Scotland

Platform on tour in Glasgow and Edinburgh, 21-24th October

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Platform on tour in Glasgow and Edinburgh, 21-24th October – Platform London.

PLATFORM, the interdisciplinary social and enviromental practice working across arts, activism, education and research are in Scotland next week contributing to the Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Glasgow as well as the Radical Independent Book Fair in Edinburgh. 

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.
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UK Theatres At Risk 2012

Forty-nine theatre buildings across the UK are at real risk of being lost unless owners recognise they are responsible for community assets and work with trusts and local communities to secure their future, says The Theatres Trust.

Publishing its 2012 Theatre Buildings At Risk Register (TBAR) today, changes since 2011 highlight how a lack of care and investment leaves theatres particularly vulnerable to neglect whilst opportunities to harness the social and cultural value of theatres are being lost. It also shows how local champions, with the support of councils, grant making trusts and Lottery distributors are providing a new lease of life for theatres at risk.

The passing of the Localism Act in November 2011 and its emphasis on social well-being means local authorities now have to prepare lists of assets of community value, which include cultural interests such as theatres. The Trust’s hope is that this will encourage more owners of theatres at risk to realise that their theatres are assets – for the community and the country.

Mhora Samuel, Director of The Theatres Trust said, “There’s good news that overall the number of buildings on our Theatre Buildings At Risk Register has come down from 56 last year to 49 this year. And we’re pleased some have found the funds and support they so desperately needed, such as Wilton’s and the Gaiety in Ayr. However we’ve also lost some important venues and I’m very concerned about the future of the 17 theatres we’ve added to the Register including the Theatre Royal in Margate, Darlington Arts Centre and Croydon Warehouse.”

Twenty-four theatres have been removed from the 2011 Register including the Grade II* Wilton’s Music Hall in London and State Cinema in Grays, the Category B Ayr Gaiety in Scotland and the unlisted Conwy Civic Hall in Wales. Wilton’s has received funds from SITA Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund which mean the capital works needed to secure the building’s future can now proceed. The State, Grays, received planning permission for a mixed use leisure and retail development in January this year. Ciwb Conwy Cube, the Community Interest Company  formed to take on the Conwy Civic Hall has been able to take over the running of the venue with some funding from its local council and it has reopened. And the Ayr Gaiety has secured vital funding from the Scottish Government and South Ayrshire Council to enable it to appoint a development officer, undertake an initial programme of capital works, and reopen later this year.

However, some of those lost from the 2011 Register have been demolished including the Waltham Forest Theatre in Lloyd Park (demolished August 2011); lost through change of use, including the Grade II Bedford Civic; or have been granted Listed Building Consent for demolition such as the Brighton Astoria.

England

The top theatres at risk in the 2012 Register in England include the Brighton Hippodrome (Grade II*), Margate Theatre Royal (Grade II*) (new 2012), Morecambe Winter Gardens (Grade II*), Plymouth Palace (Grade II*), Alexandra Palace (Grade II), Burnley Empire (Grade II), Derby Hippodrome (Grade II), Doncaster Grand (Grade II), Hulme Hippodrome (Grade II), Hulme Playhouse (Grade II), Hyde Theatre Royal (Grade II), Tameside Hippodrome (Grade II), The Regent, Great Yarmouth (Grade II) (new 2012), Victoria, Salford (Grade II) (new 2012), Farnham Redgrave (not listed) and Scarborough Futurist (not listed).

Though not listed, Darlington Arts Centre, the Precinct Theatre, Islington, and Croydon Warehouse have been added to the 2012 Register, as redevelopment plans are affecting the provision of their replacement. Darlington Borough Council closed the Arts Centre in 2012 and plans to develop a new arts centre are yet to be finalised. The Precinct Theatre in Islington is yet to find a new home as a result of the redevelopment of the Packington Estate, and it is unclear what impact the loss of the Croydon Warehouse, which went into receivership earlier this year, will have for its planned replacement.

Scotland

In Scotland, the five theatres on the 2012 Register include the Britannia Panopticon in Glasgow (Category A), Leith Theatre in Edinburgh (Category B) (new 2012), the Odeon in Edinburgh (Category A), the Old Athenaeum, Glasgow (Category A) (new 2012), and the Tivoli in Aberdeen (Category A). Theatres removed from the 2011 Register are the Ramshorn in Glasgow (Category A), now under the care of the University of Strathclyde; the Gaiety in Ayr (Category B) which has secured funding and investment; the Stockbridge Theatre in Edinburgh (Category B) which is likely to receive planning permission for change of use to residential and restaurant use; and the Gateway in Edinburgh (Category C(s)) which has permission for demolition.

Wales

In Wales, the six theatres on the 2012 Register are the Merthyr Tydfill Theatre Royal (Grade II) (new 2012), Pontypridd Town Hall (Grade II), Swansea Palace (Grade II), Theatre Elli (Grade II), (new 2012) the De Valance Pavilion in Tenby (not listed) and Corwen Pavilion (not listed). Theatres removed from the 2011 Register include the Conwy Civic Hall (not listed) which is  now being operated by a local CIC; Treorchy Parc Hall, currently mothballed; Theatr Harlech (not listed) which has remained open; and the Theatre Royal, Barry (not listed), which has received planning permission for demolition and residential redevelopment.

Whilst the Trust welcomes the new Y Ffwrnes (The Furnace) in Llaneli, Theatr Elli is due to close in July and its future is uncertain.  The new Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall redevelopment in association with Chapter Arts in Cardiff is also welcome, however it highlights the plight of the existing Theatre Royal, another asset for Merthyr.

