principles applied in the organization of the exhibition with the enlightened advice of the Karbone Agency, founded by Fanny Legros, also a member of Art of Change 21. An environmental assessment of the exhibition will be published, including its carbon footprint.

The different facets of biodiversity addressed in the artworks

Energy choices, demographic growth and economic activities, since the industrial era, generate pressure and are today destroying biodiversity, and yet humans do not change their behaviour and continue their course. The series Not Clean Yet by Camille Henrot highlights this with an element of humor.

However, a movement is emerging that brings hope. Artists are at the heart of this dynamic of reversing a world that has become counterproductive, denouncing it and opening the way to another relationship with the living, which is not only more ethical and responsible, but more cooperative and benevolent.

Artists place “care”, empathy and knowledge in a new relationship to non-humans. American artist Michael Wang takes care of species that no longer exist in the wild but only in human activities (laboratories, farming, aquariums…) in his series Extinct in the Wild. Object Oriented Art rescues a kangaroo wrecked by a car in Pieta Amazonia; German artist Lin-May Saeed frees an elephant from its chains and gives understanding and love to hyenas, a species often despised by humans; the Argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno, along with Spider Cube, cooperates with spiders and reveals their connection to the living and the cosmos; Le Calendrier de la Nature(Nature’s Calendar), by Marcus Coates, delivers a daily nature scoop, a humorous way to understand how species live; and the artist Jérémy Gobé has given himself the mission of repairing the damage caused by human activities on corals, with his Corail Artefact project.

The impact of human activities on biodiversity, such as nuclear tests with Coconut Lead Fondue and Pacific Fictionby Julian Charrière, pollution of freshwater with (Flag) River by John Gerrard, or the devastating effects of deforestation with the monumental light and sound installation that lives to the rhythm of real-time data on deforestation in the Amazon, and Wither by Dutch artist Thijs Biersteker, promotes awareness. Among the natural disasters linked to human activities, the fires in Australia in late 2019 have decimated billions of species; Australian artist Janet Laurence has created the Requieum in video form in response. Abdessamad El Montassir draws a community of destiny between humans and plants in the desert, undergoing the same pressures, capable of the same resilience, with his video Galb’Echaouf.

Caroline Halley des Fontaines’ photographic work on the colors of nature from the Lighscapes series, diffuses a spiritual vibration, opening the way to a more harmonious Whole. This global view also includes viruses, which have now become the scapegoats for the health crisis. Artist, designer and scientist Marie-Sarah Adenis rehabilitates them with Le virus que donc je suis ( The virus that I therefore am), showcasing their major role in human evolution. The artist also reverses the hierarchical image of the phylogenetic tree (on the evolution of species) for a more egalitarian representation in Tousteszincs.

What if, beyond its relationship to living things through manipulation, illustrated by Leavis (John Gerrard’s SpaceLab), the human species, on the contrary, explored its place in a new paradigm, that of the biocenosis, of a community of interdependent living beings all now linked together in a community of destiny in the face of the ecological crisis?

Some prestigious partners

The French Biodiversity Office (OFB) mandated a grant to the Art of Change 21 association to organize a contemporary art exhibition in the Espaces Générations Nature (EGN) of the IUCN World Conservation Congress .

Biocenosis21’ main partners are the Schneider Electric Foundation, LVMH – as institutional partner, the French Biodiversity Office and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, with the support of Maison Ruinart.

Alice Audouin

July 2021Credits : Wither, 2019, Thijs Biertseker, photo courtesy of the artist / The Liberation of Animals from their Cages XVIII / Olifant Gate, 2016, Lin-may Saeed, photo by Wolfgang Günzel / Coconut Leaf Fondue â€“ First Light, 2016, Julian Charrière, photography, photo by Astrid Gallinat 

Find all the articles from Impact Art News n°32 – July / August 2021

To subscribe to Impact Art News (free) : here

Surveying The Landscape – Research on New Play Development in Canada

Compiled by Louise Casemore and commissioned by Alberta Playwrights’ Network, “Surveying The Landscape” is a practical research study surrounding the experience of playwrights and status of new play development in Canada, gathering insights from artists and decision makers about the processes and pathways to creating theatre. After an unexpected pandemic interruption, countless conversations and hours of data mining, and valuable time to write and reflect – this study has now been released to the public.

Featuring firsthand accounts from hundreds of playwrights in english and french from across Canada, the “Surveying the Landscape” study contains:

  • a database of pre-pandemic contacts, programs, and submission information for play development centres, theatre companies, producing festivals, publishers, and funders
  • an Executive Summary, offering a quick glance at the big picture
  • the full report, featuring detailed recommendations to organizations and artists in the sector, gorgeous cover art by Bianca Guimarães De Manuel, and illustrative design by Kelsi Kalmer

The study can be accessed here: https://albertaplaywrights.squarespace.com/surveying-the-landscape

Feedback and questions are warmly encouraged, with an invitation to contact Research Coordinator Louise Casemore at louise@albertaplaywrights.com with any inquiries.

Art and the World After This

In Art and the World After This, Metcalf Innovation Fellow David Maggs outlines four interrelated disruptions faced by Canada’s non-profit arts sector and identifies the unique value art brings to society. As an artist, academic, and sustainability scholar, Maggs brings a unique perspective to the subject of disruption and transformation. The report is informed by consultations and conversations with numerous arts workers, funders, and academics from across the country and beyond.

Collectively, we are facing the disruption of activity, stemming from COVID-19; the disruption of society, emerging from ballooning social unrest; the disruption of industry forced by the digital revolution; and finally, the disruption of world, rooted in the existential threat of the climate crisis. Maggs explores how the arts can serve a more applied and accountable role in society as a catalyst for meeting the profound challenges we face. The report makes the case for how this must be done not by instrumentalizing the arts, but by the arts doing that which only the arts can do.

To proactively tackle the world’s complexity, Maggs argues for a shift towards a system-approach across the arts sector that can enable innovation and learning through a direct relationship to research and development (R&D). He introduces us to the idea of the complexity economy and asks us to consider three questions:

  1. What are we doing here anyway? To prepare for deep transformative change, this first question attempts to identify the arts sector’s essential value proposition.
  2. Is this an ecosystem or a zoo? The shift from a paradigm of ‘production and presentation’ to innovation will require adopting an integrated systems-approach.
  3. Can we learn our way out of this? This question considers the broad issue of the arts sector’s capacity to learn, especially through the lens of R&D.

Driven by a sense of urgency and optimism, Art and the World After This makes the case for grounding the arts firmly in action as a powerful force for creating a better world.

The report can be downloaded here.

Artichoke Dance Company: Just Gowanus

PERFORMANCE DATES:

SATURDAY, JULY 10TH – 2:00-4:00PM

SUNDAY, JULY 11TH – 2:00-4:00PM

SATURDAY, JULY 17TH – 2:00-4:00PM

SUNDAY, JULY 18TH – 2:00-4:00PM

ALL PERFORMANCES BEGIN AT THE SALT LOT IN GOWANUS (2 SECOND AVENUE).

BUY TICKETS HERE.

Artichoke Dance Company presents Just Gowanus: An Interactive Performance Tour that intersects performance and environmental education to bring awareness to the neighborhood of Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Both the Gowanus Canal and neighborhood have historically faced environmental challenges due to decades of industrial pollution. The Gowanus Canal was named New York City’s first superfund site because of the extreme toxicity in the canal. Remediation is finally underway, and the largest scale rezoning in New York City in 20 years is being proposed for the area. Just Gowanus is an experiential walking tour of the neighborhood that brings audiences to location that are significant to the remediation of the canal, rezoning, and other sustainability initiatives in the area. Interactive experiences engage tour goers in activism and visioning, and performances reflect on the areas complex history and contentious future.

This project will be Artichoke Dance Company’s third event in Gowanus and aims to illuminate the area’s history from an environmental justice perspective.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Blossoming 2021: A LONG TIME COMING

The Vagrancy announces BLOSSOMING: a new play reading series; a virtual edition.

About this event

A LONG TIME COMING by Weston Gaylord; directed by Hannah Wolf. 

Featuring *Sharon Lawrence, *Rob Nagle, Bree Wernicke, *Jennifer Chang, *David Toshiro Crane, *Cathy Diane Tomlin, Randolph Thompson, and Schuyler Girion.

Post-Show Talkback with Brittney S. Wheeler at 7:30PM PST via Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheVagrancyTheatreCo

Synopsis: A forest is growing in Norway, planted to provide paper for a set of texts that will be printed in the year 2114. Each year between 2014-2114, an author is selected to write a text for this Future Library which will be preserved, unread, until the printing. The play tells two intertwining stories of one family: a novelist in 2022 who puts his mother’s life story into words, his great-granddaughter and her son in 2114 who journey from a California farm to a Norwegian forest for the opening of the Library, and a secret that has waited a century to come to light. Examining the voices we choose to preserve and those that are lost forever, A LONG TIME COMING looks toward a future that holds both disaster and hope. 

