In June 2024, ACT hosted an eight day festival focused on the arts, writes Amanda Cole. The twin aims were to inspire people to engage with the climate and ecological crisis through the arts and to help people connect to their imaginative and emotional responses to encourage change.
The festival was a great success, with over 1200 attendees at 12 venues across Teignbridge, and 23 events, including exhibitions, performances, music, dance, poetry, film and theatre.
A great deal of feedback and data was collected. Please read the full reportto see the detail and some interpretations of what this innovative occasion could mean for other organisations, and for all of us concerned with climate and ecological activism.
Our great programme of events include hands-on workshops, discussions and explorations, and talks. Visit the daily timetable to see what’s on when. Here’s a selection of the events, some of which you need to book in advance.
These workshops with artist Judy Harington are running in Sherborne House, Newton Abbot, on Saturday 22nd June from 1.30pm-3.30pm. Tickets, from Eventbrite, are free but must be booked in advance.
Help create artwork with plastic that we use every day. Where does it come from? Why do we need it? What happens when we throw it away? Bring any plastic items/rubbish that interest you for projection or drawing onto the wall. You can draw the shadows or add your thoughts about plastic pollution. Join the discussion and learn why we need to reduce plastic in the world!
Workshops are open to all, but children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
This event on Saturday 22nd June from 11am-3pm at the Courtenay Centre in Newton Abbot features a range of exhibitors and a programme of speakers and workshops. The workshops are for people of all ages and the sessions on offer include local children’s authors, yoga taster sessions and speakers talking about everything from wild swimming to bush craft. The workshop and speakers sessions are FREE but tickets MUST be prebooked. There are also outdoor activities and lots of exhibitors.
Mandy Cole will share some of the poetry and prose by Indigenous Voices that moved her to commit to taking climate action, and try to communicate the wisdom and the relationship first nation people seem to have with the earth. She invites you to bring along short pieces (not necessarily indigenous), or natural objects, which have been important to you in your connection with climate change. As a facilitated workshop, this event is participatory with the aim of sharing and feeling rather than debating, and takes place on Tuesday 25th June at 7.30pm in the Courtenay Centre in Newton Abbot.
Come and find out about the extraordinary life of Devon’s Swifts and how you can help them on on Tuesday 25th June, 7.30pm, at the Teign Valley Community Hall, Christow. Swifts are amazing birds. They come here for just three months of every year to breed, but their numbers are declining, mostly because of a lack of nest sites. But we can help. This year, the Devon Swift Project has installed Swift boxes in all the Teign Valley churches. Many people have put nest boxes on their houses too. A display of Swift boxes, advice and information will also be available. Entry to this event is free, with donations to Devon Birds for the project.
Come along to the Courtenay Centre on Friday 28th June, 7pm, for this one hour creative conversation about the small acts of kindness that make a better world: fairer, healthier and much more climate friendly. It will start with four short stories from local people about how it feels to try to make good change happen. Then everyone can join in, so we can be inspired by the patterns and energy we share in caring for people, places and planet. Arrive at 7pm for light refreshments and then a prompt 7.30pm start until 8.30pm, and carry on talking afterwards if you’d like to.
Ashburton Arts Centre is hosting the final performance of the ACT with the Arts Climate Festival on Saturday 29th June at 7.30pm featuring four choirs. You can buy tickets or reserve them.
The choirs
The South Devon Singers Community Choir has included environmentally-themed and science-inspired choral songs since it was founded 20 years ago by its MD, composer David Haines. The choir will perform sad, funny, angry, and inspirational songs inspired by humanity’s relationship with Planet Earth
Torbay Folk Choir is part of Wren Music, a charity building communities with music for over 40 years. Led by professional musician Sarah Owen, who passionately believes everyone can sing, the choir is open to anyone and there are no auditions. With a repertoire of both contemporary and traditional folk songs, the choir sings a range of folk songs hailing from Devon, from the wider UK and around the world.
The Sing and Sign Jukebox Choir is an inclusive choir made up of individuals and professionals from the Learning Disabled community their singing. Their mission is to encourage as many people as possible to learn some basic signs in order to open more channels of communication in the community.
Plymouth Climate Choir is a community/street choir that is part of the ever-growing Climate Choir movement which started in Bristol and has spread throughout the country. There are 13 choirs at present comprising over 500 singers. All of the songs, the score and audio recordings, can be found on climatechoirmovement.org. All the members of the choir care passionately about the planet and love singing so use their voices to peacefully protest, calling for a stop to any activity that is harming our planet such as the funding of fossil fuel extraction.
