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BAFTA and Julies Bicycle Announce New Partnership

JBsustainingcreativity.102840The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced a new sustainability partnership between the BAFTA Albert Consortium, responsible for industry carbon calculator Albert, and Julie’s Bicycle, the sustainability organisation.

The new partnership between the BAFTA Albert Consortium and Julie’s Bicycle aims to encourage and assist good practice in sustainability across the creative sector, and underscores the importance of a collaborative approach in accelerating the creative industries’ transition to a sustainable and responsible, resilient business community. Both organisations have pledged to pool resources to support the development of the skills, knowledge and practical tools needed to facilitate sustainable practice across music, arts, culture, media, broadcasting and film.

Kevin Price, Chief Operating Officer at BAFTA, said: “Individually, the creative industries have done much to promote and embed sustainable practices. Nevertheless, by sharing opportunities, challenges and aspirations across the sector we stand to achieve much more. BAFTA is incredibly proud to have assembled the leading think tank on the sustainability of the TV industry – exploring the substantial need for immediate practical action. Our challenges and solutions are by no means unique and I firmly believe a collaborate approach to be a catalyst for greater progress.”

Alison Tickell, Founding Director of Julie’s Bicycle, said: “This collaboration is really good news for sustainability. Our industries consistently punch above their weight with great creative ideas, entrepreneurial drive, 100% commitment and extraordinary global reach – in fact, exactly the qualities that the sustainability movement needs right now; together we are a formidable force for positive change.”

Julie’s Bicycle: Green My Production, 27th March

A showcase of sustainable solutions for music and the performing arts

Julie’s Bicycle and White Light invite you to a showcase of best practice and market-ready products and services to make your productions more environmentally sustainable.

27th March 2013
13.00 – 17.00
White Light Ltd (Wimbledon, London)

CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION AND BOOKING >

WL LogoOne of the industry’s key events of the year to focus solely on sustainable production, the afternoon will include a programme of talks and discussions from industry experts, and a trade show exhibiting tried-and-tested products and services designed to help green your production.

You will have the opportunity to try out new technologies and seek advice from manufacturers, designers and event production professionals on all aspects of greening your work.

SPEAKERS

Green My Production will feature an afternoon of practical demonstrations, talks and discussions from industry experts on approaches to reducing the environmental impacts of production. Programme speakers will include:

  • Soutra Gilmour Set and Costume Designer
  • Laura Pando, Sustainability Manager Festival Republic
  • Robin Barton, Lighting Systems Technician Royal Opera House
  • Adam Bennette, Technical Director ETC Europe
  • Simon Yorke Stage Designer
  • Bryan Raven, Managing Director White Light
  • Alison Tickell, CEO Julie’s Bicycle
  • Rob Halliday, Lighting Designer and Developer FocusTrack
  • Lucy Doherty Milk Presents Theatre Company

See the full conference programme >

EXHIBITORS

Alongside the conference programme suppliers to the creative sector will showcase sustainable products and solutions, to help make your events and productions greener. Exhibitors will include:

  • Arcola Energy and Youngman Hydrogen fuel cell power
  • Community Repaint Paint recycling
  • Electric Pedals Pedal power
  • ETC Lighting
  • GDS Lighting
  • Firefly Solar Solar and kinetic power
  • goCarShare Carshare services
  • H-Squared Rechargeable batteries
  • Julie’s Bicycle Environmental consultancy for the arts
  • Midas UK Biofuel generators
  • Offset Warehouse Costume fabrics
  • Philips Lighting
  • Scenery Salvage Production waste services
  • Set Exchange Prop and materal waste service
  • ShowTex Stafe fabrics
  • Stack Cup Reusable cups for events
  • White Light Lighting

More information and booking details >

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We look forward to seeing you there!

Julie’s Bicycle & White Light

Visit Green Theatre Network at: http://juliesbicycle.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

International Green Theatre Alliance Launched

New international initiative to green the theatre sector founded by environmental organizations Julie’s Bicycle (UK) and Broadway Green Alliance (USA)

A new International Green Theatre Alliance (IGTA) has been launched at this year’s LDI show in Orlando, Florida. The IGTA formalizes the growing partnership between Julie’s Bicycle (UK), which works on environmental sustainability across the creative industries in the UK, and the Broadway Green Alliance (USA), which works with the US theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally preferable practices.

The Alliance’s first project is a new website www.igtalliance.com which will go live in December 2011 and provide an entry point for international practitioners seeking information and resources on environmentally sustainable best practices in the arts. The website will introduce the extensive sustainability programs of alliance members and direct users to international resources and support networks.

Alliance members will be working together on a range of projects over the coming years. A major aim will be to pool their collective knowledge and experience to help the theatrical industry respond better to the specific challenges it faces in its transition to a low carbon business. This will include sharing and disseminating research; case studies and practical tools; and collaborating on new resources and events. One of the first projects is focusing on sustainable practices in stage lighting.

The founding members hope that the alliance will grow into a worldwide initiative of similar organizations working at a national level to bring about an environmentally sustainable future for the creative industries.

Alison Tickell, Director of Julie’s Bicycle said, “It is fantastic to find like-minded partners committed to the same sustainable vision, and prepared to pick away at the obstacles that make tackling climate change seem so tough. When creative people come together anything is possible, and the energy, creativity and focus of the BGA has been inspiring.”

Sian Alexander, Associate Director, Theatre for Julie’s Bicycle said, “We have enjoyed an increasingly productive and collaborative relationship with our colleagues at the Broadway Green Alliance and this new international alliance is the logical next step for us. We feel that we have much to learn from each other and that through collaboration we can achieve more, faster as we work to improve the environmental sustainability of our industry. In the first instance we hope to provide a useful international resource for practitioners through our website. We expect to see other practical outcomes of our work together over the coming year, and in time we hope that our alliance will grow to include other countries. To this end, we are already in positive conversation with colleagues in Australia and Canada, among others.”

Charles Deull, Co-Chair of the Broadway Green Alliance said, “The BGA is thrilled to launch the IGTA with Julie’s Bicycle, a proven leader in working with arts organizations in making their operations greener.  Bringing together the best sustainability innovations from Broadway, the West End and the theatre communities in the UK and US will enhance our effectiveness and support the many companies and individuals creating a greener theatre.  We look forward to expanding the IGTA to encompass other national organizations focused on a greener theatre community.”

Julie’s Bicycle is helping to make environmental sustainability intrinsic to the business, art and ethics of the music, theatre and creative industries. Established in 2007 by leading figures in the UK music industry, Julie’s Bicycle is a non-profit company working across the arts and creative industries, providing expertise in environmental sustainability to over 350 organisations in the UK and internationally. We offer practical advice, tools, resources and Industry Green environmental certification, informed by world-leading research into the environmental impacts of the creative industries.

www.juliesbicycle.com

The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) was launched in 2008 as an ad hoc committee of The Broadway League and is a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. The BGA brings together all segments of the theatre community, including producers, theatres in New York and around the country, theatrical unions and their members, and related businesses. Working closely with the Natural Resources Defense Council, the BGA identifies and disseminates better practices for theatre professionals and reaches out to theatre fans throughout the country.

www.broadwaygreen.com

LDI is the largest tradeshow and conference for live design professionals in North & South America. Over 9,000 professionals attend LDI each year for pro-training, to spec gear and to network with colleagues and industry leaders.

http://ldishow.com/LDI11/public/enter.aspx

What is it that art could do for the environment?

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Kellie Payne reports on the Green Alliance’s summer debate about the arts and the environment.

For their summer reception, the environmental think tank Green Alliance hosted an evening of opera and debate at the Royal Opera House. In conjunction with The Opera Group, the evening began with a fifteen minute excerpt of Luke Bedford‘s new opera Seven Angels, is inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost and has environmental degradation as its theme.