The 2012 Theatre Buildings at Risk Register can be searched online.  More information on each theatre is provided through a link to the Trust’s online Theatres Database, which includes around 2,000 existing theatre buildings.  Each of the top entries has a downloadable information sheet.

ECOPSYCHOLOGY & NATURAL CHANGE COURSES in 2012

This post comes to you from Cultura21

The purpose of the ecoSelf project is for people to find a sense of ecological identity and based on that to live in ecological balance. In order to find this ecological identity, people have to face the fact that humankind is part of the Earth’s wider ecology, thus stands in constant interdependence with nature. This knowledge can contribute to personal healing because the individual can be healed as part of the larger body of the Earth. Since wild nature seems to provide a powerful context for processes of ecological Self realisation, David Key uses it as a basis for his courses and projects. He provides professional development courses to help people learn how to facilitate ecological Self realisation programmes.

In the following some of his courses and programmes are introduced:

Natural Change for Facilitators

Knoydart (Scotland) 24th – 31st March, 2012

It is a professional development course for those interested in facilitating groups using approaches pioneered on WWF’s Natural Change Project. Natural Change is an outdoor-based experiential programme designed to engage and support leaders for sustainability.

Ecopsychology Distance Learning Programme

16th April – 15th June, 2012
This programme offers a 12 week learning opportunity for those interested in exploring ecopsychology theory. A major part of the learning process will be to help exploring how one might apply ecopsychology to the personal and professional life.

Ecopsychology: experiencing the ecological self

Schumacher College, Devon from May 27- June 1, 2012

Through a series of carefully facilitated outdoor experiences and small group work, this course will help participants experience the ecological Self and ask what it really means to “reconnect with nature”.

Wild Mindfulness

Scotland (Holy Isle) from the 26th June – 2nd July, 2012

This course takes the practice of mindfulness out of the meditation hall and into the wild. Through mindfulness practice and other contemplative work outdoors on the island, the course offers a chance to attend to the deep interconnectedness with the wider ecology.

For more information about the courses and bookings visit http://www.ecoself.net/courses/

Furthermore programme design, mentoring / supervision, and ecopsychology teaching, research and consultancy services are offered, visit www.ecoself.net in order to get more details.

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

The Three Gorges, 3rd Edition « Artwork by Sonja Hinrichsen

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

The Three Gorges, 3rd Edition « Artwork by Sonja Hinrichsen.

Sonja Hinrichsen makes ephemeral works of great beauty.  These include walking in snow to create patterns.

Sonja Hinrichsen, Snow Drawings, Chatham, NY, 2011

 

These are reminiscent of neolithic marks on stones near Kilmartin, Scotland.

image from www.themodernantiquarian.com (click on image for many more)

Her most recent work is also ephemeral, but is the result of working in the Three Gorges in China.  This is an area changing as a result of the widely reported hydro-electric scheme. Note how she positions the viewer such that they cannot avoid being present in the landscape.

Sonja Hinrichsen, Three Gorges, 3rd Edition, multi-screen video projection, 2011

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.
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The Electricity Fairy

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

The Electricity Fairy is a new film which approaches the issue of mountaintop removal from the everyday need for electricity:

“They reach out and flip the switch and the light comes on.  Well, there”s not a magic electricity fairy.  That electricity comes from a power plant that feeds on coal”.

But the question of coal-fired power is not a just a question for China and Appalachia, it is also a question for Scotland.  Should a major new coal-fired power station be built at Hunterston?

http://www.conchcampaign.org/

http://www.ayrshirepower.co.uk/

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

“Civil resistance”, science and ethics

We are in for a season of civil disobedience. The Save Vestas campaign has gone national.Kingsnorth rumbles on, as does the Heathrow protest – which is likely to be the focus of the next Climate Camp at the end of August. Next month also sees Wales‘  and Scotland’s first Climate Camps. As COP15 focusses minds, there are even plans to disrupt the Copenhagen meeting.

A generation of jobless students will now swell numbers. But should those less used to participating in civil action also be getting stuck in?

In a recent newsletter [PDF 147KB], climate scientist/activist James Hansen concludes with a short section titled “Civil Resistance: Is the Sundance Kid a Criminal?”, suggesting the urgent need for what Gandhi called “civil resistance” rather than “civil disobedience”, especially directed towards companies who are guilty of passing the bill for carbon clean up to future generations. Even though his choice of gun-slinging Western hero rather shows which era he’s coming from, I guess he’s qualified to talk, because James Hansen himself was arrested alongside Daryl Hannah last month for his part in the West Virginia coal mining protests.

The excellent climate science blogger Jo Abbess has just raised his arrest in a post which argues that such action by scientists is vital because, as George Marshall of the New Scientisthas been saying, the public as a whole are not changing their behaviour in the way that those scientists know they should be .

This argument implies that scientists, as the people who really understand the bottom line, are now ethically bound to start to do more than produce data. They must join with scientists like Hansen. But if scientists remain hesitant to get start linking arms and chaining themselves to fences, Hansen’s own reputation as a leading climate scientist is an example of why. The man warned Congress back in 1988 about the perils of global warming has been under assault ever since he turned activist. Despite his role as a leading scientist and head of the NASA Gordon Institute for Space Studies, his name has been dragged through the mud by global warming sceptics. His arrest last month prompted the New York Times headline “Does NASA’s James Hansen Still Matter?”

What are the responsibilities of those who know to act? And what are the consequences if they do?

“Well done ThWART” photo by darrangange

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