What can culture and creativity do for the climate challenge?

The climate crisis is unfolding all around us as the defining episode of the 21st century.

While the international climate change negotiations take place in Katowice, we will gather artists and those working in the arts and creative industries to share their inspirational projects, and tell the story of how culture and creativity are a critical part of the solution to climate change and other environmental challenges.

Creative Climate Leadership is a Creative Europe co-funded programme for artists and cultural professionals to explore the cultural dimensions of climate change, and take action with impact, creativity and resilience.

This one-day event will be a dialogue between the cultural sector, artists, environmental experts and policymakers. Please feel free to join for part of or all of the day.

SPEAKERS (FULL AGENDA FOLLOWS BELOW):

Cecylia Malik, artist, Poland

Lucy Neal, Creative Associate, Encounters Arts, UK

Shelley Castle, Creative Associate, Encounters Arts UK

Marilyn Averill, Senior Fellow with the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School, USA

Michal Sládek, Production Manager, Pohoda Festival, Slovakia

*Gaja Mežnarić Osole, designer, Symbiocene / Trajna Collective, Slovenia

*Jessica Sim, NADAS Istanbul, Turkey

*Michael Soro, Native Events, Ireland

Milica Đilas, EXIT Festival

Laura Pando, Head of Programmes and Operations, Julie’s Bicycle

Vesna Sokolovska, Green Culture Montenegro

*Creative Climate Leadership alumni

What will the programme cover?

As our Creative Europe co-funded project draws to a close, this event will weave together the learning, creativity, and experiences of the Creative Climate Leadership programme and lay the foundations for what comes next.

We will explore the different ways artists and creative professionals are engaging with questions of climate change and environmental sustainability: from reducing the environmental impact of their own work, to programming, experimentation, creativity and design spilling over into environmental themes. We will discuss what it will take to support and scale up this work across the globe, how we can work effectively in different political and cultural contexts, and how we make visible the Creative Climate movement across the world.

Who is this event for?

Artists and creative professionals, individuals working at cultural and educational institutions, culture and environment funders, national and regional policymakers, political and civic participants attending the COP24 international climate change conference in neighbouring Katowice - anyone who wants to learn more and be immersed and inspired by the spectrum of creative action on climate change and other environmental challenges.

How can I take part?

Register and show up! Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Note: this event will be held in English.

Please inform us at the time of booking if you have any specific access requirements to participate fully in the event and we will be happy to accommodate these as far as possible. Please email chiara@juliesbicycle.com directly with any queries.

AGENDA:

10:30 – 11:00 Registration – tea and coffee will be available

11:00 – 11:15 Welcome

11:15 – 11:30 Introductions

11:30 – 11:45 Soapbox: Laura Pando, Head of Programmes and Operations, Julie’s Bicycle, UK

Science tells us that the window of opportunity to reimagine and re-create a future within 1.5 degrees of global warming is closing rapidly. What is the role of artists, and creative professionals and institutions? Julie’s Bicycle will explore how the creative climate movement is shaping different responses to environmental challenges, the experiences and learning of the Creative Climate Leadership programme, and the kind of creative and cultural leadership and ambition we need going forward.

11:45 – 12:00 Soapbox: Marilyn Averill, Senior Fellow with the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School, USA

Marilyn will provide an overview of the current status of international climate negotiations, what we need to achieve to avoid climate breakdown, what the COP climate change conference process means to citizens, the key challenges faced by negotiators, and where we should focus our efforts to make a difference.

12:00 – 12:15 Soapbox: Cecylia Malik, artist, Poland

Cecylia Malik is an artist and activist working at the intersection of environmental and socio-political issues and ‘citizens’ rights to the city’. She has initiated two national-level ecological campaigns in Poland: ‘Siostry Rzeki’ (River Sisters) and ‘Matki Polki na wyrębie’ (Polish Mothers at tree felling), against mass logging of trees. Here, she speaks about her work, the driving force behind her ideas, and what she thinks the role of the arts is in facing international environmental challenges.

12:15 – 13:00 Discussion: the Creative Climate Movement

• What are the role(s) of artists and creative professionals in addressing climate and environmental challenges?
• What is needed to scale up this response globally and make it more visible?
• How can we empower artists/creative professionals to play active roles in determining our futures? What skills do we need to develop as a creative community?
• How can policy processes and policymakers work more effectively with artists?

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch and networking - Lunch provided will be 100% vegan.

14:00 – 14:10 Soapbox: Creative Climate Leader: Michael Soro, Native Events, Ireland

Michael Soro is an events professional developing and promoting ecologically sustainable practices. His work ranges from building bespoke mobile solar power units for outdoor events, to programming talks on sustainability at festivals, to establishing a space for the creative re-use and upcycling of set an exhibition materials in Dublin. He is an alumni of Creative Climate Leadership Wales, 2017.

14:10 – 14:20 Soapbox: Michal Sládek, Production Manager, Pohoda Festival, Slovakia

Pohoda Festival is a music festival of 30,000 capacity that takes place annually in Trencin, Slovakia. Michal will talk about Pohoda Festival’s ecological activities and how the festival has worked to reduce its environmental impacts and inspire audiences, winning the Go Group Green Operations Award winner at the European Festival Awards in 2017.

14:20 – 14:30 Soapbox: Creative Climate Leader Gaja Mežnarić Osole, Trajna/Symboicene, Slovenia

Gaja is a designer, working in cross-disciplinary fields between design, ecology and participation. Through various interdisciplinary projects she explores ways of practicing design by embedding current societal needs as well as possibilities that have emerged from economical crisis and environmental depletion. Since 2017, she runs an NGO Trajna with her working partner Andrej Koruza. Their main interest lies in exploring multispecies dynamics by introducing new perspectives on the subject of invasive alien plants. In collaboration with the City of Ljubljana, Waste management company Snaga and others they initiated several R&D projects, where they look for their useful properties as a basis for setting up new circular economies.

14:30 – 15:00 Discussion: Creative Laboratories

• How do we reduce the environmental impact of our creative work?
• How do we work in contexts where environmentally sustainable supply chains may not be available?
• What does it mean to embody our values through the way we work?
• How can we as a sector help experiment and support the design and development of new sustainable technologies, cultures, ways of doing things?

15:00 – 15:30 Break – tea and coffee will be available

15:30 – 15:40 Soapbox: Lucy Neal and Shelley Castle, Creative Associates, Encounters Arts, UK

Theatremaker Lucy Neal and artist Shelley Castle are co-designers of Walking Forest, drawing inspiration from trees and the forest ecosystem; Suffragette acts of historic disobedience and the growing call today for rights of nature in our legal system. They will speak about their work, and their perspectives on the arts as catalysts for change.

15:40 – 15:50 Soapbox: Creative Climate Leader Jessica Sim, NADAS Istanbul, Turkey

Jess is a curator and artist and co-founder of NADAS in Istanbul. NADAS is a creative house dedicated to urban biodiversity, supporting projects that value the diversity of urban life and relationships between people and their environments. Jess is an alumni of Creative Climate Leadership Wales, 2017.

16:00 – 16:10 Soapbox: Vesna Sokolovska, Green Culture Montenegro

Vesna is the founder of Krug (International Centre for Sustainable Cultural Collaboration) through which she promotes the culture of the Western Balkans in the UK. She is also the founder and organiser of Green Culture Montenegro, a platform bringing together cultural and environmental experts to collectively explore sustainability. Together with Julie’s Bicycle, krug is one of the partners in the Creative Climate Leadership project.

16:10 – 16:20 Soapbox: Milica Đilas, EXIT Festival

EXIT is an award-winning summer music festival which is held at the Petrovaradin Fortress in the city of Novi Sad, Serbia. The festival was founded in 2000 as a student movement, fighting for democracy and freedom in Serbia and the Balkans. Social responsibility is still key aspect of the festival activities. EXIT foundation is a part of the team of EXIT festival responsible for social activism. Using the power of the EXIT brand, EXIT has undertaken a range of environmental initiatives aimed at mobilising public opinion for the environment.

16:20 – 16:50 Discussion: Shifting Culture

• How do we make and create work on environmental themes in contexts that can be challenging, disinterested, or hostile?
• What is the power of the arts in such surroundings?
• How can we mobilise people for the environment?
• How do we look after our own wellbeing, and support others?
• How do we see and foster the Creative Climate Movement as a connected whole that can lean on and learn from each other?

16:50 – 17:00 Closing remarks

17:00 – 17:30 Drinks Reception

17:30 EVENT ENDS

NOTE: this agenda remains subject to changes in timings and line-up.

How do I get there?

If you’re in Katowice for COP24, travelling to Krakow to join the Creative Climate Leadership event is easy.

You can:

• Take a train from Katowice train station to Krakow Glowny train station, which takes around 2 hours and costs 35 PLN (ca 8 EURO)
• Take a flixbus from Katowice bus station to Krakow MDA, which takes just over 1 hour and costs from 2 EURO (prices may go up if fewer seats are available)

Teatr Laznia Nowa is around a half hour tram journey from the train station (which is also where the flixbus terminates). Trams run every few minutes. Take the number 5 eight stops towards Wzgorza Krzeslawi to stop Czyzyny, then take the number 73 four stops towards Kopiec Wandy to stop Struga. The theatre is ca 500m or 7 minutes’ walk from the stop. 40-minute tram tickets cost PLN 3,80 per journey (ca 0.88 EURO).

Book train

Book flixbus

Tram journey planner Remember to stamp/validate your tram ticket on boarding!

How did this event come about?

Creative Climate Leadership is a Creative Europe co-funded project coordinated by Julie's Bicycle involving seven partners from across Europe: Pina, On the Move, Ars Baltica, COAL, EXIT Foundation, and krug/Green Culture Montenegro.

Two five-day intensive residential Creative Climate Leadership training courses took place in Wales, UK and Koper, Slovenia in 2017, with participants from all over the world including Australia, Belgium, China, France, Indonesia, Ireland, Montenegro, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK, and Zimbabwe. Participants included artists and cultural leaders and practitioners, freelancers and representatives from organisations, policymakers, and funders across a wide range of creative disciplines including theatre and performing arts, music festivals, fashion design and visual arts. Their work expresses the breadth of the creative movement: from activism to design, from institutional leadership to policy–making.

For more information, please visit www.creativeclimateleadership.com

Leading on the organisation and curation of this event in Krakow on the occasion of COP24 are Green Culture Montenegro, EXIT Festival, and Julie's Bicycle.