Experiences

Conference 12 – Delivering Sustainable Theatres

This post comes to you from Cultura21

12 June 2012 – Stratford Circus, London

The challenge of achieving the triple bottom line

Conference 12 looks at the sustainable design, development and operation of theatre buildings in relation to environmental, economic and social disciplines, and the challenges of delivering sustainable theatres for future generations. The conference will look at what sustainable development now means for theatres, what opportunities exist for theatre buildings in the new National Planning Policy Framework, how funding programmes are now promoting more sustainable capital development of theatre buildings, and what is needed to ensure theatres can meet the triple bottom line head on and continue to thrive.

The conference will explore the way how theatre buildings have addressed the sustainability agenda and introduced new technologies and adapted to meet rising energy costs, tougher environmental building standards, economic constraints and the expectations of the audiences,  and they will also share the experiences of the 48 London theatres on The Theatres Trust ERDF funded ECOVENUE project.

Conference 12 will be of interest to those trying to maximise economic, social and environmental returns from their theatre buildings through redesign, adaptation or new builds. It provides the opportunity to discuss these issues with other theatres, government and arts policy makers, theatre consultants and architects and take part in the debate.

Final deadline for registration is 9 June 2012

For more details and registration, click here.

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

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

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

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

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

Go to Cultura21

Natural Rights

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Philosophically speaking ‘natural rights‘ is an element of an argument about the basis of the rights that individuals have in society.

What if nature had rights?  What if there was a Ministry of Mother Earth?  What if the experiences of people living with land were given priority?  Remember that capitalisms roots are in the extraction of value from land ownership.  The most fundamental challenge to capitalism is to challenge underlying historically based assumptions of nature’s use.  Give nature the same rights as humans.

That’s what the Bolivians are in the process of doing.  That’s provocative.  You can find a number of short pieces, including this one, and if anyone can point me to a longer discussion it would be appreciated.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

Open Engagement Conference 2011

This post comes to you from Cultura21

May 13th – 15th 2011 in Portland, Oregon

The free conference fosters both local, national and international dialogue and partnerships around socially engaged art making. This year’s Open Engagement sets out to discuss various perspectives on art and social practice.

Five themes will be in focus of conversations, interviews, open reflection on experiences, and related projects created for or presented at the conference: Peoples and Publics (Democracy, Participation, Activism), Social Economies (Education, Networking, Technology), In Between Places (Transdisciplinarity, Field Work), Tracking and Tracing (Histories, Documentation) and Sentiment and Strategies (Feelings, Advice, Slowness). The conference themes are directly related to the current research and inquiry of the students in the Art and Social Practice program at Portland State University. Included in this year’s conference will be a summit on art and education.

For the conference schedule, featured presenters, locations and further information visit: openengagement.info

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

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

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)

– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)

– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)

– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

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

Go to Cultura21

The Theatres Trust Ecovenue project at PLASA 2010

Theatres Trust will be profiling the Ecovenue project, and all its participants at PLASA 2010 in The Theatres Trust’s very own ‘Ecovenue’ on Stand 2-M28 at Earl’s Court, showcasing the environmental efficiency practices being implemented across the London venues involved with the project. In addition to profiling the venues, the Ecovenue area in Earls Court 2 will also feature technologies designed to rationalise the environmental footprint of theatres.

As part of this initiative, The Theatres Trust will launch its first ‘People’s Choice’ award for sustainable theatrical products to complement the existing PLASA Innovation Award for Environmentally-focused products.

All exhibiting manufacturers at PLASA 2010 are invited, as part of an open call for entries, to put forward products to be considered for this Theatres Trust award. The Theatres Trust will then select those that represent either a significant step forward in the resource efficiency of an existing product or a new product intended to contribute to the resource efficiency of a theatre to be featured in the area.

Visitors to PLASA 2010 will be able to vote on the product they feel best represents progression towards sustainability, while also learning about the advice that the Ecovenue participants are receiving and the experiences of the 24 already signed up to the project.

The PLASA Show runs from the 12th – 15th September. For a Theatres Trust ‘People’s Choice’ award application form, please email Tim Atkinson.

via Ecovenue – Resources – The Theatres Trust.

WOOLOO.ORG in ARTFORUM

An Excerpt from Daniel Boese’s article in ARTFORUM on Wooloo’s “New Life Coppenhagen”.

“We work in the medium of hospitality,” Rosengaard says. The “New Life” project created the possibility for strangers to share their homes and experiences, to thus collaborate under the broad goal of addressing climate change in a global conference and treaty. All participants created the work together, unlike public art projects in which artists serve as teachers for a lay public. Individual acts of hospitality create hope in the face of planetary ecological crisis; strangers can agree and cooperate. But our heads of state did not follow suit; they failed to usher in an age of global cooperation at the summit. “New Life” walked the line between art and activism in a new way, updating tactics pioneered by Beuys, Gran Fury, and the Russian Constructivists: Times have changed, and the problems have only become more urgent.

WOOLOO.ORG.

Arts4COP15.org: Join the network

Our network Arts for COP15 is now up and functioning. Please come and join us there, especially if you are involved in an arts-based event in the lead up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The site acts as a single portal for all the arts stuff that’s going on globally.

It’s a place where we can not only publicise what we’re doing around COP15, but where we can share experiences and resources and discuss whether we’re reaching audiences effectively. It also gives us a chance to measure how much is going on and work out how well it’s working.

There are already several events listed, and more to go up. You’re free to go and add your own. There’s also an open blog and a forum. Please go and get stuck in.

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology