Ian Garrett

Project Assistant for the Department of Utopian Arts & Letters

The CSPA Department of Utopian Arts and Letters (DUAL) is a project of the Centre for Sustainable Arts. It is a project of public dreaming born out of desires for decolonization, climate justice, and collective liberation. It envisions Plural Utopias Of the Future (PUOF), each imagined through the radical thinking of diverse artists. DUAL operates within, across, and beyond official governmental and academic departments to empower us with visions of the future to work towards and the necessary “curricula” to dismantle the systems that stand in our way. It offers a free, public education for thriving futures designed by community expert artist “faculty” and organized by counterpart “librarians.”

This Project Assistant will provide administrative and organizational services and support to the Department of Utopian Arts and Letters (DUAL) Project and editorial support for CSPA Publications including DUAL, the CSPA Quarterly and CSPA Reports. In this role, you will work independently utilizing business knowledge, experience, copy, and administrative expertise to deliver value and support the contributions of the DUAL Project and CSPA leadership Team(s). This role is privy to senior leadership matters, communications, correspondence, documents, and decision items and is required to exercise a high level of confidentiality, discretion, diplomacy, and sound judgment.

Project Assistant Job Responsibilities:

  • Provides administrative and editorial support to ensure efficient operation of CSPA Projects.
  • Maintain the CSPA filing system on Google Drive.
  • Support and provide moderation on Mighty Networks learning platform for DUAL program.
  • Coordinate deliverables with artist contributors, graphic designer, and media production contractors.
  • Work alongside DUAL project librarian and CSPA editors to plan, implement, and manage publication schedules.
  • Proofreading manuscripts to identify any grammatical and spelling errors, and ensure accuracy and consistency in citations.
  • Assist with budget preparation and expense tracking.
  • Assist with the creation of reports and presentations, transcription of minutes from meetings.

Qualifications for Project Assistant

  • Prior administrative experience with clerical, secretarial, or office work in a non-profit arts environment
  • Prior experience and interest in environmental issues in the arts.
  • Proficient computer skills, including Google Suite and Slack
  • Ability to cultivate additional computer skills quickly, in particular Mighty Networks community learning platform.
  • Strong verbal and written communication skills
  • High degree of attention to detail
  • Data entry experience

Critical Stages/Scènes critiques: On Theatre and Ecology at Critical Junctions featuring many CSPA Contributors online now!

The initiative for this Special Issue of Critical Stages / Scènes critiques arises from our shared and sustained interest in the interdisciplinary, and, indeed, transdisciplinary Environmental Humanities that we have always perceived as a particularly compelling and dynamic site within which to formulate and locate our work. It is difficult to conceptualise how this might not be the case for socially-engaged scholarship and active citizenship, as the world is experiencing a climate crisis of extraordinary, and, indeed, dramatic – in all possible senses of the word – scale and iteration.

Vicky Angelaki and Elizabeth Sakellaridou, Editors for The IATC journal/Revue de l’AICT – December/Décembre 2022: Issue No 26

The latest edition of Critical Stages / Scènes critiques explores the intersection of ecology and theatre. Within this edition, you’ll find contributions from CSPA Staff and many friends of the CSPA!

Table of Contents of this Edition

Editorial Note: Transforming (Im)Possibilities to Realities / Note éditoriale : Transformer les (im)possibilités en réalités
Savas Patsalidis, Editor-in-Chief

Special Topic

On Theatre and Ecology at Critical Junctions

Guest Editors: Vicky Angelaki and Elizabeth Sakellaridou (Greece)

Essays

Editor: Yana Meerzon (Canada)

National Reports

Editor: Savas Patsalidis (Greece)

Interviews

Editor: Savas Patsalidis (Greece)

Performance Reviews

Editor: Matti Linnavuori (Finland)

Book Reviews

Editor: Don Rubin (Canada)

Plays

Editor: Critical Stages/Scènes critiques

Focus: Ukraine

Editor: Critical Stages/Scènes critiques


CSPA Related Contributions

Global Networked Ecoscneography: Creating Sustainable Worlds for Theatre Though International Collaboration.
  • CSPA Director Ian Garrett is co-author with collaborators Tessa Rixon and Tanja Beer
By Tessa Rixon*Ian Garrett**Tanja Beer***

“Mundane” Performance: Theatre Outdoors and Earthly Pleasures
  • Rising CSPA Quarterly Editor Evelyn O’Malley is co-author with collaborators Cathy turner and Giselle Garcia on
by Evelyn O’Malley*Cathy Turner**Giselle Garcia***

Ecodramaturgy and the Genesis of the EMOS Ecodrama Festival
  • Friend of the CSPA, Theresa J. May
Theresa May*

