SPRINGBOARD - Edinburgh local assembly for creative climate action

Creative Carbon Scotland is working with cultural and sustainability organisations and networks across Scotland to deliver a series of local assemblies for creative climate action. At the Edinburgh assembly, Creative Carbon Scotland is working with Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network – ECCAN, Creative Edinburgh, EVOC and freelance artists Rebecca Palmer, Hazel Darwin-Clements and Ink Asher Hemp.

SPRINGBOARD brings together artists, cultural and sustainability organisations, climate workers, activists, local businesses, third-sector organisations and anyone interested in collaborating to form powerful local networks for creative climate action. Local assemblies are an opportunity to connect with other practitioners in your region to address climate change collectively. These local assemblies are for anyone working or volunteering in the climate or environmental sector, the arts, screen, creative industries, museums, heritage and libraries. For our Edinburgh local assembly, we have chosen to provide a space for local organisations and artists to host workshops that will encourage more collaboration between culture and climate within existing networks and projects.

Lunch, tea and coffee will be provided. We will also provide a project sharing table, so if you have a creative or climate related project you want to share on the day, please bring materials to add to the table, eg publication, flyers, art objects. A part of the day will take place outside so remember warm, waterproof clothes.

Sign up process

At the event you will be able to attend two workshops. In the sign-up process we ask you to choose three and we will try to accommodate everyone’s preferences the best we can.

Workshops throughout the day

Rest, reset, resistance

Workshop organiser: Artist and Creative Director, Rebecca Palmer

A workshop rooted in somatic art and body practices, that offers climate activists and artists the opportunity to take the outside inside. In order to rest and grow, to be able to reset and thrive in exhausting work environments and resist the pressure of climate anxieties, we will intimately focus on ourselves, in nature. Listening, breathing and moving. Let’s take time to observe how even at the baldest time of the year, the earth offers multitudes of life. Let’s see what happens when we take those feelings back into our practice. This workshop takes place outside. Remember warm, waterproof clothes.

Please be aware this workshop will work as a restful break for everyone after lunch and is therefore not among the workshop choices.

Creating safe migration pathways between arts and climate communities

Workshop organisers: Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network – ECCAN and Hazel Darwin-Clements

Grassroots community organisations need artists, and artists need to engage with climate action. But passing between the two worlds can be challenging.

In this practical workshop with Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network – ECCAN and Hazel Darwin-Clements, we will collectively and creatively reimagine the pathways that connect us. What would those thriving partnerships look like? Can we find a way to pedal in tandem? We hope this workshop leads to increased, practical opportunities that inspire and support artists and climate groups to collaborate meaningfully in Edinburgh. If you’re coming from a climate action background, or an arts background, or both, we’d love you to come along and share your ideas.

Re-imagining the centre of our communities

Workshop organiser: EVOC – Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council

Community centres across Scotland are in a steady state of decline. With local authority budgets under constant pressure, falling popularity with residents and less people joining management committees, iit’s time to rethink how we run community centres in Edinburgh, and reimagine cultural venues as community spaces.

This creative workshop will be about reimagining local assets such as community centres and cultural buildings, and re-centring them as spaces for transformational change, which can be a beacon for residents to tackle local issues and drive change. EVOC’s Climate Forum and partners will facilitate a very hands-on and playful set of activities where we can creatively imagine. We urgently need to draw attention to community centres and cultural spaces and reconceive how they can best serve local people, habitats and planet. These buildings could be at the frontline of a renewed focus on community-based climate action. This workshop will help us bring together the creative community and people focused on improving buildings, connecting and framing community wealth building on a local level.

Unlocking the power of our collective imagination in climate action

Workshop organiser: Ink Asher Hemp (they/them), multidisciplinary artist and facilitator making work about care in the climate crisis informed by queerness and disability justice.

We are what we need – but sometimes that’s hard to see. It can be easy to focus on the things we don’t have rather than the things we do. This is a creative space to map our collective skills and resources and match them to areas of need. Using exercises to strengthen collaborative dreaming, and in turn, practical action to gain a new perspective on the power we already hold in caring for the things we love.

The aims are to:

• Strengthen collaborative dreaming and imagining, because this is integral to our collective comprehension of what change is possible.
• Support people to come away with something they require to progress with a project.
• Help creative practitioners to understand the value their expertise can play in change making.
• Increase the skills of local organisations to use creative, activity and make their work more accessible to those most impacted by this crisis within their communities.

Futureproof: sustainable practice

Workshop organiser: Creative Edinburgh

Creative Edinburgh is delighted to be delivering The Sustainable Practice & Innovation Project with support from the Scottish Government Ecosystem Fund from October 2023 till end of March 2024. The project is designed to strengthen Scottish creative networks through a special focus placed on supporting creative freelancers on their Net Zero journey. They have been delivering a range of workshops, events, resources and a digital platform for the benefit of the Creative Edinburgh community of 6300 members. It is an ambitious, multifaceted initiative with the overarching goal of catalysing the widespread adoption of sustainable practices within the creative industry.

The project and associated resources will be introduced to the participants during a bespoke workshop. The workshop is aimed to help creatives understand practical steps in making their practice more sustainable and to increase future collaboration between freelancers and climate organisations in Edinburgh. As part of the workshop we will discuss:

• How can the sector support organisations effectively enhance climate literacy among creative freelancers and practitioners?
• What should accessible platforms that demystify climate concepts look like?
• What might empower you to make your working practice more sustainable?
• How can we simplify complex information and foster understanding of the climate crisis and the significance of sustainable behaviours among creatives?
• How can we effectively future-proof your practice/business and support Scotland’s ambitious Net Zero goals?

Do you need support to attend?

Everyone is welcome at our events.

We know that it’s sometimes difficult for everyone to attend because of unintended barriers. We want to make any necessary adjustments to our events so that no one is excluded. These adjustments will, most likely, differ from event to event and person to person, so we need your help to get it right. This venue has a lift, a hearing loop, accessible toilets. Please inform us of your accessibility requirements for this event during the Eventbrite registration process or get in touch by email [email protected] if you would like to provide more information or ask any questions. You’ll understand that some adjustments may take more time to arrange than others, so we appreciate you giving us as much notice as possible about what you need so that we can support you to get the most out of this event. Please see our Safe Working Spaces Statement for more information.