Inspired by The Future Library Project, an artwork conceived by Katie Paterson in 2014 and commissioned by the City of Oslo’s Slow Space public art program.

TICKETS

About BLOSSOMING: a new play reading series

The Vagrancy annually selects six playwrights with diverse perspectives to join their playwrights’ group. Beginning each fall, the writers meet regularly as they craft their plays. The Vagrancy hosts two development workshops wherein the plays are explored with the playwright, actors, and a director in a rehearsal setting. This year’s theme is “History Repeats Itself.”

BLOSSOMING is the first public reading of these six original plays which have been rehearsed, recorded and edited into a virtual staged reading presentation. Be inspired, have a glass of wine, and help the plays’ development along with post-reading audience and artist talkbacks via Youtube Live’s chat option.

After reserving a ticket, you will receive a link to the pre-recorded play 15 minutes before the performance time. The link to the play will expire after 7 days.

*The Actor appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. This production is presented under the auspices of the Actors Equity Los Angeles Membership Company Rule

These readings were made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs & is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Centre for Sustainable Curating Launch Event

We would like to invite you to join us on May 27, from 1-5pm EST for the launch of the Centre for Sustainable Curating.

The Centre for Sustainable Curating is located in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University. The CSC encourages research into waste, pollution, and climate crisis, and the development of exhibitions and artworks with low carbon footprints.

Over the next year, the CSC will engage in a year-long visioning exercise to imagine, collaborate, and discuss the ways we can take seriously the goal of the Centre to be sustainable in all ways: that is, sustainable in teaching about best ecological practices for exhibition making, sustainable in how we might engage with the world around us, and sustainable in the outcomes built through our efforts.

At the launch event, we will introduce the Centre, including the work of the two inaugural postdocs. A panel will consider Radical Pedagogy and Curation, focusing on the expansive forms of teaching and learning that can take place in museum and exhibition spaces. And we will conclude with a second launch, that of the Synthetic Collective’s catalogue Plastic Heart: A DIY Fieldguide For Reducing the Environmental Impact of Art Exhibitions.

REGISTER HERE

Schedule
1-1:45pm — Intro to the CSC by Kirsty Robertson and Kelly Wood with presentations by CSC postdocs Zoë Heyn-Jones and Amanda White
1:45-2pm – Break
2-3:45pm — Curating and Radical Pedagogy (Christiana Abraham, Christina Battle, Eugenia Kisin, Gabby Moser, Ryan Rice), hosted by Sarah E.K. Smith
3:45-4pm – Break
4-5pm — Launch of Plastic Heart: A DIY Fieldguide For Reducing the Environmental Impact of Art Exhibitions, Synthetic Collective with artists Christina Battle and Lan Tuazon

Learn more about the CSC here: www.sustainablecurating.ca

Arts + Environmental Justice Symposium

Join us as we discuss and imagine the intersection of environmental justice and participatory public art during a global pandemic.

Date and time
Mon, May 17, 2021, 12:00 PM –
Fri, May 21, 2021, 5:00 PM EDT

Free

REGISTER

About this event

The environmental and climate justice movements are rooted in the understanding that communities of color and low income communities experience all environmental issues first and worst, including climate change. They also recognize the root of the problem is in an extractive economy that exploits the planet and people for profit. As climate change increases the pressures on our ecological, political and social structures, grassroots community-driven movements that utilize participatory public art and transformative cultural practices are even more essential for change. 

The Mural Arts Institute is hosting a virtual and free week-long symposium looking at the transformative work happening at the intersection of community-based cultural practice and environmental justice. The COVID-19 pandemic has further stressed the same communities already grappling with acute climate and environmental crises, both economically and in terms of inequitable health care access and outcomes. The compounding injustices of our social systems and extractive economic model are unsustainable and impossible to ignore any longer. Calls for transformative change are growing louder. In times like these, the essential roles that artists and cultural workers play in communities becomes clear including helping us heal, stay connected, make meaning out of pain, imagine our better future together, and take collective action. 

This annual symposium invites artists, activists, scientists, scholars and governmental officials to discuss how creative people and practices are helping us meet the challenges of this moment, and how we can build on that to make a just transition a reality. These changemakers will be logging in from Tribal, urban, rural, and suburban communities throughout the nation for this virtual symposium during the week of May 17-21, 2021, during 12:00-5:00 PM EST. Mark your calendars and sign up to make sure to get updates and the full agenda.

The Symposium has been strategized and designed in collaboration with Alexis Frasz and Helicon Collaborative. The Mural Arts Institute is supported by The JPB Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Media sponsorship is provided by Next City and Grist. 

Schedule of Events: 

Opening Symposium Remarks

Monday, May 17th

12:30-1:00pm EDT
Jane Golden, Founder and Executive Director of Mural Arts PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia City Councilmember Kendra Brooks

The Cultures of a Just Transition

OPENING KEYNOTE

Monday, May 17th

1:00-2:30pm EDT
Join a conversation with leaders in movements for native sovereignty, disability justice and climate justice to talk about why following the leadership from those most historically marginalized is the key to creating a better future for all of us. They will also talk about how deeply rooted cultural values and creative practices inform and guide their work. Speakers include Judith LeBlanc (Native Organizers Alliance, NDN Collective, The Natural History Museum), Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan (Movement Generation, Climate Justice Alliance), Patty Berne (Sins Invalid). This conversation will be moderated by Alexis Frasz of Helicon Collaborative. 

Land and Liberation: 

Ecological Freedom as Creative Practice 

Tuesday, May 18th

1:00-2:30pm EDT
Pursuing food sovereignty through community agriculture is a way of life. Land based practices can also be liberatory, rooted in resistance and self determination. From Indigenous calls for Land Back, to reparations for ancestors of slaves and the Black freedom farmer movement, to refugees sewing seeds in their clothing to bring to their new communities – agriculture and community sovereignty go hand in hand. Join Indigenous artists and activists Christina Castro co-founder of Three Sisters Collective and Israel Haros co-founder of Alas de Agua Art Collective from Oga Po’ogeh (Santa Fe, New Mexico) in conversation with Carlton Turner, Lead Artist and Director of Sipp Culture as they explore the intersection of farming and creative community-based practices. This conversation will be moderated by Philadelphia City Councilmember At-Large, Kendra Brooks. 

Climate and the Carceral State: 

Imagining an Abolitionist Future 

Tuesday, May 18th 

3:00-4:30pm EDT
Join Police Free Penn and Fossil Free Penn for a presentation and creative workshop envisioning environmental and racial justice together. The roads to racial justice and climate justice are one and the same. This event makes the case that neither climate justice nor police and prison abolition can be achieved without the other. We will explore how these movements can work together for a more just and sustainable future. How is the fossil fuel industry tied to institutions of policing and incarceration? What does justice look like for the environment, and all of those who inhabit it? What can art, creativity, and imagination contribute to abolitionism and climate justice? This workshop will be creative and interactive. Please bring a writing utensil, collage materials, or creative medium of your choice with you to this interactive workshop. This workshop will be led by Police Free Penn and Fossil Free Penn and moderated by Katelyn Rivas, poet and Manager of the Public Art & Civic Engagement Capacity Building Initiative at the Mural Arts Institute. 

Clean Air + Equity During a Global Pandemic

Wednesday, May 19th 

1:00-2:30pm EDTThe interconnectedness of our ecological, social, and health crises have never been so clearly visible as they are today. This conversation will center artists and environmental justice leaders who are champions for clean air and equity, as they explore the compounding impacts of COVID-19 on the same communities already harmed by environmental and social injustices, and reflect upon how arts based strategies can disrupt, educate, and support community centered decision-making. Dr. Catherine Garoupa White is the Executive Director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition where she spearheads policy advocacy for clean air in the San Joaquin Valley. Kim Abeles is an artist, Professor Emeritus at California State University Northridge and a Guggenheim Fellow who innovated a method to create images from smog captured from the air. Rosten Woo is a designer, writer, and educator that produces civic-scale works for grassroots and community rooted organizations. This conversation will be moderated by Layel Camargo, Ecological Arts and Culture Manager at The Center for Cultural Power. 

Practicing Environmental Justice for a More Just Future

Interactive “Implosion” Demonstration

Wednesday, May 19th 

3:00-4:30pm EDT
In this session, Mural Art’s Environmental Justice Department will facilitate a LIVE “Implosion,” a creative participatory research tool for building coalitions and exposing the hidden connections that fuel systems of environmental injustices. The implosion activity is a tool for activating networks to discover the complex interconnections and relationships inherent in our life and practices. What does the fossil fuel industry have to do with plastics? How are hidden subsidies driving production and consumption? How do we leverage every day experiences to build more effective movements?In this session, we will work together to uncover the economic and political systems at work within a seemingly simple object. In order to dismantle the corrupt systems and corporations that benefit from concealment, it is essential for us to understand and realize our interconnectedness. This practice is an accessible tool to help us dive deeper, past the camouflage of globalization and capitalism, and understand how EJ movements can be made more powerful through collective knowledge building and recognition of our interrelatedness. 

Water Is Life: 

Reflections from an Environmental and Cultural Emergency

Thursday, May 20th 

1:00-2:30pm EDT
The United States is in a water crisis. Nearly a tenth of the population does not have access to clean drinking water and millions of Americans cannot pay their skyrocketing water and sewage bills. Children and families from Philadelphia to Fresno to Tribal Nations, are exposed to heightened levels of lead, PFAS, and other toxins. But communities are more than the structural violence they face, and the role of community-driven artists and cultural workers are working to help communities heal from structural violence, reclaim their right to clean water, and find pathways forward that protect and celebrate water. From Boston, Massachusetts will be joined by Erin Genia, Sisseton-Wahpetin Oyate / Odawa multidisciplinary artist, educator and community organizer currently an Artist-In-Residence with the City of Boston working with the Department of Emergency Affairs. Emma Robbins is a Diné artist, activist and community organizer who serves as the Executive Director of the Navajo Water Project, part of the human rights nonprofit DigDeep Water. From Flint, Michigan, we will be joined by Joe Schipani, Executive Director of the Flint Public Art Project who also serves as a City Historic District Commissioner and Vice President of the Martis/Luna Food Pantry. This conversation will be moderated by South Carolina Lowcountry artist Benny Starr, inaugural One Water Artist-in-Residence at the US Water Alliance, who was named Grist’s 50 Fixers of 2021.

Film Festival

Thursday, May 20th

3:00-5:00pm EDT
Cities who have worked with the Mural Arts Institute’s Arts and Environment Capacity Building Initiative have created short documentaries about environmental justice issues in their communities, and what a more just future would look like. Join us for live screenings of these 8 films from Akron, Ohio; Austin, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; Kern County, California; Memphis, Tennessee; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and two films from various movements in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Chad Eric-Smith, Director of Communications for Mural Arts Philadelphia will moderate a live discussion with film-makers, artists, and experts from each city. Check out @muralarts on Instagram to get a sneak peak of the films. 

Art of Activism: 

Live from East Austin

Thursday, May 20th

5:30-6:30pm EDT
Join us for a conversation about the role of artists as environmental activists. Artist Ginger Rudolph will moderate a conversation with Raasin McInstosh, Founder of Raasin in the Sun, and artists J. Muzacz and Carmen Rangel, co-founders of The Mosaic Workshop at Something Cool Studios. The artists will discuss their role in the Arts and Environment Capacity Building Initiative at the Mural Arts Institute, and share about the ways they have been creating opportunities for other artists during the pandemic, combating gentrification in East Austin, and using the arts and creative practice to disrupt environmental injustices faced by the East Austin community.

Closing Symposium Remarks

Friday, May 21st

12:30-1:00pm EDT
Magda Martinez, Chief Operating Officer of Mural Arts PhiladelphiaNetanel Portier, Director of the Mural Arts Institute 

The Story of a New Economy

CLOSING KEYNOTE

Friday, May 21st

1:00-2:30pm EDT
The idea that “the economy” is a thing, independent of human beings or nature, is one of our most pervasive and harmful cultural myths. Our hyper-capitalist economy is parasitic on humans and incompatible with a living planet, and yet many people still struggle to imagine an alternative. Reinventing the economy will require new laws, policies, and financing tools–but it will also require us to tell ourselves a new story about who we are, what is valuable, and our relationship to each other and the natural world. Hear from the creative thinkers and doers who are weaving together the structural and narrative interventions we need for a more just and sustainable economic future—debt abolishment, cooperatives, and Guaranteed Basic Income. Speakers are Esteban Kelley (US Federation of Worker Cooperatives), Laura Zabel (Springboard for the Arts); and Dan and Hilary Powell (Bank Job). This conversation will be moderated by Oscar Perry Abello, Senior Economic Correspondent at Next City.

REGISTER