Town Hall
  • Friend of the CSPA and Co-founder of the Climate Change Theatre Action Caridad Svich
Caridad Svich*

About the Editors

*Vicky Angelaki is Professor in English Literature at Mid Sweden University (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences). She was previously based in the United Kingdom, where she held full-time, permanent roles at Birmingham City University; University of Birmingham; University of Reading. Major publications include the monographs Martin Crimp’s Power Plays: Intertextuality, Sexuality, Desire (2022); Theatre & Environment (2019); Social and Political Theatre in 21st-Century Britain: Staging Crisis (2017); The Plays of Martin Crimp: Making Theatre Strange (2012) and the edited collection Contemporary British Theatre: Breaking New Ground (2013; 2016). She co-edits the series Adaptation in Theatre and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, with Kara Reilly). She is currently completing the research project Performing Interspaces: Social Fluidities in Contemporary Theatre, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Sweden). The project will result in an Open Access monograph, contracted with Palgrave Macmillan/Springer. 

**Elizabeth Sakellaridou is Professor Emerita of Theatre Studies at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She has taught and lectured widely on contemporary theatre in various academic institutions in Greece, elsewhere in Europe, and in the USA. She has published on contemporary British and European theatre, classical and modern Greek theatre, performance theory, cultural and gender studies, and, more recently, the hybrid space of performance phenomenology. Her publications include Pinter’s Female PortraitsContemporary Women’s Theatre (in Greek); Theatre, Aesthetics, Politics (in Greek); and numerous articles and chapters published in international journals and collected volumes respectively. She is also a critic, dramaturg and translator of dramatic works from English into Greek and vice versa.

Arts Club Incubator Series: Arts, Culture and Climate Action

This panel was hosted by Arts Club Theatre curated by The Only Animal Core Artist Kendra Fanconi, about different perspectives on the role of the artist in the climate crisis, with Coast Salish theatre and dance artist Tasha Faye Evans, Latinx climate playwright Elaine Avila, Metcalf scholar on art and sustainability David Maggs, and Japanese-American climate-performance artist Miwa Matreyek.

This panel was hosted by Arts Club Theatre was done in partnership with the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts.

APASQ – And After/Et Après Conversations at World Stage Design 2022


These 10:00 am conversations during World Stage Design 2022 are a part of APASQ’s continuing exhibition recording industry professionals at international conferences. On the days of the recordings these conversations will be presented at World Stage Design (WSD) as a Cvent. There will also include bonus information at the end of the interviews informing WSD participants about select Ecoscenography events that will be taking place on that given day.

You can watch it live and chat here: https://vimeo.com/event/2339485 or return to this page daily for that day’s conversation.

Conversation Schedule

August 8August 9August 10August 11August 12
QuébecMarianne LavoieMarie-Renée Bourget HarveyPatrice Charbonneau BrunelleÉmilie RacineLinda Brunel
InternationalTanja BeerMona KastellVespa LaineJanis HartIngvill Fossheim

Apply now for Creative Climate Leadership Canada Aug 1-5, 2022

We are happy to announce that the CSPA has partnered with Julie’s Bicycle (JB) to host for the first time in Canada the Creative Climate Leadership (CCL) program, with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.  Since 2017, JB along with multiple partners have been offering intensive training opportunities to creative leaders from the arts and culture sector to deepen their understanding and commitment to climate justice and the ecological crisis. The immersive course will take place at the Barrier Lake Field Station in Kananaskis, Alberta area adjacent to Banff National Park on the traditional territory of the Stoney Nakoda in the foothill of the Rockies, from August 1st to 5th, and is open to artists, curators, creative and cultural professionals and policy-makers that work and live across Canada. This CCL will be delivered in English. Please reach out to us if you would like to be notified of future CCL versions in French.

Application deadline: June 19th, 2022

We will notify successful candidates that they have been selected for participation by June 28, 2022

About the Creative Climate Leadership training course

CCL Canada, hosted near Banff, Alberta, will offer training for 24 individuals. Participants will learn, discuss and reflect on the topics of the climate crisis, climate justice, resilience and wellbeing, climate communication, and creative leadership for climate action, and will develop personal and professional tools and strategies to bring climate and ecological action to the center of their practices and organizations. The five-day intensive course enables participants to apply environmental frameworks and targets meaningfully to their work, and explore what leadership means in the context of a rapidly changing world.

For more information on the program or to check out some CCL alumni stories, visit https://www.creativeclimateleadership.com/ 

Eligibility 

The CCL is for artists from any form of art and practice or for other creative workers such as administrators, producers or policymakers, among others, who live and work in Canada. Don’t hesitate to apply if you are passionate and want to explore how to use your creative talents in service to the ecological crisis and climate justice. 

