 If you're a social change theater, it's like you got to go out in the street with a cup and We do that and we once even had a Turkish rock sale because we had gone to Istanbul and we a guy who And I said how'd you like to have a rock sale in your house, and we said hey Gee, can we get ten percent and he said we looked at each other And our eyes lit up. We thought well, that's one way of raising money and we made 4,000 from that road sale, so I don't put anything off the table. I think anything is on the table if you're raising money for varying issues and I think you have to be very inventive and creative as to how you do that And you know, we never know what can fall in your path That is an opportunity in that way, so But but right now My question is what I need to find other theaters besides funding We want to do it again in New York so that we get more exposure And have and can have the chair the opportunity to have other theaters see the play and and I Just recently connected with a director who I hadn't seen in many many years and I Got him to read the play which is not easy and and so he liked he really liked it and so he's pitching the play but You know, he's not pitching it. He's not employed by any theater Anymore he used to have his own here So And he's very discouraged about what people are doing in the theater period because they're not as we know They're not picking the burning issues of the day to present to their audiences Simply because they're afraid or they're self-sensoring themselves or or they have board members who are invested in the fossil fuel industry And they're not going to apply it. It's against the fossil fuel industry So these issues make it really really important to connect with theaters that liked it that are adventurous Want to take risks want to wake their audiences up and So, you know, that's my my main issue All right, so Read back your questions. How do we connect with other theaters who might be interested in this or risk taking adventurous So I'm Work with a group called Musicians United to protect Crystal Bay, which is fighting the pebble mine up in Alaska It's a huge issue, but it's not climate change so my concern is in the sort of siloing that's happening in climate change funding and Like I've been talking to you Josh Fox about how we link fracking to the mining. I really feel like we need to broaden the question To me as far as we can to how to social justice And allow for all the activities that people are doing within that so that we don't get into this I think funders sort of initiated Denial of what's important? So that's my question is how do we have that conversation broadened the definition Okay, I'm due tonight. I'm from London. I Like We're producers my organization is called out to happen. It's it's a very boring name, but we do a lot of I'm the one to take blame for the name. It's about it. It's 35 years old And we do we we produce a lot of sites specifically for engage projects or all sorts of things in the last 10 or Mother knows all this but in the last 10 or 12 years we've got more and more and involved in the issue of climate change and have commissioned and Produced projects about the issue and we've also got involved in how to tour better out to work better out of tour Internationally with an organization called Julius bicycle, which many know about but for me one of them And we've done some fantastic projects, and I'm terribly proud of them We're part of a European network called imagine 2020 which is looking ahead and raise money from the European Funding for a five-year program with this 11 European partners We all sounds like we've got a fortune is one point something million euros, but there's 11 of us in its five years So it's really not huge amount of money, but we do a festival every two years called two degrees festival Which is looking at the issue and some of them are very small engaged projects one to one and things like that some of them a big outdoor project my question always is How How do we get This bigger than the usual suspects having it's the distance the audience you know come anyway because that's totally focused on this issue How do you actually reach people who don't think it's an issue? How do we actually why don't it? I think we do a little bit of it, and then we suddenly know And when you do funny work or serious work or in Gage you still think you're preaching to the Everybody thanks for having me. My name is Jamelyn Ebelacker I'm from Santa Clara, Guadalupe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I'm also the performing arts Program assistant at the Institute of American Indian Arts Santa Fe as well I don't think I have too many burning questions at the moment, but we have a lot of students and faculty community activists as well who are fiercely protective of our environment and are Definitely against the Pebble mines and the Keystone XL's of the world and a lot of us are personally affected I think my Pueblo is downwind from the Los Alamos National Laboratories And our water is heavily polluted and so these are these are things that affect our everyday lives and we strive as students and future Native American leaders to Bring about that that conversation and to hopefully bring about change as well. So that is me. Thank you And I'm Marta Kern and I direct Eco Arts Connections, which is based in Boulder, Colorado And we bring together science, arts, urban planning, all kinds of different disciplines in projects to Inspire more sustainable living. A lot of it has to do with climate change and global change And I was just in Washington and now the language has shifted even from Global change to and sustainability to Brazilians And we do a lot where we Produce and we present and we initiate and we convene and we do all kinds of things Performing visual artists and most recently we've been bringing artists especially into non-arts Conferences to help people understand how the arts can be an ally In drawing new attention and solutions to particular issues. So for example The Beck