World Summit

ASEF: Publication of the Connect2Culture dossier

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Arts. Environment. Sustainability. How can Culture Make a Difference?

There is a growing awareness that culture and the arts can help dealing with global challenges by means of alternative, creative approaches to pressing problems. Therefore society as well as governmental stakeholders start to see culture as an important value for sustainable development, environment, education, health and social cohesion.

After a four years program investigating the role of arts and culture in society, the Asian Europe Foundation (ASEF) published and presented the Connect2Culture dossier: Arts. Environment. Sustainability. How can Culture Make a Difference? at the ASEF-supported roundtable at the 5th World Summit on Arts and Culture in Melbourne, Australia.

The Connect2Culture programme was initiated in order to answer the question which role culture plays in the global debate on environmental sustainability. In the course of the program, Asian as well as European experts from all fields addressed issues related to art and environmental sustainability through artistic projects, workshops and policy meetings. The program has facilitated bi-regional dialogue and collaboration on the value of culture and the arts.

The resulting dossier is a summary of  ASEF’s work with arts and environment in the last four years and a reflection on the issues raised by the people involved. It constitutes the reaffirmation of culture as the fourth pillar of sustainability and is expected to serve as inspiration for further discussions and cooperation, especially with the imminent United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in June 2012.
The dossier includes discussion papers from two Connect2Culture projects: Arts, Culture and Sustainability: Visions for the Future and The Art of Sustainable Living: A Creative Approach to Global Social and Environmental Crises. Furthermore it contains a collection of visions for the future, an overview of the ASEF projects as well as a directory of cultural professionals and ASEF partners.

Culture has an instrumental part connecting many areas of human development such as education, human rights, economy, sustainable development, health awareness and environment, as well as science and technology. For David Haley and Jaya Iyer, who held the workshop Climate Leaders: Release Your Creative Powers – How can art enhance our ability to think and act differently? in Bangkok in 2009, it is of high importance to include artists in the global debate: “A dialogue is not so much about generating new knowledge, as it is about changing the way we think.”

As a result of the Connect2Culture programme a strong network of almost 100 professionals in arts and culture was established, which is committed to strengthen the voice of arts and culture. These experts share the belief that the arts and culture sector can play an active role to support the identification of, engagement with and positive adaptation to important changes in our societies.
Ada Wong (politician, environmentalist, educationalist and cultural advocate) is one of the experts that took part in the workshop Arts, Culture and Sustainability: Building Synergies between Asia and Europe held in Copenhagen in 2009. She states:
„While the environmental lobby targets and criticizes governments and vested interests, the arts and cultural sector can work with the people and start,bottom up, from the community. The cultural sector is a natural change agent, instigator and provocateur in paradigm shifts and mindset changes.“

Sacha Kagan (founding coordinator of the international level of Cultura21) points out the challenge that society has to face in dealing with complexity:
“The deep and qualitative complexity of the world does not fit with the clear, coherent, uni-dimensional logic of theories and world views we have learned to design. We have to engage in an unprecedented creative leap towards complexity, which will require giant transdisciplinary advances in all cultural sectors (and especially in arts education and education through art&science) or we will miss the 2050 mark for an “ecological age”.”

As Rosina Gomez-Baeza Tinturé, director of the LABoral Centre for Art and Creative Industries (Spain), stated during the 2009 Connect2Culture project, “The mission of artists is to inspire, educate and engage themselves with society. Creativity is the capacity to produce things that are new and of value; it is the capacity to reach new conclusions and come up with original solutions to problems.”

You are able to download the dossier at:
http://asef.org/index.php/projects/themes/arts-culture/1999-connect2culture-at-the-world-summit-on-arts-and-culture

Further information can also be found 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

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Culture|Futures Invitation: Eco-Leadership by Cultural Institutions Venue: São Paulo Cultural Centre 30 May 2011

This post comes to you from Culture|Futures

Invitation: Eco-Leadership by Cultural Institutions
Venue: São Paulo Cultural Centre
30 May 2011

Download Sao Paulo Culture|Future Conference – Program


Workshops for cultural managers and practitioners
31 May 2011

Venues: Goethe Institute, British Council & Centro Cultural da Espanha em São Paulo


Organized by:

Culture|Futures and the City of São Paulo in cooperation with
C40 cities, EUNIC Brazil, Danish Cultural Institute, Spanish Culture Centre/AECID, British Council, Goethe Institute, Crie Futuros, Arup and other partners at the occasion of the World Summit of the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40)

Culture|Futures Sao Paulo 2011 and partners logos


Conference Program

Eco-Leadership by Cultural Institutions - May 30th 2011, Cultural Centre of São Paulo

Aims and objectives

The overall aim is to foster cultural actions for the transition to an Ecological Age by 2050.

