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Greening the Edinburgh Mela

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Edinburgh-Mela-Fest-300x169The Edinburgh Mela has taken some really exciting new steps to greening this year’s festival (Sat 31st Aug – Sun 1st Sept). The two initiatives they have taken on this year tackle the issues of waste and audience travel.

With food and drink playing a big role in the festival celebrations, they’ve made the decision to ban all non-compostable packaging from the site, working towards their aim to become a zero waste festival. This year they will be working with the hugely innovative Edinburgh-based company Vegware, the UK’s first and only completely compostable food packaging firm, on board as Associate Sponsor of Greening The Mela initiative.

Vegware’s catering disposables are made from plants, not plastic. In 2013 the Edinburgh firm won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development and were named the best small business in the UK. Its Food Waste Network offers a free matchmaking service for any UK business seeking food waste recycling. The Mela is encouraging audiences to do their bit by putting any used Vegware and leftover food in the compostables bin so it can all be composted! More info on Vegware here.

They are also working hard to encourage visitors to choose to cycle to the Mela this year. Through funding from the EU’s CHAMP cycling project, the City of Edinburgh Council will be helping the festival promote walking and cycling routes to the Mela, and there will be some exciting activities to get involved in. 

Both initiatives are a great example of how to increase the mindfulness of audiences and the environmental impact of their actions not only during the festivities but also when making plans to travel to and from festival. Well done Edinburgh Mela!

The post Greening the Edinburgh Mela appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

 

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.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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Sustainability in Theater Unconference (SIT-U 2013) Registration now open

SIT_logo_web_smRegistration now open

Last year, we presented the first national Sustainability in Theater conference. Please join the Minnesota Theatre Alliance August 19-20, 2013 for a reunion at this year’s Unconference. Compared to 2012’s gathering, the 2013 event at the Southern Theater will be less structured with a greater emphasis on energetic discussions, using Open Space format. All topics related to sustainable practices for our organizations, our craft, our environment, and our community are welcome.

Early bird registration is only $15-$20 per person if you register before by July 15th!

Learn more and register now at http://mntheateralliance.org/content/register-sit-u

See the SIT 2012 conference archive at http://minnesotatheateralliance.org/sit/archive_about.php

Learn about Open Space meeting format at http://www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace

Join the Sustainable Theaters Group on our Web site at http://sustain.minnesotatheateralliance.org/

Like the Sustainable Theaters Group Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SustainableTheatersMN

 

Minnesota Theater Alliance

308 Prince St. #270

Saint Paul, MN 55101-1437

(651) 789-0787

 

Web: http://mntheateralliance.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MinnesotaTheaterAlliance

Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheaterAlliance

MAKE8ELIEVE – online art magazine issue dedicated to oil

305092_489458227750074_33562497_nAs an organisation that combines arts, activism and research with a pretty hefty focus on the damage caused by UK oil companies, we were super-excited to have a flick through the third issue of an online arts magazineMAKE8ELIEVE, that aims to “build international connections by publishing creative interpretations of one topic per issue.”

It’s a 254 page, full colour labour of love, with submissions from many different artists with a dizzying variety of practices. Campaigners on oil issues would do well to have a browse and draw inspiration from the creativity of the contributions rather than falling back on what can become quite a tired pallet of images and associations that evoke the impacts of the global oil industry.

It’s particularly great to see Liberate Tate‘s dramatic participatory and unsolicited The Gift that took place in Tate Modern last July, and involved the installation of a 16 metre wind turbine blade as a reaction to Tate’s ongoing and increasingly controversial sponsorship relationship with BP. You can browse this stunning publication below (Liberate Tate can be seen on pages 151-161), or visit the MAKE8ELIEVE site for more info on the artists.

Charter for a sustainable and responsible cultural mobility

This post comes to you from Culture|Futures

On the Move — a cultural mobility information network with more than 30 members in over 20 countries across Europe and beyond — has produced and now started widely disseminating a charter and toolkit which sets criteria and principles that, when respected, allow an institution, organisation, policy- or decision-maker, funder, artist, cultural professional and any other stakeholder of mobility to respect social and environmental standards, and to establish sustainable and responsible mobility practices.

onthemove-charter590Mobility happens anyway, so On the Move’s mission with the charter and the toolkit is simply “to make it happen better”. The intention has been to develop a new global practice where sharing of experiences and good practices allow the mobility of artists and cultural operators to be in line with social and environmental criteria.

On the Move’s overall mission is to encourage and facilitate cross-border mobility and cooperation, contributing to building up a vibrant and shared European cultural space that is strongly connected worldwide.

The Charter for a Responsible and Sustainable Mobility of Artists and Cultural Professionals aims to be a dynamic and concrete tool of reference for all those organisations and individuals dealing with the mobility of artists and cultural professionals.

On the Move writes:
A charter for whom?

 You manage a touring company or a venue which hosts international artists and cultural operators. You work for a cultural network. You are mobile, or you help others being mobile…
The charter helps you be responsible and sustainable when you practice cultural mobility.
on-the-move.org/../culturaloperators

You are a public institution or body which funds cultural activities, including international activities, and/or specifically mobility projects. You are a private foundation or organisation which funds the mobility of artists and cultural operators, either in a certain region, for specific disciplines or according to other crtieria…
The Charter helps you fund a responsible and sustainable cultural mobility.
on-the-move.org/../funders

You are a policy- or decision-maker at the local, regional, national level. You are in charge of cultural, social, economic, environmental policies. You deal with national and foreign affairs, including cultural diplomacy, visas and work permits…
The Charter helps you be responsible and sustainable when you make policies and decisions which impact on cultural mobility.
on-the-move.org/../policymakers

The charter was developed with the active participation of various categories of mobility actors and was published online on 24 January 2013 as a “constantly evolving online tool”.  It is going to be enriched regularly and signatories are kept up-to-date through a monthly newsletter about new signatories, new good practices listed, new available resources, etc.

Whether you practice, support or fund the international mobility of artists and cultural professionals, On the Move invites you to engage in a three-step path:

  1. Find your Charter – There are different principles to respect according to your role and activities as a stakeholder of mobility. How do you deal with “cultural mobility”?
  2.  Sign the Charter – Say that you care. Acknowledge your current situation, commit to improve, define objectives and assess your improvements. OTM supports you through peer-learning, training and information.
  3. Get inspired – See what other signatories are doing — and share your experience.

If you don’t want to sign the Charter, you can still use it as a check-list to make sure you daily activities related to mobility respect social and environmental criteria.


More about cultural mobility

Visas and cultural mobility

  1. Ease the mobility of artists and cultural professionals you invite or send abroad as far as visa procedures are concerned.
  2. Raise awareness on obstacles related to visa issues at different levels: national – international, political-social.

Click here for more details, links and resources

Administrative & social aspects of cultural mobility

  1. Ensure sustainable working conditions for the artists and cultural operators you work / collaborate with / employ.
  2. Consider the social and economic issues at stake whenever cultural mobility takes place.
  3. Be present in policy development, decision-making processes and their implementation at all levels.

Click here for more details, links and resources

Environmental aspects of cultural mobility

  1. Commit to environmental issues.
  2. Understand the environmental impact of your mobility practices.
  3. Improve the various aspects of your mobility practices.
  4. Communicate your impacts and improvements.

Click here for more details, links and resources

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

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

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

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Green Choreographers-in-Residence

ecocityIn December, Dance Exchange hosted Amara Tabor-Smith, our first Green Choreographer-in-Residence. Amara and her collaborator Sherwood Chen spent a week with Dance Exchange artists exploring sustainable food practices and food justice. Amara’s residency, which took place in our studios, as well as at sites like Eco City Farms in Edmonston, MD, culminated in a Thursday night HOME event featuring a potluck dinner and reflections on food and family. Visit Dance Exchange’s Facebook page to view more pictures from the residency.

Jill Sigman, of New York City, is our second Green Choreographer-in-Residence and will be in residence from January 28-February 1, 2013. Sigman will explore principles of permaculture and engage in hands-on work with small living systems, and this research will inform the development of movement scores and improvisational systems for use in her work The Hut Project, a series of site-specific structures built from trash. Sigman will share her methods and research in her HOME event on Thursday, January 30th from 7:00-9:00pm, and teach FRIDAY CLASS on Friday, February 1st from 9:30-11:15am.

Event Reminder LA Stage Alliance and Arts:Earth Partnership

LA STAGE Alliance, Arts:Earth Partnership, and partners have several new services and features that can help you improve and manage your space, venue or facility, and help members of the Los Angeles community who are eager to use your space find you!

Join them for a presentation on the growth of SpaceFinderLA.org and Arts:Earth Partnership’s green business certification program!
CLICK HERE TO RSVP – It’s Free, but space is Limited!

Tuesday, October 16
9:30 AM – 12 NOON
@ Groundlings Theatre & School
7307 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90046
For Directions and Parking, please click here!

Terence McFarland of LA STAGE Alliance will talk about the inception of SpacefinderLA.org in Los Angeles, the growth the service has experienced in the last year, explain the history of the inception of Arts:Earth Partnership and how they are transforming the cultural facilities of our region.

Adam Meltzer and Justin Yoffe of AEP will share details about how your organization can benefit by becoming a part of AEP’s expanding Green Business Certification program exclusively for the cultural sector – with 38 cultural facility members in the greater Los Angeles area already and 18 certified, AEP is leading the way in greening the cultural sector. Expanding missions and funding opportunities through the greening of your spaces will also be discussed.

Lisa Niedermeyer of Fractured Atlas will be visiting from New York to share the exciting new features available on SpaceFinderLA – learn how to maximize your space’s listing with new features like Share My Calendar, allowing SpaceFinder users to search for venues based on availability. (I need a meeting space on Saturday morning!)

SpaceFinderLA will now also include the ability to search for film and visual arts related spaces – as the second largest directory of it’s kind in the country, SpaceFinderLA continues to add spaces on a daily basis, and to increase web traffic and searches by people who are looking for your space!

This event is supported by the LA County Arts Commission and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

Just click on the link below and register. It’s free.

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION

After you click on the link, click through where it says “Presentation”