Headsup: funding proposal sent for Deep Green Community Art

Workspaces Culture Squad
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We sent in an application in response to a call by Allianz Kulturstiftung (DE): Encouraging culture for an open society. Below a short description.
Practically, the idea is to build an artistic add-on to The Reef communal way of living, by creating solarpunk art.

If anyone is on the lookout for other calls, know that this concept and application are reusable and adaptable to something else people want to do. Get in touch!

Short summary:

Deep Green community art for sustainable living of the 99%. A networked effort to create solutions for low carbon living and behavioral change, starting with committed communities ready to implement them. We believe that artistic practices can help make a green lifestyle more aspirational. Three vibrant ‘curatorial hubs’ will show how change is possible. Deep green community art is:

  • Co-created: professional artists, social innovators and diverse city dwellers collaborate online and install the work in the cultural spaces
  • Functional: practical artistic artefacts respond to concrete needs of spaces (i.e. energy saving, waste reduction etc)
  • Replicable: the works are all created using an open process and are open source.
  • Empowering: we blaze the trail for many out there looking for new ways.

Activities would take place in two types of spaces.

  • Online: the edgeryders active community platform https://edgeryders.eu/c/culture-squad
  • Onsite at each hub’s location: The Reef (BE), The Place in Bedford (UK), and Blivande in Stockholm (SE).

Three phases are tightly integrated with each other:

  1. Co-creative online process (Mar/Apr 2019). Each partner launches an open call for ‘deep green’ art works, inviting project ideas, people and artists altogether. It results in three artists appointed to coordinate an act of community production.
  2. Community workshops in partners’ spaces (May). Three day sessions where artists and community members produce, install and exhibit the art. Walk-in, inclusive workshops.
  3. Documentation and dissemination (Jun/Jul 2019). Ongoing networked storytelling ensures all the ideas presented can circulate broadly on the Internet and involve new people in the process. Following the workshops, a sustained translocal campaign will showcase and advocate deep green artefacts for sustainable urban living for the 99%.
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Maybe to add to this - I have also submitted a proposal for Democracy needs Imagination and Allianz Kulturstiftung for Art of 14sqm - with Blivande and Experimentelles Zukunftslabor as partners, tackling the challenges of gentrification and issues with access to quality spaces in capital cities. I would be happy to work on this topic further, looking for artistic language and practices that tackle these challenges, but first let’s see if we get anything approved.

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if you reframe this as a standalone call for contributions/suggestions of calls ahead of the festival then @anon82932460 can push it out into the world. I am amount to dive into the spaces and contexts where I might be able to draw in some interesting leads too.

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We’re looking at a few UK funders to deliver capital improvements to the building here, with a deep green agenda. I will also be looking at the options around arts-led projects, and working out how these might be added in to an ER bid/project.
Feels like if we get 1 successful fund for this a few more will tumble together.

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I have to say, I have not many expectations from cultural funds, I never understand what they are really looking for. In the future I would much rather add the art part to an existing, and bigger proposal for environmental funding, social innovation etc.

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That’s fair enough, but i’ve found that non-arts funding almost never understands the value of arts initiatives.
From UK arts funders i’d say what they want is to know that the idea will reach a large number of people and someone will take lots of nice, glossy pictures of smiling faces that they can put in their annual report.

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Hi everyone, just a notice that we didn’t get it through, so we will have to look elsewhere for this kind of project - it’s at the intersection of civic and artistic, tough one!
Onwards, and ping me if you come across other relevant calls (thanks @alex_stef for sending this one our way <3)!