The objectives are:

  1. To inspire cultural institutions in São Paulo to consider new eco-social practices and leadership.
  2. To provide international mutual inspiration and exchange on the vision of an Ecological Age and how cultural institutions in their normal own practice can provide eco-leadership.
  3. To mark the initiation of a new global network for large cultural institutions on eco-leadership.

Program

MC: Wellington

8:45 – 9:15 Arrivals and registration

9:15 – 9:30 General explanation about Culture|Futures, the conference & workshop programs and the whole process

  • •Olaf Gerlach-Hansen, Director of Culture|Futures.

9:30 – 10:00: Opening Address

  • EUNIC President Ana Paula Laborinho
  • Ministry of Culture Secretary Marta Porto
  • City of São Paulo Cultural Secretary CALIL

10:00 – 11:30: Global Key Notes on Connecting Culture and Ecology

  • Mark Watts, Arup (expected): International key note on Entering an Ecological Age.Mark Watts is managing the C40 team in Arup, advising cities around the world on sustainable urban development. His presentation is based on a research done on what the global transition to an ecological age, will require for cities around the world.
  • Lala Dehenzelin: South-South key note on the Creative Economy and sustainability.Lala Dehenzelin is UNDP Special Advisor on the Creative Economy South – South Programme, founder of Cries Futuros and has a background in arts and culture.

Questions & Answers

11:30 – 12:30: Lowering carbon and ecological footprint and benefitting from it

Moderator: Ricardo Voltolini (tbc)

  • Justine Simons, Head of Culture, Greater London Authority: The creative industries green programme in the context of the London Mayor’s Cultural Strategy. The experience of working with the creative sector to lower carbon footprint through goals, practical guides, tips etc. So far with sub-sectors of music, visual arts, film, theatre and now fashion and others coming.
  • Danilo Santos de Miranda, Director SESC São Paulo (tbc): The experience of SESC São Paulo on lowering carbon and ecological footprint in their centres

Question & Answers / dialogue with audience on greening cultural sector based on experiences of institutions in different disciplines.

LUNCH: 12:30 – 14.00

14:00 – 15:00: Re-thinking culture/nature and communication with audiences

Moderator: Paulina Chamorro (Eldorado) ou Denis Russo (Revista VEJA)(tbc)

  • •Janek Müller, fmr. theatre director, current curatorial team-member and dramatic adviser for the Über Lebenskunst festival. Über Lebenskunst is a project initiated by the German Federal Cultural Foundation in cooperation with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.
  • Ana Dip, Somos um Só Project

Q & A/dialogue with panel from Sao Paulo/international persons on connecting cultural content and communication with ecology

15:00 – 16:30: Culture – Ecology and Community

Moderator: Felipe Chaimovich, curator from MAM (tbc)

  • Philip Vencken, architect advising founder of Cradle to Cradle, Baumgartner.Introduction on applying cradle to cradle approach to city/community development. Dutch cities are now leading this worldwide
  • Hernani Dias, artist, founder of “re:farm the city”. Refarm the city (aka re:farm) is a collective project started and led by Hernani Dias with the purpose of developing open source software and hardware tools for urban farmers. Its now linking groups in Barcelona, Lisboa, Buenos Aires, New York and Beijing.
  • Questions & Answers/dialogue with panel from SP/int‘ on how culture can be part of community, city, regional or sector greening programs

16:30 – 17:30: Closing panel on the power of culture for green growth

  • Apresentacao dos workshops – MC
  • Olaf Gerlach-Hansen – Presenting Culture|Futures global eco-leadership network for cultural institutions and cities
  • Eduardo Jorge, Secretaria do Verde (tbc)
  • Ricardo Resende, Director of Cultural Center of São Paulo

17:30 – 19.00 Reception and social networking

Please note program is subject to change

Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.
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