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Reflecting on: Radical landownership, community and creativity

10 November 2023: We held a Green Tease at The Stove Network in Dumfries exploring landownership, land justice and the role of culture.

The evening started with a shared community meal, giving attendees space to talk and get to know each other. Maja Rimer, our culture/SHIFT officer, introduced Creative Carbon Scotland’s work and highlighted that the climate crisis is a cultural issue.

Richard Bracken, Highland-based artist and maker, presented his work with The Abriachan Forest Trust. Artists and Community Landowners is a collaborative project, working with the community to tell the story of their landownership journey through a series of handmade walking sticks. The sticks represent a connection between the hand and the land, an object held by an individual that can be passed on to others, along with local knowledge and insight.

Richard passed the engraved walking sticks around the room, allowing people to get familiar with them before setting off on an artistic walk in Dumfries, through the town centre, by the river Nith and back to The Stove. People were encouraged to write a short response, reflection or dedication from the walk, and attach these to a walking stick that was left at The Stove as an artefact of the event.

‘…it was interesting to see how the sticks could function as objects for prompting different communities to talk about themselves and their possible futures. I did feel that walking with this particular collection of sticks helped to give the walk a purpose beyond simply reaching a destination. Some of the discussions I had with people while we walked were to do with connecting to land and local landmarks on a personal level, while others spoke of their involvement in existing community groups and focus on the climate crisis.’

Richard Bracken

John Wheeler, one of our panellists, felt that the active, artistic approach engaged the attendees, including the younger generations:

‘We all know something of the power of the staff – in stories from the Old Testament to Gandalf’s Middle Earth. Our grandchildren are forever wanting to cut, carve and whittle staffs. The 14-year-old who came with us on that walk was totally engaged with Richard’s walking sticks. He is a naturally artistically inclined lad, but I have never seen him quite so willing to chum a flock of grown-ups on an (environmental) dusk walk as he did that night.’

At the panel discussion, Linsay Chalmers, Development Manager at Community Land Scotland, spoke about campaigning and policy change, the Landownership Bill and supporting communities to tell their own stories. Martin O’Neill, Artistic Director at The Stove Network, described The Stove’s work in the community and how they facilitate people’s exploration of the concept of ownership. He emphasised the role of artists in this work, including the work of Richard Bracken, who discussed the unique position of artistic freelancers, and their ability to empower people to reclaim a fundamental connection to land through creative projects. John Wheeler from community group Nith Life, a local storyteller, explained the need for the protection of river Nith and emphasised the power of building connections.

‘It was fantastic…to be able to contribute to the panel discussion alongside Linsay, John and Martin, who were able to bring local and national perspectives. I would hope that in terms of the conversation around community landownership, the evening served as part of an ongoing process of people gaining inspiration, identifying challenges and forming ideas together.’

Richard Bracken

The panel answered questions and issues highlighted by the attendees including: How do we empower local indigenous defenders and support people mobilising? What does it mean to be creative? How do we use the culture of landownership to dismantle the culture of ownership? What does it mean for landownership to be radical? Should it be seen as such?

‘The Green Tease event was perfectly timed regionally. Dumfries, in particular, is in a unique place with regards to landownership and grassroots conservation. The opportunity to connect communities with larger infrastructures and sectors across the arts and ecology is really happening and it feels as though we are ready to move forward in a beautifully creative way, connecting artistic process with grassroots activism.’

Martin O’Neill

Further resources

The Stove – Artists and Community Landowners: Meet the Artists: Richard Bracken

Artists and Community Landowners project and podcast series

Community Land Scotland 100 years of community landownership project

Dumfries and Galloway Regional Arts Fund

Dumfries and Galloway Regional Community Fund


About Green Tease

This event took place as part of the Green Tease events series and network, a project organised by Creative Carbon Scotland, bringing together people from arts and environmental backgrounds to discuss, share expertise, and collaborate. Green Tease forms part of our culture/SHIFT programme. 

(Top image: ID: Tags with handwritten notes and reflections hanging from a stick.)

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New Climate Beacons projects for 2024

We are pleased to announce that we are funding three new projects run by Climate Beacons partnership in the first half of 2024, taking place in Argyll, Caithness and Fife. These projects continue to build on the previous work done by the Climate Beacons, which were originally established in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow.

Argyll

In Argyll, ACT and Cove Park will be working together on developing a Rainforest Community Network that brings together landowners and local communities around the shared goal of preserving the region’s temperate rainforests of the region, with a particular focus on Kintyre and Tighnabruaich. Activities will include an artists-in-schools programme, guided nocturnal walks, family events and volunteering opportunities as well as an important ‘pledge day’ where community members will be invited to guarantee their future involvement in restoring and conserving the rainforests.

‘We are delighted to have the opportunity to work together again on this important project. Thanks to funding from Creative Carbon Scotland, we will establish the first ‘Rainforest Community Network’. A project designed to connect communities with their landscape and with each other through creative engagement and community empowerment.’ – Emma Henderson, Curator of Engagement, Cove Park

Caithness & Sutherland

In Caithness, Lyth Arts Centre (LAC) is presenting Climate Beacons Film Festival 2024, a film programme focused on climate issues in Scotland and beyond, covering themes like Scottish deer management, remote environmentalism, ancestral knowledge and indigenous practice, and global industrial impact and land use. Each screening will take place in a carefully chosen and thematic location – a Highland estate, a forest croft, a community hall next to a stone quarry. Their programme will be hosted by special guests to create spaces for conversation, engagement and a chance for everyone present to dissect the themes.

LAC is working with local groups including Wick High School, Natures Path Natural Ways, and Thurso Community Café.

‘After the success of our 2023 Climate Beacons Film Festival, we are so excited to be able to deliver a 2024 version across Caithness & Sutherland. The winters are long and dark here, it’s really important for us to be able to offer our communities ‘beacon’ events to gather, share food and get into the nitty gritty of what climate action in the North HIghlands is and could be.’ – Sinéad Hargan, Co-Director and Programme Curator, LAC

Fife
ID: A field, with houses behind, where a number of people are planting trees. Courtesy of Levenmouth Academy.

In Fife, Levenmouth Academy is working with Midgie Bite Media to create a documentary film produced by pupils at the school about what climate change means for their area. This documentary will show the story of high carbon to low carbon in an area that once had the highest level of coal exports in Scotland, and has since been neglected and suffered the consequences, but is now leading the way in a green transformation.

‘We’re excited about making a film with pupils reflecting on the green transformation of Levenmouth It’s fantastic to have this opportunity to do something so creative and ambitious. We literally have no idea what this is going to look like!’ – Duncan Zuill, Teacher, Levenmouth Academy


culture/SHIFT logo

You can find out more about Climate Beacons on the project page.

Creative Carbon Scotland’s role in this project forms part of our culture/SHIFT programme, which promotes how the arts and culture can transform society in response to climate change.

(Top image ID: A group of people in warm outdoor clothing, some carrying umbrellas, standing in a forest setting. Courtesy of ACT in Argyll.)

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Reflecting on: Intergenerational climate justice and culture

11 October 2023: Experts in climate justice and creative climate education gathered at Leith Community Croft to explore what intergenerational climate justice is, why it matters and how culture can be a way of giving a voice to future generations.

Children and future generations are at the forefront of bearing the burdens of the climate crisis. Yet, they have little say over the decisions that will affect them more than anyone. Intergenerational justice argues that children have the right to be heard, that the climate crisis is a human rights issue and that climate action must reflect the needs and voices of everyone impacted. The complex interaction of the climate crisis with existing inequalities and injustices is an area where the arts and cultural sector can play a role in developing understanding and breaking down barriers to children participating in climate action.  

To get the Green Tease started, three leading experts on intergenerational climate justice provided inspiration with their practice and perspectives on the role creative industries should be aiming for.

We heard from Dr Elizabeth Cripps, Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Edinburgh. Liz is a well-known expert in climate justice and ethics and author of What Climate Justice Means and Why We Should Care and Parenting on Earth: A Philosopher’s Guide to Doing Right by Your Kids – and Everyone Else. She focused on climate justice and inequalities – while older generations are responsible for climate change, younger generations are facing more of the impacts while having less opportunities to influence climate policy. Therefore, children should have the right to be heard. One option to improve this could be to lower the voting age, as Liz suggested. On the role of art, Liz commented on the importance of telling new stories and reaching people in different ways.

Lucy Power is a co-director of Rowanbank Environmental Arts and Education. Together with Arran Sheppard she runs Positive Imaginings, a creative climate education project based on woodland performances, providing children an opportunity to imagine a positive future in the midst of the climate emergency. In her talk she emphasized that using creative practices can create fairer opportunities for participation in climate action. As an example of her own practice of doing this, she highlighted that in the run up to COP26, they facilitated the creation of a beautiful and moving soundscape of children’s voices, the Positive Imaginings Soundscape. She also highlighted the importance of not just reaching people, but providing them with opportunities to take part and share. 

