ART IN THE CLIMATE ERA

ROOTS FOR THE FUTURE IS A COLLECTIVE OF ARTISTS WORKING TO CREATE A CLIMATE ART ASSEMBLY IN IRELAND.

Join Us For Phase One

The aim of our work is to understand, promote and pioneer methodologies within the arts and culture sector that are instrumental in shifting behaviour and adaptation as we face climate breakdown.

We want to create a Climate Art Assembly based on the Citizens Assembly model.

WHY

We understand that the Arts Sector is not a big emitter of carbon and so will not have a big part to play in mitigation but we can see that art and the social contract that forms through collective experience will form the backbone of how we adapt as a society.

The Creative Sector is essential for climate adaptation. We believe it is critical we use this time to learn what the ecology of our own community is, where the interdependencies lie, and what unique opportunities for collective action could emerge through a specific Climate Art Assembly.

This is a research development which will allow us to build the template for a Climate Art Assembly in 2025.

By embedding in four counties across the four provinces we will spend time researching and gathering maps of the creative ecology of the specific place including the artists, arts organisations and arts workers who contribute to the culture of each county. Our aim with this research is to create a baseline that exposes the kinds of people, places and types of work happening, and to build an in-depth understanding of where the specific adaptation pressures and possibilities lie. The outcomes of these residencies will form the bedrock of the approach and themes of a Climate Art Assembly of artists, arts sector workers, administrators, crafts people and arts organisations.

As it stands there is little to no research available about the arts sector and we feel that a creative approach to gathering critical data at a local level will provide the keys to creating an assembly that responds to what is present and what is needed.

This work is an effort to gather and layer the dynamic and complex range of art and culture in different counties

PRIORITIES

  • Stay true to your practice

  • Connect with place, people and other species

  • We are interested in non-traditional mapping as a critical tool (mapping emotions, mapping conversations, story-maps, system thinking, deep mapping, oral traditions of place shaping, mapping uncertainty or invisible ideas, mapping time)

  • Acknowledging the limits of the project as a pilot and prioritising personal care - not trying to hold more than is good and balanced as workload for an individual.

  • Emphasis on connection building/network building and starting conversations as opposed to quantifying outcomes

  • Discover the work that is already happening or ongoing

  • Hopes as a verb; creating an active response to building hope