Following the opera taster, there was a panel discussion entitled ‘What have the arts ever done for the environment? The panel included a mix of representatives from the worlds of policy, the arts and academia. It was chaired by Julie’s Bicycle’s Alison Tickell, and panellists included: The Southbank Centre artistic director, Jude Kelly, RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor, Arcola Theatre executive director Ben Todd, the sculptor Peter Randall-Page and David Frame, fellow of Oxford University. In her introduction, Tickell indicated that the Seven Angels was one among a crop of new work being made by British artists that addressed nature or the environment among those artists she listed were Antony Gormley, Ian McEwan, Jay Griffiths.

One of the main themes of the evening was an attempt in the discussion to answer the general question of what it is that art can do for the environment. It was generally agreed that one of the strengths of art was that it was well equipped to deal with the complexities that many environmental issues such as climate change raise. Matthew Taylor saying that art should be one of the many interventions required to tackle climate change.

One of the most eloquent responses came from the scholar, David Frame, who highlighted art’s ability to deal with complexity and tension. He felt that as climate change and environmental problems are so complex in nature, with for instance climate change knowledge dispersed amongst many specialists without a graspable whole. He said that the arts community has ‘a unique ability to convey complexity, delicacy, and beauty and among the things you can do is you don’t need to simplify…’

He pointed to the deficits in mediums such as Twitter or the 1,000 word Op Ed piece and contrasted this with the length of a novel or a film where he said ‘the possibilities for the ideas you can upload to people is phenomenal.’ This type of medium he said was also more able to cope with uncertainties. ‘You leave interpretation open which isn’t considered acceptable in other forms and I think that in doing so you can bring out tensions between these parallel values’.

Changing values seemed to be one of the key roles identified for art that emerged from the discussion. Alison said she has observed what she describes as a ‘palpable’ shift in values taking place rapidly and for her ‘the arts do have a role to play in reflecting and shaping and engaging with those values.’ While Matthew didn’t agree with Alison the extent to which values have already changed in the positive direction Alison described. In fact, he warned that during this current time of disturbance there is a clear dissatisfaction with current values but which way public opinion would turn was not decided. He said the dissatisfaction could lead in two ways, and not necessarily in a progressive direction he lamented that ‘it can go in a dangerous direction as well.’

The question of how politics should be addressed raised differing opinions. Jude Kelly began by announcing she ‘didn’t mind a bit of bad art’ provided that art had some sort of message. She went on to say, ‘I don’t think it’s a hanging offence to produce a message’ However if it’s not particularly interesting it might ‘bore me after awhile’. Further, ‘I don’t mind artists having a go. I really dislike the idea that artists shouldn’t be allowed to take centre stage to comment on things.

While Peter conceded that there was ‘nothing wrong with political art’, for him it was less the politics which art was best equipped to address. He was more of the mind that art’s quality was that it didn’t have a direct ‘purpose’ that it was its intrinsic values alone that made art great. He believes that ‘arts are not well placed to (do) issue based lobbying’ contrasting what he finds often to be the pragmatism of the environmental movement with the arts ability to nourish imagination and the spirit in the way the natural world does. ‘I think the role that I feel for the arts in environmentalism is that it… reminds us that we’re not all bad. If we only feel negative it’s impossible for us to move forward and remove this exclusively pragmatic approach to looking after the world.’

Matthew wanted to introduce a third way of thinking about the issue agreeing that art shouldn’t attempt to kick us around the head. However, he felt art could ‘challenge people to live differently and value things in slightly different ways.’ Providing a vision of how ‘a different, deeper kind of understanding about what makes life worth living and what it is society wants to be.’ This task he felt art was ‘incredibly well suited’. That is, ‘art is there to explicitly to get you to think about what the good life is.’ He concluded this thought saying ‘art shouldn’t be ashamed to say that art is here to help you rethink what our values are and I don’t think that requires you to revert to a kind of crude placard waving.’

In addition to the discussion about art and politics, the panel also touched on the controversial issue of artists lifestyles and the high carbon footprint of the arts. The general attitude on the panel was that this shouldn’t be paid as much attention as it has been. Jude Kelly saying that this arts requires face-to-face interactions and not allowing artists to fly amounts to a cultural boycott. But Matthew Taylor thought artists should be accountable, and if they want to have influence on others they have to take account of their own actions.
Increased collaboration amongst artists was encouraged, suggesting that the problem of the environment is one that artists should attempt to do together. Arts organisations such as Cape Farewell and Tipping Point were highlighted as doing exceptional work, helping to inform artists of climate change and bringing the topic to their consciousness.

It was edifying to see an organisation such as the Green Alliance, who normally deals with more policy related issues such as building a sustainable economy, investigating climate and energy futures, designing out waste and political leadership to host a conversation with the arts community. A cursory glance over badges of audience members saw representatives from business and policy, including the Department for Energy and Climate Change and The Environment Agency, so the wider these issues can be encountered and discussed the better. It’s time the arts community made it’s voice heard in the conversation about climate change. Peter concluded well, stating that it is artists who need to create metaphors and narratives which make it possible to go into the future.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

The editors are Robert Butler and Wallace Heim. The associate editor is Kellie Gutman. The editorial adviser is Patricia Morison.

Robert Butler’s most recent publication is The Alchemist Exposed (Oberon 2006). From 1995-2000 he was drama critic of the Independent on Sunday. See www.robertbutler.info

Wallace Heim has written on social practice art and the work of PLATFORM, Basia Irland and Shelley Sacks. Her doctorate in philosophy investigated nature and performance. Her previous career was as a set designer for theatre and television/film.

Kellie Gutman worked with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture for twenty years, producing video programmes and slide presentations for both the Aga Khan Foundation and the Award for Architecture.

Patricia Morison is an executive officer of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, a group of grant-making trusts of which the Ashden Trust is one.

Go to The Ashden Directory

Julie’s Bicycle launched Theatre Programme – via ashdenizen: pivotal role

Julie’s Bicycle launched its theatre programme last week for reducing carbon emissions. JB‘s chief executive Alison Tickell said the theatre sector had been ‘short on vision, long on doubt’. What needed to be done, she said, was ‘to find a few priorities’ and ‘to commit on a major scale’.  It was this thinking that lay behind the publication today of a new pamphlet Moving arts: managing the carbon impacts of our touring that gives the data on the most effective steps to take.

Nick Starr, executive director of the National Theatre, announced the names of the Theatre Group that he would chair. The list was impressive:

Nicholas Allott, managing director, Cameron Mackintosh; Gus Christie, executive chairman, Glyndebourne; Paule Constable, lighting designer; Vicky Featherstone, artistic director, National Theatre of Scotland; Vikki Heywood, executive director, Royal Shakespeare Company; Kate Horton, executive director, Royal Court Theatre; Judith Knight, director, Artsadmin; John McGrath, artistic director, National Theatre Wales; Andre Ptaszynski, managing director, Really Useful Group; Rosemary Squire, joint chief executive, Ambassador Theatre Group; Ben Todd, executive director, Arcola; Steve Tompkins director, Haworth Tompkins; and Erica Whyman, chief executive, Northern Stage

As the keynote speaker at the National this morning, Jonathan Porritt, applauded the practical well-researched approach that Julie’s Bicyclehad taken. He went on to widen the discussion, warning the audience against presenting climate change in apocalyptic terms. He thought the last government’s CO2 campaign that had used a bedtime story to convey the message was ‘shockingly awful’.

There were a number of good bits of news. He gave three examples. The new report that 98% of scientists concur with the science on climate change showed ‘Jeremy Clarkson is wrong’. He also couldn’t recall a time when ‘the innovation pipeline looked so good’. And the business case for an environmental strategy was something that ‘we had hardly started to understand’. His example was the huge advances made by Wal-Mart since its chief executive ‘got the green bug’.

But these upsides, Porritt said, left one thing missing, which was particularly relevant to today’s audience. Science was not enough. The Enlightenment idea that the truth would set us free has proved illusory. What’s needed is creative talent. ‘How can we fire up the sense of empathetic connectedness between people?’ he asked, ‘It makes the creative industries absolutely pivotal.’

via ashdenizen: pivotal role.

