Dear Culture Declares community,
Here with news/updates and details of The Offer programme for the coming weeks.
The Offer is an open platform for knowledge exchange, discussion and creativity – please get in touch if you would like to host or curate an Offer over the summer months.
Love from the Anchor Circle.
-A number of the The Offer and Evening Offer sessions are now available as a playlist on our YouTube Channel. A selection of the programme will be uploaded week-by-week.
-CITIZENS DECLARE which was inspired by of The Declare Movement has just launched it’s website WWW.CITIZENSDECLARE.ORG. Their vision is to help Citizens understand The Emergency, to work through personal change, connect with others and to visualise and build a better future. They invite the Culture Declares community to make a personal Declaration For Change, to offer feedback on this early version of the site and to share the initiative with their community.
The Offer Programme
Wednesday May 27th
The Offer 11.00-12.30pm
Indigenous Cultures: Representation and Mis-Representation
Select your date and book here for The Offer and The Evening Offer
In the global response to climate and ecological emergency, indigenous communities are very much on the front line, but their voices are rarely heard and they have little control over how they are represented. Join a discussion with, Jeremy Dennis, contemporary fine art photographer and a tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, NY, whose work explores indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation, Thiago Jesus, People’s Palace Projects, who will talk about their work in the Brazilian Amazon and Sarah Shenker, Senior Researcher with Survival International who work alongside tribal peoples around the world.
Facilitated by Polly Gifford from Complicité.
This session has been inspired by Complicité’s production The Encounter, that will be available to watch online for free, from 15-25 May (See Complicité website).
Wednesday May 27th
The Evening Offer 19.30-21.00
with pianist Sarah Nicolls
Select your date and book here for the Offer and the Evening Offer
This event is a chance to watch and listen to some of Sarah’s piano and text work and talk generally about making artistic pieces about the climate and ecological emergency, engaging a variety of audiences and how the current crisis might shape future making and sharing.
Sarah Nicolls is a leading UK pianist, composer and inventor of the ‘Inside-Out Piano’, a re-shaped grand piano designed so that Sarah can play using the strings as well as the keys to make other-worldly sounds. In 2018, Sarah began composing ’12 Years’, a one-hour recital-story about climate change in which she uses spoken headlines, real interviews and speeches mixed with fictional phone calls between family members who urge each other to worry less or do more. Sarah has also been working with cellist Maja Bugge on a stand-up/concert/audience interaction piece and Maja will join in the conversation.
Background Reading: http://sarahnicolls.com/the-musical-activist/
Coming up in June:
Art, Ecology, Emergency: Sustaining Practice
Wednesday 17 June 2020, 11.00-12.30 and 19.30-21.00
Book here
Organised by the University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute and the Eden Project, this two-part, free online event explores the intersections of artistic practice and ecology, bringing together artists, producers and academics to share their experiences and their research.
The Offer (part 1) 11-12.30pm will focus on curatorial and academic perspectives, exploring the relationships between ecological research, artistic practice and public engagement.
Questions explored will include:
- What kind of ecological knowledge do we need to creatively navigate our way through crisis and uncertainty?
- How can ecological expertise inform creative practice?
- Are we all ecologists now?
Host: Caitlin DeSilvey: Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Exeter
Speakers: Lucia Pietroiusti: Curator, General Ecology, Serpentine Galleries, London; co-curator, The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish, Dr Erini Saratsi: University of Reading, lead author on ‘Valuing Arts & Arts Research’ (2019)
The Evening Offer (part 2) 7.30pm – 9.00pm will focus on artists’ practice and modes of engaging with ecological research.
Questions explored will include:
- How can contemporary art practice open up social, ecological and geological perspectives on landscape and place?
- As artists making work in rural Cornwall, how do local geographies and communities inform and sustain your personal artistic practice?
- Can art play a role in helping us reflect on our individual relationships and responsibilities to nature?
Host : Misha Curson: Senior Curator at the Eden Project Ltd and Eden Project International Ltd
Speakers: Bram Thomas Arnold: artist, pedestrian, writer; Arts and Culture, University of Exeter Creative Fellow 2018/2019, Sara Bowler: artist and co-founder of the Goonhilly Village Green Project
The Offer is hosted on Zoom -find a simple user guide here. For upcoming programme details, announcements and community click here. If you would like to curate or contribute to The Offer or The Evening Offer please send your ideas and proposals to culturedeclares@gmail.com