Our final panellist, Alyson MacKay, is an operations co-ordinator at 2050 Climate Group, who work to empower Scotland’s Young Leaders to lead action on tackling our climate crisis. Alyson provided a more personal reflection on perspectives on climate change as a young person and discussed issues around eco-anxiety and disempowerment of young people in relation to climate change. She advocated for a more genuine engagement with young people.

Outdoor workshop 

After the panel discussion, we utilised the outdoor space of Leith Community Croft for an activity organised by Lucy Power. Here she invited participants to find their own space in nature, not talk to anybody and just sit with their thoughts and feelings.

Lucy then placed three bowls of water on the ground each with a paper cup next to it and told us we should line up behind each bowl and move the water into three empty bowls placed a few metres away. We all assumed it was a contest and started racing to move the water. The cups had holes in them, and most of the water was lost on the way. Afterwards Lucy pointed out that she never told us it was competitive, and showed how if the three cups were stacked up, you could move the water without losing any through the holes. She explained we are preconditioned to compete, but collaboration would have got the job done better. Lucy uses methods like this with children, to help shift their mindsets and teach them to think differently, away from the individual and fast-paced thinking that society can urge us towards.

We then were given some clay and wool and were asked to create something that would represent our ideas about what we would like Edinburgh to look like in a sustainable future. Time was limited, but we created small sculptures and a web of wool tying various people together, symbolising having an awareness of how our lives are interconnected and living in a way that reflects that. Other installations focused on the future of housing and streets, access, transport and communities. 

Back in the room, we had paper and crayons to write down our thoughts about intergenerational justice in response to set prompts. The conversation was quite free flowing at this point and ‘doodling’ with the pens helped to keep it informal. Some of the thoughts that came up doing discussions were: 

  • Not everyone has the time or resources to participate in climate action. How do we account for that? 
  • Let’s ask children how they would like to get involved, instead of imposing ‘adult’ structures on them. 
  • Too much focus on individual rather than systemic change. 
  • Children should also be allowed to be young, to play, to have joy in their lives. 
  • We need more hopeful, rather than technical and scientific language. Is there a way to use children’s vocabulary in order to create new climate communication?
  • Using storytelling to communicate. The vital role of imagination.
  • Showing rather than telling. Watching rather than asking.
  • Considering the emotional elements of the climate. Science is not good at thinking about emotional wellbeing, especially that of children.
  • Consultations and surveys are not the best way of gathering information, especially from children. 

About Green Tease

This event took place as part of the Green Tease events series and network, a project organised by Creative Carbon Scotland, bringing together people from arts and environmental backgrounds to discuss, share expertise, and collaborate. Green Tease forms part of our culture/SHIFT programme. 

(Top image: ID: People standing outside in Edinburgh holding long pieces of string between them.)

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Open call and commission: Kelburn Garden Party

Glen Arts are excited to announce the call for proposals for one commissioned artwork to feature at the Waterfall site on the Kelburn Estate.

The artworks which fit the setting best are those that subvert audience expectations and respond to the natural setting playfully. The space that creates this magical alcove is vast and we are looking for works that expand into it and create an impact.

The Neverending Glen – Waterfall

The Neverending Glen is a mesmerising, immersive multi-arts trail through Kelburn Estate’s ancient woodland. This year we are looking for proposals for one artwork that will be commissioned by Glen Arts and installed at the main Waterfall site for the duration of Kelburn Garden Party Festival that runs 4-8 July 2024.

We’re open to a range of art forms at the waterfall, and in past years, we’ve seen everything from audio visual pieces, to sculptural installations. One year, a giant inflatable moon was suspended above the water, and later living terrariums were nestled in the rock face. This is a unique site where the path opens into a natural red stone walled clearing, rich in diverse green foliage. The 30ft waterfall can be seen from both above and below and as you walk towards it, the waterfall pool emerges from the rocks. Many people take a dip here during the hot days of the festival.

If you’d like to apply, read the Open Call and “Guide to the Glen” Information Pack and fill out the The Neverending Glen: Waterfall Open Call application form.

For further information, please contact neverendingglen@kelburnarts.com(neverendingglen@kelburnarts.com), or visit www.kelburngardenparty.com/get-involved.

Deadline: 5pm on 5 February 2024

(Top image ID: A person wearing a festival wristband is investigating a display of reflective orbs in a wet but bright woodland. Artwork: Down by the waterfall by Olivia Grace for Kelburn Artist 2023. [supplied])

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Open call: Burnieshed residency

A funded pilot residency for artists with a focus on ecology in Perthshire, Scotland.

Burnieshed residency is a project in the making located in the heart of Bamff Wildland, a family-run rewilding project in North East Perthshire. Twenty years since beavers began unravelling and reimagining its waterways, the farmland has been turned over to nature. This ecologically rich location attracts tourists, beaver enthusiasts, birders and researchers monitoring the effects of the Wildland.

The project is at its early stages of development and will include a series of pilot residencies in spring/summer 2024, alongside public events.

The residency will offer artists the opportunity to live, work and explore in this unique location, where many species are entangled, to create new perspectives through artistic play and critical thought in a time of multiple crises. We want to help generate conversation and action that is hopeful, joyous, radical and funny.

What it offers:
  • A fee of £1200 for a 10 day period.
  • Accommodation at the Burnieshed cabin.
  • Studio space in the Bamff Old Garage, a large, bright 1920s garage. (Please be advised that the cabin is not a studio and artists who require to use paint and other similar materials inside during their stay are advised to make use of this option.)
  • Access to a shared facility with internet connection.
  • Transport covered within the UK up to £200 supporting only slow land travel.
  • The precise dates of each three month residency will be negotiated with successful artists but the initial dates are May, June and July 2024.
Who the opportunity is for:
  • Individual UK based practitioners from contemporary art with a focus on ecology.
  • We are open to any practice but with a particular interest in moving image, photography, performance, installation and artists’ writing.
  • There are no limitations regarding age background or experience, but previous residency experience is desired.
  • The residents will be chosen based on the strength of their applications and alignment with the residency aims.
  • We strongly encourage applications from people who are LGBTQIA+, BPOC, living with disabilities, and/or from working class or low socio-economic backgrounds.
Expectations from the artist:
  • To present their work either in the form of a talk or a piece of writing (or other creative response), to be shared online.
  • To participate in the development of the residency through providing detailed feedback during and at the end of their time, so that we can evaluate and improve.
Access:

The cabin is a 10 minute walk from a small private road – whilst it is possible to bring in supplies with an offroad vehicle, you will have to walk back and forth by foot. There is no running water, internet or electricity at the cabin. Light is provided with solar panels, water from bottles and heat from a wood burning stove.

The cabin is accessed via a flight of stairs. We realise this makes the pilot version of the residency unsuitable for artists who use wheelchairs or find stairs difficult to manage at this time.

The Old Garage studio space is currently not insulated, however there is a wood burning stove.

How to apply:

Fill in the Burnieshed Pilot Residency Application Form answering the following questions:

  • Please provide an artist statement.
  • How does your work relate to ecology?
  • How would you benefit from being on this site-specific residency at this time in your practice?
  • What do you propose to do during your residency?
  • Provide a CV.
  • Provide samples of your recent work in PDF format (3-5 pages, this can take the form of images, video, writing, sound, with a written description of each project).

Complete the Burnieshed Pilot Residency – Equality Diversity and Inclusion form.

This will be kept separate from the application and remain anonymous.

To discuss alternative forms of application such as audio or video, or if you have any questions about the opportunity, please get in touch burnieshed@gmail.com.

The artists will be chosen by a selection panel composed of two external people from the creative industry and the two artists and organisers running the pilot project.

Deadline: 23:59GMT 16 February 2024

(Top image ID: Small cottage in the middle of Bamff Wildland landscape. [supplied])

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Open Call: Human-Nature Delegation to Malaysia/Borneo

The British Council Malaysia are calling for seven UK artists, arts organisation representatives, arts tech creatives, producers or curators to be part of a delegation visiting Kuala Lumpur, Sabah and Sarawak (Borneo States) over a 10 day period in March 2024.

About this opportunity:

The British Council has launched the new global programme Culture Responds to Global Challenges. Its climate change strand aims to enable artists to tell the climate change story and improve practices in arts and cultural organisations. In Malaysia the British Council will run Human-Nature, a three year programme of collaborations and partnerships between the UK and Malaysia Civil Society Organisations and arts sectors, to explore Malaysia’s cultural diversity and biodiversity, and develop creative responses to climate adaptation.

Under our Malaysia Human-Nature Programme, we are delighted to announce a delegation opportunity for seven art representatives to Borneo, Malaysia in March 2024. This immersion in the Borneo context and communities will be a unique opportunity for the group to participate in a research trip focused on exploring and addressing climate change through arts, science and technology, to ignite conversations and inspire change. It will involve opportunities for the group to learn and increase their knowledge about climate change and adaptation in Borneo alongside building cultural connections with the Malaysian creative sector.

We are looking for a cross-disciplinary, cross-skills group of individuals who have a strong interest in developing their knowledge in this area, making new connections and have a special interest in Malaysia’s cultural diversity and biodiversity. We are particularly interested in candidates who are keen to raise awareness and explore creative solutions for addressing climate change through the arts, technology and science which centre lived experience. We are also looking for participants who can create further legacy with the knowledge and experience gained through the research trip.

How to apply:

To apply, please read the Open Call Briefing Document – Human-Nature Delegation to Malaysia-Borneo and complete an Expression of Interest form via Submittable by 23:59 GMT Sunday 21 January 2024.

To find out more:

Sign up to attend the Information Session on 15 January for further details of this opportunity and Human-Nature programme.

Deadline: 23:59 GMT Sunday 21 January 2024

(Top image ID: Two people sitting on rocks looking out at the ocean. Photography by Mat Wright. [supplied])

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Commission: artist for Glasgow sustainable neighbourhood envisioning

Loco Home Retrofit CIC are looking for visual output from neighbourhood envisioning workshop to be held in February in Glasgow.

As part of a project funded by the Climate Engagement Fund, we are holding a community participatory envisioning workshop in South Glasgow on a date yet to be confirmed in February.

The workshop will explore what climate change might mean for the neighbourhood in terms of impacts, adaptation, community resilience and emissions mitigation.

We are looking for a visual artist or creative designer/illustrator to produce an output in any medium: paint, sketch, digital, etc.

Separately we are recruiting a visual minute taker, therefore we are not looking for visual minutes for this commission.

Ideally the creator will also be able to facilitate the workshop.

The budget is £2300 plus up to £500 for materials.

Please send your portfolio or brief summary of similar past work and a few lines explaining why you think you would be suitable to info@locohome.coop. Please also indicate your availability in February. We are looking to make a contracting decision within the next 10 days.

(Top image ID: People holding a discussion at a meeting, with sheets, pens and mug on the table. Credit: Loco Home Retrofit CIC, Ltd. [supplied])

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News: First ever climate song to reach UK iTunes No.1

Renowned Just Stop Oil activist Louise Harris moves from the streets to the studio, to release first ever climate song to reach UK iTunes No.1. ‘We Tried’ is a song about the climate crisis and what will happen if we don’t act.

With Chris Packham calling for it to be this year’s Christmas No.1, Louise Harris’s new climate single, ‘We Tried’, hit No.1 in the UK iTunes Singles Chart one week after its release, overtaking the likes of Dua Lipa and The Beatles.

The climate anthem, also backed by Brian Eno and Christiana Figueres (Chief Negotiator of the 2015 Paris Agreement), immediately entered the Big Top 40 Chart from Global – announced No.27 on Sun 26 November and No.26 on Sun 3 December. This is the first time a song about the climate crisis has achieved such popularity. Louise will be donating all proceeds to climate causes.

Up until now, Louise was only known for being the Just Stop Oil protestor who filmed herself crying on top of a gantry over the M25, her emotional testimony going internationally viral this time last year. This protest led to Louise’s arrest, and she was remanded to prison for eight days. She has now re-entered the public eye, however, with a powerful song and music video ‘about the climate crisis and what will happen if we don’t act’. She recently sang the song outside of Rishi Sunak’s house as part of a Just Stop Oil protest and was unexpectedly arrested.

Now facing a suspended sentence, Louise has turned to music to express her grief, despair and anger at the escalating climate crisis and lack of appropriate action from governments.

‘We Tried’ is deliberately written from the perspective of our currently projected future of irreversible climate catastrophe (‘We ran out of time…oh well, we tried’). Louise hopes this song will allow people to feel how they would feel if this future happened, and then use that feeling to spur themselves into the only hopeful solution left – collective climate action.

The powerful music video, which has already been shared by Chris Packham, Brian Eno, Adam McKay, Christiana Figueres and Dave Goulson, centres on a tear-stricken Louise and is interspersed with childhood videos, footage of politicians, climate victims and activist movements past and present. The emotive lyrics talk of an avoidable defeat: ‘Well, maybe we were meant to win… but not enough good drowned out the sin… they watched the world cave in.’

The video fades to footage of Louise’s famous gantry action where she pleads through tears: ‘I’m here because I don’t have a future…Why does it take young people like me, up on a…gantry on the M25, for you to listen?’

It ends with the message: ‘It’s not too late to avoid irreversible climate catastrophe.’ ‘There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.’ (IPCC Report, March 2023). ‘We have time – but not for long. Join collective action today.’

‘I wrote “We Tried” back in July 2022, three days after my 24th birthday, an age which children born today may never reach. The song expresses feelings of grief, anger, a longing to be taken somewhere else, and exhaustion at living in a world where you are constantly being gaslit – by the media, politicians, and, hardest of all, by people you love. The message of my song and video is this: The climate crisis affects me and my family, you and yours. No one is exempt. It has been created by a few handfuls of people in power who, I’ve concluded, must not know what love is. But what matters is – I know what love is. You know what love is. We know. And together, we outnumber the people in power eight billion times over. So what are we waiting for? There is still time to save things. We must come together, and act – not as individuals, but as a collective – through civil disobedience, protest, a mass movement. Can we truthfully say “we tried”? Where are all the songs and films and plays about this life-threatening emergency? Music and art have a unique power to move people emotionally, and empower them into action. Historically, they have been instrumental in bringing about social change, in sparking revolutions. It’s time to do it again. After all – if art can’t change the world, what can?’

Louise Harris

This climate anthem is just the beginning of Louise’s music activism journey, with plans to release an entire climate album in 2024, if she reaches her goal of £20,000.

‘It’s a beautiful song. It’s melodic. It’s “catchy”, it’s “pop”, it’s “sing-along”. It’s lovely, isn’t it…? No, it isn’t. It’s…horrific, terrifying and tragic. Listen to it, hear every desperate note, each lingering plea. Don’t just look at, see the pictures. Read the music, read the room, our planet’s youth in abject distress. This is their voice, their cry, their tears laid bare. So ask yourself: do you want this to be the ultimate anthem for doomed youth, a threnody for their funeral? It’s beautiful, beautiful for its razor sharp honesty, beautiful for its truth, beautiful for its purity of frightened heart. Please listen, please learn, please act.’

Chris Packham, Naturalist and TV Broadcaster

‘I often talk about facing the climate and ecological crises head on: not shying away from the pain and in fact using it to generate the clarity of what needs to be done. Here’s a young woman doing just that with this song: musician and activist Louise Harris. A powerful song. Thank you Louise.’

Christiana Figueres, Former UN Climate Change Executive Secretary & Chief Negotiator of landmark 2015 Paris Agreement

‘It is the young who will reap the global heating whirlwind that we have sown, but their voices are being ignored and their protests shut down at every opportunity. What better way than music for them to announce their fears and demands to a world that has to listen.’

Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards, UCL

‘This beautiful and moving song is a powerful weapon. We need to wake up to the cowardly inertia of our governments, to the greedy short-sightedness of business-as-usual, and to the numbing distractions of the media. This song woke me up. I hope it gets centuries of airtime.’

Brian Eno, musician and producer


About Louise Harris

Louise Harris is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter who grew up in a small town in Hertfordshire. She started writing songs during her second year of university, aged 19, an art she has since fallen in love with.

After graduating university with a psychology degree, Louise worked in various hospitality jobs whilst pursuing a music career. In 2021, she went TikTok viral with her song ‘dating me is like a Cambridge term’ (over 500,000 views) which BBC Radio 6’s Tom Robinson featured on his Introducing Mixtape, comparing it to the ‘revenge songs of Bob Dylan and Lily Allen’. Her recent 2023 pop-punk [2.0] version was worked on with award-winning producer Jonathan Quarmby.

Following being picked up by Amie Dibba from Ferocious Talent, which led to her signing to Ferocious Talent Publishing, Louise wrote and sung the top-line for hit single ‘Change Of Heart’ (13 million Spotify streams), co-released in Dec 2021 with major producers SOMMA & Paul Schulze, via the highly reputed house label ‘Selected’. Dance music is one of Louise’s favourite genres, as are pop & singer-songwriter. Her musical influences include Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, James Arthur, Matt Maltese and RAYE.

Having spent the most part of 2022 being arrested and even imprisoned for taking non-violent direct climate action with Just Stop Oil and Animal Rising, Louise is now seeking to release music that enables people to emotionally connect with this existential threat, and be moved and empowered to collectively fight it.

If art can’t change the world, what can?

(Top image ID: Artist Louise Harris holding a banner that says ‘WE TRIED’. [supplied])

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Culture collaborating to influence the public on climate change

How can cultural institutions collaborate and use their assets to influence the public? How do we tap into audiences and cultural partnerships to expand conversations around sustainability? How do we use our position as trusted messengers in society to engage the public meaningfully on the complex subject of climate change?

These were some of the questions tackled on 31 October 2023 when we joined members of the Scottish National Culture for Climate (SNaCC) group at the National Museum of Scotland for a day of micro-presentations, dialogue and workshops. ‘Culture collaborating to influence public on climate change’ concluded with a closing plenary and discussion panel during which we heard from Scottish Government representatives and used the time to present ideas from the day to them, and to board members of SNaCC organisations, stressing SNaCC’s joint influencing power. The event was funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Public Engagement & Behaviour Change team.

Influencing work

The morning and afternoon sessions opened with micro-presentations about influencing work that some of the group members are already undertaking. The presentations – from Ruth Gill (National Museums Scotland), Katie Eagleton (University Museums in Scotland), Gillian Macdonald (Historic Environment Scotland), Lucy Armitage (National Galleries of Scotland) and Lewis Coenen-Rowe (Creative Carbon Scotland) – provided inspiration as attendees moved into practical breakout sessions.

Facilitated breakout sessions

Using public engagement strategy as a diving-off point, Bettina Sizeland, Head of Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel at Transport Scotland and Jeremy Hanks from The Scottish Government Climate Change Public Engagement & Behaviour Change team set the attendees some challenges to focus on during the breakout sessions that followed.

The two sessions, with five cross-SNaCC groups each, were organised to fire and free the imagination, discover what assets and skills the SNaCC members have to offer, raise ambition, experiment with new ideas and make use of the collaborative opportunity. Facilitators, who came from SNaCC members’ education/outreach teams, plus an artist, applied creative practices to stimulate the groups’ imaginations. The approaches used to capture the outputs ranged from crafting to model ideas, singing rounds, compiling a playlist encapsulating individuals’ emotional responses to climate change and nature, and drawing, as well as more traditional methods like Post-it notes.

Imagining projects

The morning session considered challenges posed by Transport Scotland, such as ‘Are there any practices that you can change to help people travel more sustainably?’ and ‘What new partnerships could you develop with bus, train and ferry operators to solve some of the problems stopping people from travelling more sustainably?’. The groups were asked to imagine short-term projects based on current possibilities and tangible changes in practices that collaborative groups of two or more SNaCC members could take forward in 2024.

Based on challenges posed by the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Public Engagement & Behaviour Change team, the second session challenged the attendees to push their creativity and generate ideas of how the cultural institutions’ combined assets, reach and influence could come together and produce a large-scale all-member project that could be developed and delivered over the next few years, to meaningfully engage the public on climate change. A key aspect of the challenges was to ask, ‘Who’s missing?’ to get the groups thinking about who else, outside the arts and culture sector, can help and collaborate on solutions.

Future ideas

The brainstorming, alongside the opportunity to visit the museum’s current exhibition Rising Tide, led to thought-provoking future ideas with attendees generating plans for potential national projects where all SNaCC members work together with the relevant authorities. Ideas included: ‘20 minutes to inspiration’ with every neighbourhood having a cultural, climate-related offer, ‘The people’s feast’ of Scottish food and songs focused on local and sustainable sourcing and bringing communities together, and ‘Sport x Culture’ – a year of half-time shows live in stadiums, maximising audiences and inspiring action.

The presentations resulted in a combined collaborative idea: ‘Festival of the future’. A SNaCC attendee expands:

‘A stumbling block when it comes to climate change is that it feels too big to get past. [We can change this] by creating a space that allows people to imagine that the problems can be overcome and that the other side of the climate and biodiversity emergencies is a positive place. This has the potential to allow people to work through the actions that are necessary.’

Closing plenary and panel discussion

The workshops and discussions were followed by an afternoon plenary, which included an introduction by Ian Russell CBE, Chair of National Museums Scotland, a rallying call to SNaCC members from Màiri McAllan MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition, and an inspiring talk by Professor Sir Ian Boyd, Co-Chair of the First Minister’s Environmental Council.

To end the day’s event, Dr Ben Twist, Director of Creative Carbon Scotland, moderated a panel discussion with Màiri McAllan MSP, Professor Sir Ian Boyd and Dr Sam Alberti, Director of Collections at National Museums Scotland, exploring topics such as using knowledge from the past to imagine a hopeful future, utilising leadership and sharing knowledge while eliminating competition, incentivising and empowering people to make decisions, regulation with integrity, focusing on the benefits of climate change mitigation and adaptation and the vital role of culture in the climate crisis.

‘Your sector is absolutely vital to helping people understand the world around them. Culture has huge potential to support the transformations and transitions in society that are so vital to the next part of our decarbonising journey.’ – Màiri McAllan MSP

Plenary panel members for ‘Culture collaborating to influence the public on climate change’. Clockwise from top left: Sir Ian Boyd, Mairi McAllan MSP, Dr Sam Alberti and Dr Ben Twist.
Attendees

SNaCC members

  • Creative Carbon Scotland
  • Creative Scotland
  • Historic Environment Scotland
  • Museums Galleries Scotland
  • National Galleries of Scotland
  • National Library of Scotland
  • National Museums Scotland
  • National Theatre of Scotland
  • Scottish Chamber Orchestra
  • Scottish Opera
  • University Museums in Scotland
  • V&A Dundee

Invited

  • CILIPS (Scotland’s library and information professionals)
  • City of Edinburgh Council
  • Dundee City Council
  • East Lothian Council
  • Improvement Service
  • Museums Association
  • Scottish Government
  • Transport Scotland
Audience members at the plenary session for ‘Culture collaborating to influence the public on climate change’.
What is SNaCC?

