Details and sign up here. It’s free!

The future of the North lies in its capacity to imagine, develop and enact economic, social, environmental and cultural strategies for sustainable development. This workshop explores the conceptual and imaginative insights of established experts including academics, policy makers, environmental activists and creative practitioners, to open up questions of sustainability and resilience and consider the role of arts and humanities research.

• How can the arts contribute to making the North sustainable?

• What models and practices have been developed historically and how can we best learn from them?

• In what ways has arts and humanities research uncovered new ways in which to imagine and engineer the North’s future?

Case studies, projects and interventions will be presented to generate specific areas for discussion and identify what factors make the North sustainable and resilient. We will explore historical models of community innovation and consider how the involvement of artistic communities and practitioners can lead to collaborative ‘problem solving’.

The workshop will take place in the home of an exciting new research-led community interest company, the Biospheric Foundation, which is dedicated to providing practical solutions to urban poverty through collaborative community projects on food production and distribution.

Programme:

9.00 Heritage walking tour: meet at Albert Square and walk to Biospheric Foundation (optional – warm clothing and walking shoes required)

10.00 Arrival and coffee

10.15 Introduction and welcome, Abigail Gilmore & Steve Hutchings, University of Manchester; Dinah Birch, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange) University of Liverpool

10.20 Mark Llewellyn, Head of Research, Arts and Humanities Research Council – Partnerships in Arts and Humanities

10.35 Session 1: Arts, cultural ecologies and rural economies – working with the past for the future

 Martyn Hudson, Newcastle University – Curating the Northumbrian commons

 Deborah Chambers and David Baines, Newcastle University – Public art, the environment and private sponsorship: representing ‘Restoration first’

 Helen Rees Leahy, University of Manchester & Belle Vue Productions – The Past in the Present: Grizedale Arts and a New Cultural Ecology in the Lake District

11.45 Keynote – Pam Warhust, Incredible Edible

12.30 Lunch and tours of The Biospheric Foundation Vincent Walsh, Chief Executive, Biospheric Foundation CIC

14.00 Session 2: ‘Art-washing’ or ark building? Case studies in the art of social change

 James Cave, University of York – Building the Ark: developing a community ‘arts hub’ for the Hyde Park area of Leeds

 Joanne Tippett, University of Manchester – RoundView case study

 Ben Jones, Newcastle University – ‘Sustainability, community action and social media (what if no one turns up…?)’

 Stuart Bastik, Art Gene – Re-visioning Utopia

15.00 Coffee break

15.30 Workshop discussion, facilitated by Gaby Porter

16.15 Closing remarks

16.30 Drinks reception

Please contact jack.welsh@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk if you have any accessibility or dietary requirements.