Eco-bling: why the arts sector needs to lead on climate action

How should the artworld be responding to the issues of sustainability and the environment? Dialogue editor Lucy Gibson looks at why the arts should be leading the way on climate action, rather than looking to corporations and science for moral leadership. But in a sector made up of many individuals and small organisations, alongside enormous institutions, why and how can change really be affected?

Eco-bling: why the arts sector needs to lead on climate action is an interesting article from Lucy Gibson. Take a look at the source when you have a moment.

It should make the art world blush to hear a leading arts and environment activist stating that Walmart, followed by Coca-Cola, Unilever and Tescos, have done more than most in dealing with the impact of climate change. But that is exactly the message from Alison Tickell, Director of Julie’s Bicycle at the Arts Council England’s ‘A Low Carbon Future for the Arts?’ consultation meeting in February. ‘Why do we expect moral leadership to come from corporations and science?’ asks Tickell, ‘Surely the meaningful nature of the arts in society puts it in a position to take a lead on climate action?

The thing we shouldn’t be asking artists to do


Heart of Darkness by Cornelia Parker, 2004 from Earth: art of a changing world, London 2009

This is Climate Action on Cultural Hertitage week – it’s an initiative championed by Bridget McKenzie as a response to the growing number of individuals and organisations calling for a more clearly defined sense of purpose from the arts and heritage sector.  People like Al Tickell of Julie’s Bicycle ask: “Why do we expect moral leadership to come from corporations and science? Surely the meaningful nature of the arts in society puts it in a position to take a lead on climate action?”

There are two aspects to this. Firstly it’s about how we behave ourselves. Art fairs, say, have become an example of the muscularity of the art industry. As curators/critics Maja and Reuben Fowkes have asked,  is this world of global art jamborees a sustainable one? Gustav Metzger’s Reduce Art Flights was one of the artist’s passionate “appeals”, this time to the art world to reconsider how they had been seduced into transporting themselves and their works around the globe. Furtherfield.org’s We Won’t Fly For Art was equally explicit, asking artists to commit to opting out of the high profile career track that conflates your ability to command air tickets with success.

Industries can change the way they behave. Tickell’s work with the music business has already shown how a cultural industry can transform itself in terms of process.

But there’s also the role of art as a spoke in the wheel of culture. Science itself changes nothing. To become a transitional society requires more than policy. The real change must be cultural. So should climate be the subject matter of art?

Pause for thought: Do we want rock stars enjoining us to change our ways? Please God, no. See? If it doesn’t work for rock music, why should it work for other art forms?

In an article being published next week on the RSA Arts & Ecology website, Madeleine Bunting will be arguing strongly against the urge to push artists into an instrumental role in climate:

“The visual arts offer a myriad of powerful ways to think and feel more deeply about our age and our humanity, but it is almost impossible to trace the causal links of how that may feed through to political engagement or behaviour change,” she cautions.

It is time to accept that artists don’t simply  ”do” climate. Even the most obviously campaigning art is of little value if it is simply reducible to being about climate. They may be inspired to create by the facts of science and economics, as Metzger and Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett of Furtherfield were in those examples above, but if you asked them to make art about climate they’d almost certainly run a mile.

What was interesting about the RA exhibition Earth: art of a changing world was the way that made that explicit. Artists like Cornelia Parker and Keith Tyson were clear in saying their pieces that they weren’t necessarily conceived with climate in mind at all, (though both are passionate about the subject). The decision to include Parker’s Heart of Darkness as an a piece of work to make us ponder the destruction of our planet was a curatorial one.

There’s a kind of separation between church and state needed here; institutions shouldn’t just be looking to their carbon footprints, they should be looking to see how they can contextualise this cultural shift with what they show their audiences – whatever the artform. It is up to the curators, directors and art directors to take on this role. In this coming era, we urgently need events, exhibitions and festivals that make us feel more deeply about the change taking place around us – and we need them to find new audiences for those explorations too.

But what we shouldn’t be doing is asking artists to make art about climate.

Read Bridget McKenzie’s Framework for climate action in cultural and heritage organisations

Follow Climate Action on Cultural Hertitage #cach on twitter

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology