Summit Up
On 25th April, Turning the Tide’s six partners – Fablevision, Scotland – Intercult, Sweden – Instyut Kultury Miejskiej, Poland – Wiener Bildungs Akademie, Austria – Artit, Greece and Dear Hunter, Netherlands) – come together for the Climate and Culture Summit at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA).
For further details of the event, programme and guest speakers, the click here!
Exploring Social Engaged Practice
As we all grappled with the ‘how to’ impact the narratives and realities of global climate change, this webinar explored the potential of interventionist artists employing socially engaged practices to empower local communities and amplify hitherto unheard voices. With questions like: “What exactly is socially-engaged practice or social practice?; What does art/culture have to offer when science can’t fix climate change?; and “Which communities/whose communities are Turning the Tide on climate change?” Drs. Beall and Gardiner (Fablevision), experienced practitioners, address questions which practitioners, policymakers, planners, students and the public are grappling with in respect of finding new, innovative solutions to the problems of the climate change.
These questions form the basis of a large-scale, five-city co-operative co-Creative Europe co-funded project called Turning the Tide (TTT) – involving members of the River Cities network (www.river//cities.net) – which aims to foster ideas and discussion around artists and socially engaged practices within local communities on waterfronts threatened by climate change.
Thumbnail image Dr. t s Beall: Chris Lesley
Cultural Planning – Growing Communities
The seminar delved into the intriguing intersection of cultural mapping and cultural planning, revealing hidden resources in various locations for incorporation into future plans. Featuring Lia Ghilardi, a distinguished European cultural planner, as the esteemed speaker, the session included a thought-provoking presentation followed by a moderated Q&A session by Liz Gardiner. Tailored for artists, socially engaged practitioners, cultural planners, urban planners, policy makers, community leaders, and stakeholders, the event was part of the Turning the Tide (TTT) project. This five-city cooperation initiative, within the River Cities network (www.river//cities.net), aimed to stimulate discussions on artists and socially engaged practices in communities facing climate change threats along waterfronts.
Methodologies of Cultural Mapping
Welcome to the groundbreaking third webinar of the Turning the Tide Project, where innovation meets urban resilience. In this session, we delve into the transformative power of mapping practices and their pivotal role in shaping our cities’ future amidst the challenges of climate change. Our esteemed panel features trailblazers in the field: Dr. Mitch Miller, renowned artist, researcher, and educator, known for pioneering the Dialectogram Illustrative style; Marlies Vermeulen, a visionary PhD candidate and cartopologist, spearheading the field of cartopology; and Remy Kroese, a dynamic researcher, educator, and project manager, driving forward the mission of Dear Hunter & the Institute of Cartopology.
Guiding our dialogue is Dr. Liz Gardiner, a luminary in cultural planning and the executive director of Fablevision.
Turning the Tide Tackles Climate Change
Members of the River Cities Network worked together during the exciting and hugely successful Memory of Water project. Some of the members of that collaboration have continued working together – looking at shared challenges on waterfronts and the possibilities and limitations of artists’ interventions to support future building narratives. In spite of Brexit, the partners have been determined to keep Glasgow and Fablevision in the frame and we are delighted to announce that the follow-on project, called Turning the Tide (TTT) has been successful in achieving a large cooperation project grant for 2024-26. An international Climate & Culture Summit in Glasgow in April 2024 will ‘kick off’ the whole pan European project – a platform for artists and local citizens to impact ‘expert’ dialogue with politicians, developers and planners in Scotland and Europe. The delegation will visit Glasgow during the week of the 22 April 2024 – an opportunity to keep Scotland at the cutting edge of cultural innovation and we are determined to overcome the challenges posed by Brexit that mitigate against ongoing participation. Led by Intercult (Sweden) with members of the River Cities Network, TTT is a creative response to the threat of climate crisis on waterfront cities: inspiring trans-disciplinary dialogue through artistic co-creation, creative cartopological mapping and international cross-sectoral dialogue. With five partners (Intercult, Sweden – Instyut Kultury Miejskiej, Poland – Wiener Bildungs Akademie, Austria – Artit, Greece and Dear Hunter, Netherlands), TTT’s premise assumes climate change can be impacted through cultural planning led by artists and informed participation. Although inspired by Fablevision’s longitudinal practice over 10 years – 6 years supported by Creative Scotland and the City of Glasgow: Riverside Solidarity, 2017-19 and Memory of Water, 2019-2022 – Brexit means exclusion from Creative Europe. Scottish expertise in socially-engaged practice, however, qualifies Fablevision in a consultancy role.
