Fermynwoods Contemporary Art joins other cultural organisations in declaring a Climate and Ecological Emergency.
We are in a state of global climate crisis and have already caused irreversible damage to our planet, its atmosphere, its inhabitants and our future.
“[We] already have the skills [we] need to build a beautiful, sustainable life. Artists are over-skilled and work incredibly hard. We see value where others do not. We are brilliant problem-solvers and tool-users. We have the meta-skill of learning new skills. Artists are connected to intricate and resilient webs of community. Our communities give us resources to grow and stability to fall back on.
Our culture needs [us] to make [our] most visionary work for as long as possible”.
Andrew Simonet, Making Your Life as an Artist
Fermynwoods Contemporary Art supports the Culture Declares initiative. As an organisation that engages with the environment, we seek to extend this thinking into both sustainability for the organisation, for people, and for the natural world, applying the skills, creativity, and resourcefulness of art practice to the world at large, better managing our resources, and seeking to minimise the adverse environmental impact of our work.
Our programme acknowledges, addresses, provokes and discusses the Climate Emergency. We pledge to continue to work with and support our community and local government in tackling this emergency, and we call on others to do the same.
These are our intentions:
We Will Tell the Truth
Governments, and their public broadcasters and cultural agencies, must tell the truth about the Climate and Ecological Emergency, reverse inconsistent policies and communicate the urgency for far-reaching systemic change.
We will communicate with citizens and support them to discover the truth about the emergency and the changes that are needed.
We Will Take Action
Governments must enact legally binding policy measures to reduce emissions to net zero by 2025 and to reduce consumption levels.
We pledge to work towards reducing our emissions by 2025 to net zero (meaning that on balance one’s activities are zero emissions, taking into account all possible greenhouse gas emissions and actions taken to mitigate or offset those emissions).
We will challenge policies and actions of local and national governments and their agencies, where we interact with them, that do not help to reduce emissions or consumption levels.
We will actively work to imagine and model ways that our organisation can regenerate the planet’s resources.
We Are Committed to Justice
The emergency has arisen from deeply systemic injustices. Arts and culture can imagine and forge shifts in the ways we relate to one another and the world, in our values and behaviours.
We will do what is possible to enable dialogue and expression amidst our communities about how the emergency will affect them and the changes that are needed.
We will support demands for more democracy within our civic institutions and government.
We believe that all truth-telling, action and democratic work must be underpinned by a commitment to justice based on intersectional principles, led by and for marginalised people.
This post is our opening declaration, however in order to make this a meaningful declaration we will continue to publish what this means for us as an organisation.