The official opening of the ACT with the Arts Climate Festival will be loudly announced by the Tano Taiko Drummers at 10.30am on Saturday 22nd June at St Leonard’s Clock Tower in Newton Abbot.
The audience will then be welcomed by Izzy and Tiana, two young people concerned about what the future holds if we fail to take action on the climate and ecological emergency.
It’s a Wonderful World But it needs our help! Who’s doing the most to protect our precious planet?
And we will also be unveiling the Tree of Hope, created by local schoolchildren.
Drawing attention to the sixth mass extinction now happening, environmental artists Frances Gynn and Sally Fisher invite you to take part in a Public Erasure (pictured right). Public Erasures draw attention to the increase in endangered species due to climate change, habitat loss and plastic pollution, with the audience invited to ‘erase’ a drawing of the featured species.
You might also bump into Poly Mer, an artist drawing attention to plastic pollution, who will be wandering around during the festival. If you see her, please stop and say hello!
Visual contemporary artists will showcase their work at the ACT with the Arts Climate Festival from Saturday 22nd – Saturday 29th June 2024 in two galleries in Newton Abbot, and at the Paradiso Gallery in Bovey Tracey. The exhibitions will display thought-provoking visual artworks on themes of climate change awareness, climate justice, and endangered species.
Artists exhibiting include: Frances Gynn RWA, Nigel Moores, Beatrice Corsetti, Tuong Nguyen, Simon Temblett, Sarah Lovett, Judy Harington, Mabel Harris, and Jo Holt.
Vietnamese artist Tuong Nguyen, says: “The festival is a valuable opportunity for me to join other artists in sharing ideas and inspiration to tackle climate issues through art for more people. I believe the more we sense and are aware of nature’s value and its connection to us, the more responsibly and actively we will live and act for the environment.”
Tuong’s abstract artworks (pictured left) seek to promote dialogues on wellbeing and sustainable development. The collage work she is showing at the exhibition serves as a visual reminder of the kinship and interdependence between human, non-humans and nature.
Dartmoor-based artist Nigel Moores takes his inspiration from the natural environment (pictured right). He says: “The act of painting might be solitary, but the aim is always about communication. I am interested in a visual language that is open and not tied down by definitions, and a creative process that reflects the collective consciousness. There is only one main issue facing the collective consciousness and that is of course the climate crisis. We must face this together.”
Jo Holt is a British contemporary artist specialising in art installation investigating themes around otherworldliness and the ethereal. Her contribution to the ACT exhibition is ‘Eye Of The Beholder’, an interactive artwork that invites the audience to take part. The piece speaks of the beauty of coral, the tragedy of coral bleaching and the magnificence of biofluorescence.
Environmental artist Frances Gynn is increasingly concerned about the human impact on nature. Her Public Erasures draw attention to the species endangered by climate change, habitat loss and plastic pollution. For the ACT exhibition, the featured species is the Hazel Dormouse. Frances will invite the audience to ‘erase’ a painting of multiple dormice.
Beatrice Corsetti is an origami artist whose work (pictured right) serves as a poignant reminder of our interconnectedness with the natural world. Beatrice’s inclusive approach invites individuals from all walks of life to engage with her art, igniting a collective dialogue on the importance of environmental stewardship.
Bonsai artist Simon Temblett takes his artistic inspiration directly from the natural world, working with weathered wood, fire and ceramic, as well as taking an avant-garde approach to bonsai (pictured left). Ultimately his medium has become the living things themselves. “Cutting carbon emissions to zero will not be enough to fix our world,” says Simon.
“Nothing short of a change in human consciousness can alter the course upon which we are set. It is the duty of science to expose the truth that makes the case for change, and the responsibility of history to reveal the errors of our past. It is the task of politics to negotiate the terms for transformation, but it is the work of art to change our minds.”
Environmental artist Judy Harington is passionate about connecting people to the natural world, and caring for what we have left of our precious ecosystem. In 2022 she highlighted issues of plastic pollution through the funded project: ‘Waste of Our Time’ which culminated in workshops, a collaborative exhibition and performance. Find Judy’s plastic packaging bodiesThe Insatiables at The Maltings Taphouse, Newton Abbot. They remind us that we are all implicated in producing the mountains of plastic rubbish that end up in our rivers and seas.
Paradiso Gallery in Bovey Tracey is running GREEN!, an exhibition highlighting many green and environmental issue featuring thought provoking artworks that deal with climate emergency, deforestation, recycling, pollution and loss of species. Throughout the exhibition there will be talks on these subjects, recycled artworks and a sound installation by Skylark fm. The exhibition runs to 20th July.
The Newton Abbot exhibitions take place at Sherborne House, Courtenay Street, Newton Abbot TQ12 2PF, from 10am-4pm, and Maltings Taphouse, Teign Road, Newton Abbot, TQ12 4AA, from 3pm-9pm.
With less than a week to go before the start of our ACT with the Arts Climate Festival, June 22nd-29th, I wanted to update you on all the wonderful events we have organised.
There are now more than 350 artists taking part, plus 1,000 children.
We have events happening in 13 different locations across Teignbridge.
All the artists have given their services free of charge as they want their voices to be included in the effort to raise awareness and concern about climate change. The use of the venues has also been provided free of charge.
There’s lots happening on the opening day of the festival, June 22nd.
The official opening will take place at St Leonard’s Clock Tower in Newton Abbot from 10.30am, with plenty of noise from the Tano Taiko Drummers, a short open-air play by The Bishopsteignton Players, and the unveiling of the Tree of Hope, created by local schoolchildren.
You can also take part in a Public Erasure by artists Frances Gynn and Sally Fisher. Public Erasures draw attention to the increase in endangered species due to climate change, habitat loss and plastic pollution, with the audience invited to ‘erase’ a drawing of the featured species.
You might bump into Poly Mer, an artist drawing attention to plastic pollution, who will be wandering around during the festival. If you see her, please stop and say hello!
The art exhibitions taking place at Sherborne House and the Maltings Taphouse, both in Newton Abbot, open on the first Saturday, and will be open to visitors every day during the festival week.
Drop off any entries for the Children’s Recycled Art Competition at Newton Abbot Library between 10am-2pm. The entries will be displayed until Friday 28th June for everyone to view during normal Library opening hours.
Finally, don’t miss the Nature on Your Doorstep event at the Courtenay Centre in Newton Abbot from 11am-3pm.
The two art exhibitions will display thought-provoking visual artworks on themes of climate change awareness, climate justice, and endangered species.
Artists exhibiting include: Frances Gynn RWA, Nigel Moores, Beatrice Corsetti, Tuong Nguyen, Simon Temblett, Sarah Lovett, Judy Harington, Mabel Harris, and Jo Holt.
Vietnamese artist Tuong Nguyen, says: “The festival is a valuable opportunity for me to join other artists in sharing ideas and inspiration to tackle climate issues through art for more people. I believe the more we sense and are aware of nature’s value and its connection to us, the more responsibly and actively we will live and act for the environment.”
There are performances, exhibitions, film showings and workshops happening throughout the week in different locations, including Teignmouth, Chudleigh, Bovey Tracey and Ashburton.
Action on Climate in Teignbridge (ACT) is to hold its first Act with the Arts Climate Festival in 2024.
ACT is inviting writers, poets, musicians, dancers, artists, actors, schools, and local community groups to join in creating events that engage, excite, illuminate, and explain what our changing climate means for people in the district and what we can all do to make a difference.
The Climate Festival runs from Saturday 22nd June to Saturday 29th June 2024.
The climate and ecological emergency is the biggest challenge facing humanity and the natural world we all rely on.
We need to make it our priority to reduce the carbon emissions that create global warming and minimise our impact on the natural world that is causing the sixth mass extinction.
Engaging with the arts can help us express our feelings. Many of us are fearful for the future if we fail to make the changes needed. We can share our concerns with family, friends, work colleagues and neighbours, and listen to theirs in turn.
Kate Benham, chair of ACT, said: “The idea of our Act with the Arts Climate Festival is to bring awareness via the arts, as we need to make tackling climate change our top priority. The festival will give the people of Teignbridge the chance to find out more and encourage them to help make a difference.”
There will be a wide range of events, exhibitions, workshops, performances, and films throughout Teignbridge, suitable for all ages. Highlights include the opening ceremony on Saturday 22nd June, the Forest of Children’s Wishes, the Nature on the Green event, and exhibitions, workshops and performances throughout the week.
The festival now has its own website, which you can visit here for much more information.
For more information, or to get involved, please contact Paul.