Logistics

Dates: August 1st to 5th, 2022

Language: English

Location: Barrier Lake Field Station, in the Kananaskis area adjacent to Banff National Park on the traditional territory of the Stoney Nakoda

Transportation, food & lodging: Participants will be provided with meals and lodging for the duration of the CCL, as well as transportation to the field station from Calgary. Participants will be responsible for their own transportation to and from Calgary.

Cost

The total tuition is 2000 CAD and includes the costs of the program, food, lodging; 6 months of mentoring, and inclusion in an ongoing international network of CCL alumni. 

We have a limited number of full or partial scholarships available for those who articulate financial need to support their participation. 

COVID-19 related information

We will follow all local public health requirements and all requirements directed by the University of Calgary throughout the program. Given that this event involves close interaction with others, we require all participants to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Individuals will be encouraged to take COVID-19 precautions to keep themselves and others safe, and hand sanitizer, disposable masks and rapid testing kits will be available for use as needed throughout the program. 

Please note that this information is subject to change. We will closely monitor the public health situation in Canada in the weeks leading up to the event and inform participants about any changes to our CCL health and safety guidelines. 

Contact

Please contact us at ccl@sustainablepractice.org if you have any additional questions about the CCL or application process.

Creative Climate Leadership is a Program of Julie’s Bicycle.

B/A Speaker Series: Greening the Arts Sector

You want your arts organization or project to be green, but you don’t know how to go about it? A great place to start is by tuning in to the Business / Arts Speaker Series next Thursday, May 26 for an introduction to the Creative Green Tools Canada with Devon Hardy.

Join us on Thursday, May 26th, 2022 for a conversation on greening the arts sector!

In this session with Devon Hardy, Program Director of Creative Green Tools Canada, we will explore strategies for improving the sustainability of our cultural institutions. Together, we will learn about the Creative Green Tools Canada (“CG Tools”), a free set of carbon calculation and reporting tools that allow organizations in the arts and culture sector to record, measure and understand the impacts of their venues, offices, tours, productions, festivals and more. During our discussion, we will consider the benefits of integrating these tools into our cultural facilities and programs as well as demonstrate how they can be put into practice.

REGISTER HERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2316527134504/WN_algNGiLGRQ2CxI7okHhxaw

Work with the CSPA: Program Officer – CG Tools Canada

Location: Remote

Program summary: 

The Creative Green Tools are a comprehensive set of carbon calculation and reporting tools, created specifically for the arts and culture sector. The Tools will be launched across Canada in early 2022 and made available to organizations and practitioners in the sector, along with training, user support, educational resources and other opportunities for learning and collaboration. 

Main role responsibilities:

  • Train users to use the Creative Green Tools
  • Provide one-on-one technical support via email, phone or video call
  • Create user guides and other instructional materials for the Creative Green Tools
  • Create educational materials relating to environmental stewardship and climate action
  • Review elements of the Creative Green Tools platform and test their functionality
  • Correspond with program partners to schedule meetings, update them on program activities and get feedback

Ideal experience and qualifications:

  • Knowledge of environmental impacts and carbon footprinting principles
  • Experience using carbon footprinting tools or doing calculations based on emission factors
  • Knowledge of the arts and culture sector
  • Ability to solve problems independently
  • Attention to detail
  • Bilingual in English and French (an asset)
  • Ability to write clearly and summarize complex information into simple text
  • Interpersonal communication skills
  • Time management skills and the ability to work autonomously

Desired start date: Mid-January 2022

Length of contract: 1 year, with possibility of extension

Salary: $48,500 per year + health and dental allowance

The CSPA represents and gives voice to people who identify diversely across the spectrums of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and ability. The Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity in its workforce, encouraging applications from all qualified individuals. We strongly encourage applications from members of equity seeking groups, including but not limited to: persons with disabilities, BIPOC communities, gender fluid, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, newcomers to Canada and from all groups who experience marginalization. We encourage applicants to self-identify in their email if they are comfortable doing so.

ABOUT THE CSPA

The Centre for the Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) provides research, training, and consultancy services related to sustainable development, in particular ecological responsibility, in the arts and culture sector. This includes environmental footprinting and support for theatres, museums, galleries, and other cultural organizations and arts presenters/producers. We publish, electronically and in print, associated research in this field and organize conferences and convening on this topic for the purpose of professional and research networking, education, and professional development.

The CSPA views sustainability as the intersection of environmental balance, social equity, economic stability and a strengthened cultural infrastructure. Seeing itself as evolved out of the principles of the 1987 Brundtland Report and 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the CSPA aligns itself with the policies of Agenda 21 for Culture as a resource to artists and art organizations.

The CSPA’s activities include research and initiatives positioning arts and culture as a driver of a sustainable society.

Our activities include:

  • Publication of the CSPA Quarterly periodical and Special Reports
  • Engaging in research initiatives with strategic partners
  • Distributing & re-distributing information online and through social networks.
  • Creating and sharing tools for sustainable arts practices.
  • Convening and conducting convergences and workshops on sustainable arts practices.

Send CV and cover letter to hr@sustainablepractice.org

Photo by Soheb Zaidi on Unsplash

Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies at A Studio in the Woods

Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies at A Studio in the Woods invite artists to face the severity of the climate crisis and be agents of change to guide our collective understanding, response, and vision as we shape our shared future. 

Applications due March 10, 2022. Rising Residencies provide artists with a $3000 stipend, $2000 materials budget, 6 weeks in residence, and staff support to foster critical thinking and creation of new works. Open to artists of all disciplines.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

New Orleans and the inhabitants of our region are frequently invoked as some of the most vulnerable to the effects of environmental degradation. While sea levels, temperatures and emotions are rising, our highly manipulated landscape can be seen as a microcosm of the global environment, manifesting both the reckoning and hope which are required in the ways humans interact with shifting urban and natural ecosystems. As the climate crisis permeates the collective understanding of the future, the challenges faced by Southern Louisiana resonate exponentially. We look to artists to ignite our imaginations, illuminate our challenges, and offer new ways to examine the world.

Rising Residencies will provide artists with time, space, scholarship and staff support to foster critical thinking and creation of new works. The call is open to artists of all disciplines who have demonstrated an established dialogue with environmental and culturally related issues and a commitment to seeking and plumbing new depths. We ask artists to describe in detail how the region will affect their work, to propose a public component to their residency and to suggest ways in which they will engage with the local community.

Ecoscenography Reading Group for November

The Ecoscenography Reading Group welcomes all who are interested in a broader discussion on ecological design, primarily in live performance

Welcome back to our third and final Ecoscenography Reading Group of 2021!

Our upcoming session will be held virtually on November 22nd at 7:30pm Toronto time (GMT-4) / November 23rd at 10:30 am Brisbane time (AEST) through our Zoom Webinar platform hosted by The Queensland University of Technology. Upon registering with our Eventbrite link, you will receive access to the selected plays that will be explored in this session. We encourage you to have a read of these plays beforehand to engage in our Q&A with our panel and attendees. Our November Reading Group will be working with three texts selected from the Climate Change Theatre Action’s (CCTA) 2021 call-out that addresses the central themes of Growth and Reflection. We will be joined by guest live performance designer panellists, Ian Garrett (Toronto, CAD), Bronwyn Pringle (Melbourne, Australia) and Tony Brumpton (Brisbane, AUS). Our discussion will explore ecoscenographic responses to the plays, particularly how spatial, lighting and sound designers can create sustainable, unique and provocative experiences that forefront ecological issues.

To learn more, please visit: Ecoscenography Reading Group

Our selected CCTA plays for the November Ecoscenography Reading Group are:

Whistler by Giancarlo Abraham (Philippines)

Envisioning a Global Green New Deal through the history of an ever-changing landscape. Communication and misunderstanding with human displacement.

Molong by Damon Chua(US/Singapore)

Connection to the land and the spiritual tie that beats the scientific statistics. Indigenous peoples make up about 6% of the world population but inhabit more than a quarter of our planet’s land area. Harnessing their knowledge and philosophies on sustainability is vital to the future of biodiversity and humankind.

Mizhakwad (The Sky Is Clear) by Dylan Thomas Elwood (US)

Portraying of deep-seated anxiety for climate change. An urgency to embrace our connection with the land.

Learn more about our guest panellists for our November edition:

Ian Garrett (Canada) is a designer, producer, educator, and researcher in the field of sustainability in arts and culture. He is Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University. He is the director of the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and Producer for Toasterlab, a mixed reality performance collective. He maintains a design practice focused on ecology, accessible technologies and scenography

Bronwyn Pringle (Australia) is a Lighting Designer and Theatre Maker who has worked in a plethora of performance spaces including, a London Nightclub, a warehouse in Buenos Aires, the Federation Square air-conditioning ducts and a wool-shed. Bronwyn has received multiple Green Room Awards including the 2020 Award for Technical Achievement and holds a Masters in Design for Performance from the University of Melbourne.

Tony Brumpton (Australia) is an Australian based artist and academic working in the field of Aural Scenography. He likes the sound of birds more than planes.

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