Convened by Creative Carbon Scotland, SNaCC is an informal collaboration between several national cultural institutions, development agencies and performing arts companies. You can find out more about SNaCC’s goals, how and why the group was formed, and past events and projects on the SNaCC page.

‘My rallying call to the group is to use your diverse and creative minds and your voices to capture the attention of Scotland’s people at what is a really critical moment in a critical journey, to help our communities connect with climate change in a human and intuitive way and to come to terms with what can often feel like an exceptionally lofty, complex and insurmountable challenge.’ – Màiri McAllan MSP

(Top image ID: A collage of brainstorming diagrams and text from ‘Culture collaborating to influence the public on climate change’.)

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CCS, researchers and Glasgow’s music sector team up to launch ‘Towards a Just and Green Music City’ initiative

Researchers at the University of Glasgow have launched a new initiative that aims to unite Glasgow’s UNESCO City of Music identity with the city’s ambition to become net zero by 2030.

Creative Carbon Scotland and many of the city’s music businesses and organisations have collaborated on the initiative, which aims to identify what Glasgow’s music sector needs to thrive in the future, co-design projects to meet the sector’s needs and investigate the role music and culture can play in a broader just and green transition.

website has been launched to mark the initiative, which hosts resources and guidance for city stakeholders including musicians, venues, music ensembles, policymakers, and researchers, environmental organisations and fans. It also contains a directory of music businesses in the city and a comprehensive map identifying over 200 spaces for live music in Glasgow.

Matt Brennan, Professor of Popular Music at the University of Glasgow, said:

“We’ve been lucky to have the feedback and participation of many of the city’s largest music organisations including DF Concerts and Events, 432 Presents, the SEC Hydro, SWG3, Celtic Connections and Glasgow Life. We’ve also had input from grassroots venues like St Luke’s, the Rum Shack, and the Glad Café, as well as local labels and shops like Last Night From Glasgow, Monorail, to name only a few.

“All of these have informed the design of the Just and Green Music City project. We hope to build on this network and are now putting out a call to other interested music stakeholders – either within Glasgow or those from other cities hoping to do similar work – to get involved in the initiative via the contact form on the website.”

Geoff Ellis, CEO of DF Concerts & Events, said:

“In 2023, we asked fans, staff and contractors to ‘Play Your Part’ in taking climate action at our events. This campaign encouraged circular fashion, use of public transport and active travel, the use of reusable water bottles, plant-based eating and composting. Next year, we will be continuing on our decarbonisation journey, enhancing our data collection in food and transport whilst expanding our ongoing investment in 100% HVO biofuel with trials of power technologies. Collaboration is key to a thriving Glasgow music scene and we are happy to support this initiative as part of our ongoing commitment to meaningful change in the city.”

Debbie McWilliams, Director of Live Entertainment for the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), said:

“We are committed to sustainability, as evidenced by Glasgow’s OVO Hydro becoming the world’s first arena to achieve A Greener Arena (AGA) certification for its commitment to sustainability earlier this year. Our ambition to become net zero by 2030 aligns with the broader ambition of the city of Glasgow as a whole to do the same, and we are therefore happy to see this initiative showing what role the city’s music sector can play in this goal.”

Lewis Coenen-Rowe, culture/SHIFT Manager at Creative Carbon Scotland, said:

“It’s been great to work with Dr Matt Brennan on this project and benefit from the skills and knowledge that researchers at Glasgow University can bring. We’d love to see the concept rolled out in other places so that the music industry can stand front and centre in the just and green transition.”


For more information contact Aine Allardyce, Communications Manager, University of Glasgow on 07976 201938 or email aine.allardyce@glasgow.ac.uk or media@glasgow.ac.uk.

Or email Lewis Coenen-Rowe: lewis.coenen-rowe@creativecarbonscotland.com

Read more about the Just and Green Music City initiative on the dedicated website.

Visit our Towards a Just and Green Music City project page.

(Top image ID: Green image of Glasgow waterfront. Overlaid text reads: Towards a Just & Green Music City.)

The post CCS, researchers and Glasgow’s music sector team up to launch ‘Towards a Just and Green Music City’ initiative appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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