Mini-residency opportunity for a visual artist or maker at the Ecology Centre.
Fife Contemporary wishes to appoint a visual artist or maker to undertake a mini-residency at the Ecology Centre by Kinghorn Loch in Fife. Following familiarisation with the Centre’s values, work and the people involved, the artist/maker will devise and deliver a collaborative creative outcome. This will have the aims of:
enhancing staff, volunteer and visitor experience of the Centre’s natural environment in a new way through art
attracting new visitors (especially families)
The artist/maker
The artist/maker’s practice will demonstrate an interest in, and knowledge of, current environmental issues. They will have experience of working within community settings.
Structure and timeline
The mini-residency will operate in two phases:
March 2022 (4 days) – Familiarisation with the Ecology Centre through touring the site, meeting key people and conducting two workshops to share some of the artist/ maker’s practice and start building relationships.
April-June 2022 (10 days) – Reflection, devising and developing outcome with further workshop/s and producing physical outcome.
Produce related content for associated online project microsite and social media content in collaboration with Fife Contemporary’s Programme Manager.
July 2022 – Deliver physical outcome for July launch in collaboration with the Ecology Centre Manager.
Materials – £1,000 (it is envisaged that circular economy principles, using local waste streams and a light touch on the environment, will minimise workshop and outcome costs but further material costs may be negotiated)
How to apply
Email mail@fcac.co.uk by 5pm on Monday 13th December 2021 with subject line “Ecology Centre†and your
CV
Statement of why you wish to undertake the project, any relevant experience and what your general approach/focus of interest would be.
Online interviews will be held in January 2021. Any questions? – please contact diana.sykes@fcac.co.uk
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.
Supporting professional writers, filmmakers and creative practitioners from other disciplines
Programme outline:
Starting on Saturday 8th January 2022, the programme will include three full-weekend online workshops in January and February 2022.
There will be additional 1-2-1 sessions over the course of the three months, with a final industry mixer in March 2022 for participants to pitch their projects to a selected panel of producers and industry executives.
Short Circuit will select up to eight applicants who will develop their screenwriting skills and industry knowledge through online development workshops, peer group discussions, masterclasses and 1-2-1 sessions.
Successful applicants will learn the fundamentals of screenwriting shorts and feature films, including how to work on character, structure and theme and the particularities of writing screen narratives.
Those selected to take part in Convergence will finish the programme with a short film screenplay and a feature film treatment ideally positioned to apply to Short Circuit’s Sharp Shorts and First Features funds.
Who will deliver Convergence?
Convergence will be delivered by Short Circuit with script consultant and screenwriter David Pope, who has worked with Academy and BAFTA nominated producers and screenwriters. His recent work includes consulting for the Rawi Screenwriting Lab for Royal Film Commission Jordan, Cannes Cinefondation, BFI, Irish Film Board and the British Council, among many others. He annually consults for the Rotterdam Lab IFFRPro and is a co-founder of Stowe Story Labs in the US.
Who can apply?
Submissions are invited from Scotland-based professional writers, filmmakers and creative practitioners from other mediums who are interested in moving into writing for screen.
Applicants must have had work professionally published, performed or produced but will not yet have a short film or feature writing credit.
To apply you must:
Be aged 18 or over
Be based in Scotland
Not be in full-time education
Be available for three full-weekend workshops in January and February 2022, and additional 1-2-1 sessions between January and March 2022
There is no cost to participate in the programme and if you have personal access needs that will incur a cost during the period you are taking part in the programme, you can include these costs as part of your application.
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.
I virtually met author Bijal Vachharajani this past summer at Scotland’s CYMERA Festival of Science-Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writing. We talked with host and author Lauren James, along with author James Bradley, about how we were motivated to write stories that focus on climate change. The talk aired on YouTube on June 5, if you’re interested in watching it. Bijal’s work as an editor and children’s book author intrigued me, so I wanted to talk more with her about her newest book, A Cloud Called Bhura: Climate Champions to the Rescue, as well as dig more into her life, creative imagination, and other work.
I’m so happy to have recently met you at a climate writers’ panel during this summer’s CYMERA festival. I learned that you are a prolific writer of illustrated children’s fiction that is environmentally pressing. What books have you written?
It was so lovely to meet and talk to you as well, and I must confess: your website is a fabulous resource! My middle grade green books include A Cloud Called Bhura: Climate Champions to the Rescue, about a motley crew of tweens and teens who tackle a brown cloud of pollution that’s taken over their city – it won the AutHer Children’s Book Award in 2020; and So You Want to Know About the Environment, a non-fiction book about climate, food, waste, water, and wildlife. Apart from that, I have written three picture books about the environment: What’s Neema Eating Today?, The Seed Savers, and PS What’s up with the climate? I have co-authored two books: The Great Indian Nature Trail with Uncle Bikky with Rohan Chakravarty, and 10 Indian Champions who are Fighting to Save the Planet with Radha Rangarajan. There’s more on my website.
What are your thoughts on the importance of relating to children the planet’s ecological demise? It’s a scary subject, but many authors have found a way to tell the stories in a more positive way.
When I was studying the climate, I came across studies that talked about how climate communication needs to be framed more positively. I was quite fascinated by that because as a children’s author and editor, I do believe in stories that are laced with hope. It does not have to be straight-up giddy hope, but even a glimmer is good. Telling the complexities of the climate crisis with imagination and hope makes for compelling stories – and those are being published more and more. My work with children has led me to believe that children care. The fact is, we protect what we love. And we can see that in the kind of work children are doing across the world, demanding a better future. We need stories that fire their imagination, that give them answers to the ecological crisis, and give them space to ask questions.
When growing up, were you inspired by any particular environmental fiction?
I grew up in 80s India and the only books we had in our libraries were Enid Blyton’s, Nancy Drew’s, Archie’s Comics, and Russian picture books. A lot of Blyton’s portrayals of nature and animals stayed with me, as did the natural landscapes in those picture books. I realize now that perhaps the magical faraway tree is nothing but a metaphor for the marvelous worlds you find when you climb a real tree, with its canopy shyness, its visiting birds and insects and squirrels. But more than that, it was the stories my grandmother and mother told me about sparrows that come visit, and invitations from the moon to visit that influenced me. And of course, Target Magazine, which sadly no longer exists. I used to wait for it every month and read about adventures, and nature facts, and nature stories by Ruskin Bond.
It’s hard to pick one book of yours to focus on since several of your picture books are relevant! But let’s talk some about A Cloud Called Bhura. How did you come up with this story?
I was at The University for Peace, pursuing a Masters in Environment Security in 2012, and I read about the atmospheric brown cloud phenomenon (“bhura†means brown in Hindi). As I researched more, I started to wonder: What if a brown cloud was to come and hover over my home city of Mumbai? I was mostly fascinated with how people respond to climate change. Whether it’s the government, the private sector, civil society, the media – they influence how people think about the crisis more than science does. And so, I began writing a story about the different perspectives of fictional people – scientists, policy-makers, media professionals (and unprofessionals), film stars, industry leaders – who live in this city and how their perspectives inform everyone else, making climate stories more political, more of a trending topic, a matter of contention, rather than decoding the science to find solutions.
What’s going on in the story, and how did you imagine and create the characters?
Amni and Tammy wake up one morning to find the sky taken over by a huge brown cloud. Where did this cloud appear from? Along with their friends Mithil and Andrew, they set out to find out more while their city reels from the changes the cloud brings to the weather. Bhura Cloudus, as the media calls it, contains noxious gases, causes scalding rain to fall, makes birds flee the city, and suffocates every living thing. It’s a book about the changing global climate and the havoc it can cause. It’s also about the forces of friendship, trust, and community, which give hope and can help counter this deadly threat to humanity.
I have always believed in kid power so I decided to let the children of the story do the investigation. The stories are told from the perspective of Amni and Tammy, who are friends but also very different. And that raises questions of social justice and climate vulnerability as well. Mithil is, of course, all of our best friends. We all need someone who will bring a snack when on an adventure. Plus, he has a dog! Andrew is that wise friend who reminds us there is homework to be done while saving the world. In fact, while editing the book, my editor Sudeshna Shome Ghosh made me go back and add more of Andrew – and am glad I did. (Almost always listen to editors.) Then there’s a bunch of politicians, bureaucrats, journalists, and twin scientists. And, of course, Bhura is a poor rhymester of a cloud.
I love Aindri’s illustrations (art directed by Maithili Doshi), which give this really distinct view of the cloud, the city, and the world as it unfolds because of this havoc – a microcosm of the spaces that children inhabit today.
Friendship seems to be important in your stories. How does friendship help children overcome frightening reality?
You are so right! I was a painfully shy child, but different friendships helped me change my worldview and the way I navigate this world. Fictional friendships do the same; they help readers seek refuge in an empathetic buddy, see themselves in the fights two pals might have (while, of course, rooting for them to stop being silly), and realize that friendships can be of different kinds. They don’t have to be human friendships. In my chapter book, Kitten Trouble, Rajiv Eipe illustrates the moment when the scared young protagonist finds that a warm kitten can be a friend (and vice versa). In fact, it was my editor Sayoni Basu who highlighted this relationship. Then there are friendships with visiting birds, caterpillars, or dogs that are meaningful in forging future nature relationships.
Are you working on anything else right now?
I haven’t been able to write much in the second wave of the pandemic. However, I just finished the first draft of my book for Hachette about a girl who is dealing with the loss of her father, and finds solace in shared grief and an ancient magical tree. It’s with my editor Nimmy Chacko right now so I am spending sleepless nights hoping she likes it. The book looks at nature and grief, and it’s written in the wake of the loss of my partner, so it’s a bit raw for me. I am just starting work on a book with my editor Smit Zaveri at Puffin, about a boy who thinks his mother is up to something sinister, like perhaps gobbling him up! And I’m waiting for the launch of an anti-plastic book with WWF-India. Phew!
Mary Woodbury, a graduate of Purdue University, runs Dragonfly.eco, a site that explores ecology in literature, including works about climate change. She writes fiction under pen name Clara Hume. Her novel Back to the Garden has been discussed in Dissent Magazine, Ethnobiology for the Future: Linking Cultural and Ecological Diversity (University of Arizona Press), and Uncertainty and the Philosophy of Climate Change (Routledge). Mary lives in Nova Scotia and enjoys hiking, writing, and reading.
———-
Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.
Over 100 primary school children from Glasgow & Perthshire met and accompanied Little Amal to COP26.
On 10th November 2021, over 100 primary school children from Glasgow and Perthshire met and accompanied Little Amal on her journey through Glasgow to COP26. Drummers from the Ayawara West African Percussion and Dance Ensemble, led by Erick Valentin Mauricia accompanied Little Amal and the children as part of the event.
Little Amal, a 3.5m puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee, set off from Kingston Quay and was met by the young people carrying a flag that they had made for her. They then walked with her along the Clydeside wearing individually crafted banners as capes. Adorned with their questions, their demands and their hopes for COP26 these capes transformed into a collective banner that filled the walls at Anderston Quay throughout the day, before being displayed at The Landing Hub, a special COP26 pop-up venue until 14th November.
Artists and community facilitators worked in residence with six schools across Glasgow and Perthshire, sharing their skills and knowledge about climate and migrant justice through playful drama and visual arts workshops. In the weeks leading up to COP26, the pupils had been following Little Amal’s journey and prepared for this event responding to the cause of young people across the world who will experience forced migration due to the climate emergency.​ The event was part art installation and part community action, that called upon Glasgow’s rich history of climate occupations, migrant solidarity actions and youth movements.
At the end of the event each school planted seed pods in a special area at Anderston Quay. A few weeks after the event the children will also plant bulbs or saplings in planters they have designed at each of the six schools. This youth action is inspired by the seeds Little Amal has carried with her from Syria and the seeds she has collected along her journey. This is a moment of collective and connected action, with each seed representing a young person who is affected by climate chaos. This action also acts as a commitment from the young people to grow into agents of change, connected to the land and protective of the environment.
“Meeting Amal made me feel mighty because she is a puppet helping us all to team together to stop climate change.â€Â pupil from St Teresa’s school, Glasgow
“I think the most important thing about this project will be the legacy. For our pupils in Highland Perthshire to have had the chance to meet Little Amal and to get to combine their voices with other young people has been incredibly powerful.â€Â Ciara Gibson Teacher at Grandtully
This climate justice arts project was produced and facilitated by three of Scotland’s major producing theatre companies. National Theatre of Scotland’s creative engagement team  worked alongside Catrin Evans, Head of Creative Learning for the Citizens Theatre, Victoria Beesley, Associate Director for Learning and Engagement for Perth Theatre and artist/facilitators Zoë Bullock, Camilla Crosta, Alice Dansey-Wright, Francisco Llinas Casas, Paria Moazemi Goodarzi and Tawona Sithole. The team worked with pupils from St Teresa’s Primary School, St Albert’s Primary School, Blackfriars Primary School and St Joseph’s Primary School in Glasgow and Grandtully Primary School and Comrie Primary School in Perthshire.
(Top image: 3.5m puppet, Little Amal walking down a street flanked by onlookers.)
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.
e72 richard wagamese’s what comes from spirit is my monologue about my excitement when  I found a copy of a posthumous book, What Comes From Spirit, by my favorite writer, Richard Wagamese, at the People’s Coop Bookstore in Vancouver and my reflections on Drew Hayden Taylor’s touching introduction.
Script for monologue (slightly different in verbal form)
It’s 2.29am on Sunday October 17th, 2021. I can hear the rumble of the city in the background, but the rain has stopped for a few minutes.
Yesterday, I walked by the People’s Coop Bookstore on Commercial Avenue in Vancouver and thought I saw a new book by Richard Wagamese in the corner of my eye. How could this be? The title was What Comes From Spirit. My heart was pounding. Could this be a new book from my favorite author, who tragically passed away in 2017?Â
Yes, it was, and it was their last copy. I told my wife Sabrina that this was a gift and a signal for me to deepen my journey of ‘radical listening’ in season 3 of this podcast.
I picked up the book and held it in my hand like a precious stone, feeling it’s weight, admiring the design and flipping through the pages…
The store clerk told me they had already ordered more copies. I was happy to hear that. Thank to People’s Coop bookstore.
So here I am, it’s now 2.33am and I’m having trouble sleeping due to jet lag from our trip from Ottawa a couple of days ago but also because I am excited to read this book. It starts with Drew Hayden Taylor’s introduction who said :
the literary gods indeed must be feeling benevolent.Â
Hayden Taylor articulates what I have always felt about Wagamese’s writing:
Richard’s magical tales, in whatever form, had that power to change the world. And they did.Â
They certainly did for me. I agree, Drew, that we can feel Wagamese’s pain and joy, his confusion and understanding in his writing and that we do indeed come away better from it.
For example, this excerpt from page 180 of Wagamese’s unfinished novel Starlight:Â
She focused on that tiny point of light and pushed her hearing out through it.Â
I love that sentence.
Drew ends his introduction by saying that:
if you are holding this book, you are obviously a devotee.
Well, yes, I am.
He suggests that we ‘don’t read the book too fast’. I won’t. He suggests that we ‘soak it in.’ That I will but now I need to get to bed.
Thank you Drew, for your insightful introductory note and thanks to publishers Douglas and McIntyre for this precious book, as the world ponders climate emergency at COP 26 in just a few days, I am grateful that we have one more Richard Wagamese book to anchor us in hope, hope, in its truest sense hope, which is offer a positive vision for our world and how to live each moment in an interconnected way.
I want to thank Richard Wagamese. I hope you can hear me, for being a spiritual guide to many, including me. I feel your presence in my life, whispering in my ear at just the right time and in the right way.
I won’t read any excerpts from the book tonight. Rather, I invite you to discover any of Wagamese’s writings. Many are accessible through your local public library.
I think this conscient podcast episode will be my shortest ever. My goal here was to share my excitement about discovering What Comes From Spirit today but also to tell you about the deep feeling of calm that this book brings me. We should never underestimate the power of art to transform our lives…
I’ll end by quoting Wagamese from episode 19 of the conscient podcast. This is from his novel For Joshua, which regular listeners of this podcast might have heard a few times before, but I think is timely to share here and now.
Thanks for listening.
We may not relight the fires that used to burn in our villages, but we carry the embers from those fires in our hearts and learn to light new fires in a new world. We can recreate the spirit of community we had, of kinship, of relationship to all things, of union with the land, harmony with the universe, balance in living, humility, honesty, truth, and wisdom in all of our dealings with each other.
Il nous suggère de “ne pas lire le livre trop viteâ€. Je ne le ferai pas. Il nous suggère de “l’absorberâ€. C’est ce que je vais faire, mais maintenant je dois aller me coucher.
The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.
I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.
The term ‘conscient’ is defined as ‘being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations’. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016–2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.
Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie’s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.
Season 2 (March 2021 – ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that ‘I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way’. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.
my professional services
I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I’m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca
acknowledgement of eco-responsibility
I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.
a word about privilege and bias
While recording episode 19 ‘reality’, I heard elements of ‘privilege’ in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like ‘ecological mansplaining’. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.
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.
