Art + Energy

Catch up on our Art + Energy Free Exchange discussion, with artist Ellie Harrison and engineer Paul Drury, discussing art, energy and sustainability.

Ellie Harrison is an artist and activist based in Glasgow. In 2010, she became the first individual artist to publish an Environmental Policy. After breaching its transportation section on several occasions, in 2016 she refused travel in any vehicles for a whole year, as part of her controversial project, The Glasgow Effect. Since 2015 she has been developing the Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund, a new and autonomous funding scheme for radical art and activism powered by renewable energy.

Paul Drury is an engineer who left a 20-year career in the manufacturing industry in 2017 to study for an MSc in Energy and Sustainable Development at De Montfort University. His current research involves the energy efficiency of buildings, evaluating the potential for very low-energy building standards for social housing, and addressing the necessity of accessible, secure, reliable and sustainable energy. He has been offered a scholarship to study for a PhD in Energy Demand Studies at Loughborough University.

This was the first of our Outdoor Institute of Art events, an alternative art school conceived by Yasmin Canvin, with a curriculum consisting of discussions, skills and knowledge sharing events between artists, experts in relevant fields, the arts sector and members of the public.