conference, which is behavior energy and climate change Conference, which if you're in the United States, it's one of the best ones that there is I think in the US in terms of what learning About what works and what doesn't in terms of shifting beliefs and behaviors There are engineers and social scientists and Folks and we did a panel there with three artists and it was so happy because we were so nervous To it was kind of a hit of the conference and people were buzzing about it the whole time because they didn't have an understanding What the arts are looking to in terms of Igniting people's awareness and really providing solutions So I'm really thrilled to be here and I would like to ask if we could Circulate a piece of paper so that everybody could write down their print their names and emails Please and they will just zerox it and then in the old fashion way and Circulate that are happening. I'm sorry. No, do you not have a burning question? Oh Everybody's all these these great burning questions that I'm really involved with Judith's question to a lot about how to reach a broader audience and how to reframe And I get very emotional about this the role of the arts in this time and I sometimes think about Nero fiddling as Rome is burning and I think well, maybe he was a really great musician And maybe he was just into his riff He just didn't notice and I'm reading a book now that is that Rome is burning and I didn't and I'm just reading a book now That's about the turn of the turn of the two centuries ago in Vienna of Sort of the arts seen there and about how artists were so deeply involved in their own work that they didn't notice Hitler coming into Europe And I'll stop in just one second There's a thing called the normalcy bias which is a term that's used by people in the disaster management fields It's for people who are getting people out of the way of hurricanes and you know floods and all kinds of stuff like that the normalcy bias in layperson's language is That human beings cannot or have a difficult time getting their brains wrapped around So anything that's far from what they consider to be normal and An example of course in this country is hurricane Katrina But another one is the Holocaust when I think the statistics are right 40% of the Jews left Germany when it was starting to get really bad and 60% stayed and they were the most well educated and the most well off because they couldn't believe that something happened to them So that's one of the burning questions is how do we get people to understand that? You know if it's here It's here now and as we have more and more frequent and intense storms happening More and more money is going to get siphoned into helping those victims of those natural disasters as it should Less and less money will be available for the arts and if the arts is still in its Art for art safe paradigm as it has been since the 1860s at the start of the industrial revolution What it really is that we are not going to we're not going to have the arts anymore Not just the that resiliency question is huge and it's being used as a red herring So if we can include that in discussion, it's really big and it's stopping progress It's also the term that's being used by the National down for the arts when we're talking about the strength of arts and communities There's resiliency, so I think that resiliency seems to be a buzzword with many different limitations, but resiliency does not include renewables Let's look at this word though. It depends on where it is Yeah, but it is a term that is also being used as kind of a In the social sciences sector to define communities that are Surviving in spite of marginalization, which is in a way of justifying You know reduction of resources because look they're still Adaptation rather than mitigation How people understand sustainability or resiliency or whatever the terms are In terms of not just environmental, but also economic So that immigration for example is it's a sustainability story moving from one place To another to have a better life sleep is a renewable energy But but really seriously, you know, how do we help people to understand? to think ecosystem to think about Native Americans and indigenous perspective and Say the original systemic thinkers Hello, I'm just the administrator for theater for the new city here in New York We won basically knew they're been there for a couple months now, so I'm new to the whole theater and arts administration aspect, but I am a Biomajor at Hofstra University, and I'm specializing in ecology. So this really caught my attention But basically at our theater, we have a gallery and we showcase a lot of protest art Social reform art people coming in doing like a comic Steven About social reform and we actually did extreme weather at George bartending the extreme weather over there, too That's what I just started actually when we started that Um, so basically my my question would be we came for to find out more about funding to bring artists Here, especially ones who would be showcasing that type things that would highlight those, you know climate change and Like what could we do to be able to fund them because we like don't have the we get Letters correspondence all the time when they're begging. Can you bring us? Can you help sign for Ruby? You know cosign for a visa things like that so that we can't afford to bring them So I'd like to know a little bit more about that Hi, I'm Brian Freeland. I'm the artistic director for a company called the Lita project We're based duly in Denver, Colorado and here in New York We primarily work in devised work around social justice issues and and issues of equality as well and We've most recently been building several pieces on the environment We premiered a two-part work called watershed last year and we're now building a new work on wildfires my I think my burning question From our experience in the West in building these pieces in relation to our audience and then beginning to think about Touring it and bringing it out is that we We come into a place where the framing of our work is so politicized that that it's hard to have a Dialogue with presenters or with funders without it feeling like a political issue Rather than an environmental or a social issue so my question is How to How do we reframe? Again, and we're seeing it happen. Anyways, how are we reframing the debate? with climate change in general How do we reframe it as it trickles down to our work? And those who are making work about about the subject So Sorry, I never talk very loud I'll try harder My name is Amy fulman and I work for the University of Westminster in London And I also have worked as an arts administrator and a cultural policy researcher and practitioner and so my May not burning question, but a simmering question I'm always very interested in the relationship between artists and change and So along the lines of what we talked about so far. I think I'm also interested in talking about how to support artists who want to be part of social change In many different roles because there are some people who want to create work based on something that moves them But don't want to be an advocate and don't want to be on the front lines of social change And there are other people that maybe are more activist involved just by nature and I think we need to recognize that I'm just really interested Hi everyone, I'm Lanny boo. I'm the Associate director of a theater company called oh God, excuse me of your company called critical point theater We are duly based in Virginia, New York and dedicated to creating new original work around social issues and Actually the main reason that I'm here today is because I've recently started working kind of on the administrative side with A group called superhero clubhouse. I think you know, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he recommended that I come here It's an eco theater collective based in New York We do everything ranging from original devised work. We've recently been working on a series of planet plays Each plays out of her planet and each one is about a certain issue for the play about people Mars about my get the idea and also The clubhouse has created an environmental program or an educational program for elementary school kids where they Get a chance to write a play around certain environmental issues and then it's produced professionally and they get to see their work and it's it's a really neat thing and so I'm kind of new to the whole I guess making art about climate change and I'm here to Kind of I'm curious to learn from my question really is I'm curious what from everyone's experiences what has been Most palatable audiences or maybe that's not the right word most engaging I just want to know about Those experiences when you feel like you really have made someone think about a question in a new way or reached an audience member That wouldn't have been the room, you know, I'm curious what those little moments are and how they're achieved. I guess And Lisa Phillips I'm with positive feedback. We're an initiative out of the earth Institute at Columbia University and Very much like the arts we bring artists and scientists together for research collaborations around for projects that that have to do with climate change or environmental sustainability and We're looking right now one of our burning questions is what role the universities can play in Fostering and sustaining those relationships so that they're mutually beneficial between the artists and the scientists and how we can You know especially at Columbia, which is very decentralized organization We're sort of house-rich and cash-poor so there's a lot of resources that universities can can bring to the table and offer in terms of expertise and government community engagement and working with smaller non-profit and activist organizations and how we can be a convener how we can be How we can how we can really Sort of in infuse our curriculum with these projects and with artists and residents at universities and Or sciences and residents with artists and just what role we we can continue to play in that collaborative aspect Would you like to introduce yourself? Sure. He skipped over you. Yeah, welcome. I can play. Sorry. My name is Mara Isaacs I'm a creative producer. I have a small company called octopus theatrical Formerly the producing director at MacArthur Theatre Center in Princeton and before that I would think we've been like but for the last 18 months. They've been working as an independent creative producer and one of the and and part of that was because I found that Within institutions. They were just too many constraints in both aesthetically the kind of work you could do Topically and I wanted to kind of break down the rules of who can create what when where and how and so I'm finding Independently I have a lot more freedom to follow my nose and support the work that I'm passionate about One of the projects that I'm currently working on is a collaboration with a company called phantom limb Which is based here in New York, which is a company that harnesses choreography visual design video puppetry and music into their storytelling and and have a Focus on ecology in their work and particularly we're developing piece right now called memory rings, which really Is about climate change, although maybe not quite so directly And they have also in their kind of research phase that the project had been collaborating with University-based scientists. They're working with Dan Shrak of the Harvard and and one of the conversations that comes up repeatedly is there, you know Many of the things that you were talking about as well and probably others I just can like is that there's so much work out there that is You know didactic and you know, whether it's through artistic projects or through a lot of the information that scientists are disseminating that this clearly the statistics and the information and the facts are not actually having an impact so Rather than try to recreate those things in a theatrical form. The question is can theatrical form open up space in the viewer to Make room for those facts then to penetrate so in our work. We're really looking at a Much more imagistic approach And then much more emotional approach. It's actually a very little text on this piece at all and and And this thing I won't go into all the details That's what not this conversation is about but but I think we are really trying to struggle with how do you? move people's consciousness to a place and Understand that we are here. It is happening now This is and and and one of the other themes that has come up a lot of these conversations With the science to talk about its time scale and people's inability to understand where we are in the time scale of climate change And and that's actually one of the things we're trying to take on in a theatrical manner to try So he's actually covers 5,000 years of human evolution from the perspective of the world's oldest living tree And really understanding one of the reasons people aren't act active in the climate change conversation is because they can't They don't see it happening Therefore it must not be happening. It's not in the time scale of their own life cycle Got a dendro chronologist for you. Yes. He's that's what Dan drag is a dendro Mary and Moria chairman board for strike anywhere performance once I spent the last four years developing and Half improv and half scripted play called same river having to do with fracking Started in upstate New York Where they went up for retreat and started talking with all of the residents about how it was impacting them and Created a play based on those interviews On both sides the people would sign leases and made the money and we're having the people who were terribly unhappy with the whole thing The play a sense then morphed into a performance in residence at JKO theater here high school here in the city The students doing all of the research and reaching out to the companies and writing it and doing it and working out their own Choreography doing the same thing in Brooklyn had a performance at Irondale and had a performance at Buck Hill So the whole prompt the whole premise of it is We're all down river we're all from the same river So we need to figure out what it is that's happening And we need to look at both sides for question because there's there there are needs that need to be met for us to Continue living and there are needs other needs on the other side of the coin that we have to address to keep one How do we look at both sides? It is and it's how do we Stop yelling long enough to talk and Come together And yes, we work with a lot of scientists with the performance at Bucknell. It was really amazing It was actually they were drafted to come to Bucknell the Ecology and all the the science there and they it's great because they pull together marketing performance and science departments to work together to do And that's at the high school as well I'm Elizabeth Dowd and I am usually based in Miami, Florida And I've been living for the last 10 months in Brazil doing a postgraduate program around Environmental performance a climate crisis Theater arts and I've both I've been feeling then the great need to be with more people that are thinking about what I'm thinking about and doing what I'm doing and What I've realized is that Anytime that you do any any time an artist wants to talk about The environmental collapse of the climate crisis in their work. It is immediately an inter multi transdisciplinary Activity you are immediately engaged with science. You're immediately engaged with other social some, you know with the hard sciences with social sciences with A wide range of communities that aren't like yours So it's it's that that kind of hit struck me really deeply this last year another thing that is That is kind of attached to my burning question right now is the idea that this conversation is this local or lobal constantly always you you if you're making a story about An Estuary in a certain, you know Corner of the Everglades in South Florida That is always going to be related to a larger story about other estuaries or about the extraction industries or about agritoxics or you know, whatever the case is and that there's just that tension that's always around us, right? And so we want to be making narratives that are interesting and creating stories if we're artists working artists Probably that's what we're doing and so you're not going to make a story about the whole world Right, you're going to make a story about a space that people can identify with that has characters However, you want to frame it so it's it's that it has to be local and has to be global So my big thing lately is And how can I say is and I when I'm just want to say that the the question about the climate change phrasing and the terminology is Certain sort of spooking me out right now And I don't know if any of you were at the people's climate march in September as and is about systems change, right? and the thing that you know the extraction industries are Related to it's just you know the appropriation of and the use of land and resources. This is This is always going to be You know about economics and about politics you can't get away from the politics, right? and They don't know if you if you remember when Naomi Klein spoke or if you've written reading her book But she said there are no non radical options left Speaks this thing about urgency And so my thing is how do I make the work that I want to make and how do I mount a militia of people of artists? They're going to be ready to go to Santa Clara Pueblo and like on the day that you need us to be there We're all gonna be there even though I'm making a piece about you know Mermaids and plastic garbage and the ocean like that's my thing, right? But if you call on me today, you're like I need you to come here to the mesa and like do this with me I'm gonna be ready to go and kind of and stand with you So that's my thing is like how do we be this militia that can work together? Collectively and urgently and and the and smartly like in the most intelligent way that artists know how to work and Then still be doing a really specific local stories that need to be told that need to be articulated because those local Those local efforts are the ones that are going to really grow roots create communities change local government and really be on the Front lines of of staving off some of this industry encroachment which is inevitable because the way that our planetary systems are built around consumption are so embedded It's not like them against us. It's like we're all part of it, right? So anyways, it's this it's this kind of thing wake up in the morning. I'm like, oh man You know, it's that tension between the local and the global that is is really burning for me and trying to be an all trying to be With my brethren globally and then also trying to be making my story My name is chantal bidetot, and I'm a playwright and translator and I'm involved in two Big projects that have to do with climate change The first one is a cycle of plays called the Arctic cycle, which is a series of eight plays one for each of the country each each country in the Arctic, so there's eight of them eight plays and The goal I have a few go with these plays of course, it's to raise awareness about planet change and the Arctic is such a Icon right now that it's easily recognizable and what happens there. It's happening faster Earlier and so what we can observe there is of course going to be played out in the rest of the world too and I And also I wanted I started with one play and then I I decided that I couldn't say everything I wanted to say in just one plate That's why I expended and also I was interesting in seeing the differences between the different the differences and the similarities between the different countries also the way I'm working on these plays. I I Set two challenges for myself for each of the plays one is that I'm trying I'm including Artists from a different discipline with each play so and Actually from a different discipline and also from the country of origin where the place set So the first play was set in Canada and I used Poems from a in Inuit spoken word poet that were Included in included in the play got her permission to use some of her poetry the second place set in Norway and I'm going to be working with a musician a composer who does Soundscapes and who lives in Norway I'm going there next week to do a workshop with a theater who's partnering with us And the other goal is I I'm very much trying to have to put to have the place presented here in the US since this is where I live and in the country where it's set and the the reason for these two things is I think in the process of making these plays I can also model a type of collaboration that is on a relatively small scale And that would be certainly welcome on a much bigger scale like if we if if the artists can Do something, you know with very few resources and Where we have to invent the process as we go I can't imagine that businesses and governments couldn't do the same thing Who have a lot more resources and? People to draw on The second thing I'm doing and I actually had it pulled up on the computer here I created this log called artists and climate change and We have we've compiled a list of resources, so we're going to pass that out to you Yeah Artists and climate change is a blog there are two of us who write for it right now very infrequently just because we have No funding and no time But I would like to have it be much more active where we just Look for artists who whose work address climate change and try to Picture them on the website so on the left you can see the blood role is a list of links to organizations who support Artists doing this kind of work or artists who have long term projects like for example James Baylug extreme extreme ice survey is in there lower down and then on the on the right you have the Articles are classified by categories according to the discipline and then underneath later you have an archives by month in addition to the blog I created a Facebook group called artists and climate change which you can find we're up to almost 400 members now This number went up very quickly. I think I created it three months ago and we have people from all over the world and I'm hoping to keep gathering people and now that it seems like a significant amount of number one of my burning questions is What do we do? You know we have a group of people now and I invite you all to join you can The link is on the page and you can you can just request to join the group and I will let you in There's also there's a Facebook page by the same name Which is the group is more for people to talk to each other and the pages where I post all the work that I find by artists who? I just kind of change issues and we also have a Twitter account Yeah, so my I guess I have two burning questions one is what do we do once we have a significant group of Artists who are all working on the same thing. How can we harness this this resource and sort of take the next step as a group? instead of just individually and and my question as an artist is how do we inspire hope I do believe that Part of the reason why people Don't want to hear anything about climate change anymore is there there's just sick of the the Apocalyptic scenarios and then if we can sort of shift that thinking and I'm not saying I'm not saying we should Sugarcoat everything but but how how do we look at what's happening and focus on the help people grieve? For one thing for the things that we know we're going to lose and then take the next the next step like Transform that into a way to take action I actually I think I'm the only one who didn't actually talk about what I'm doing Because I thought we weren't supposed to but I would like to just give a little sketch So the group that I work with is called musicians United to protect Bristol Bay and it started Bristol Bay is one of the last pristine ash ways left in the world It's home to 46% of the world's remaining sockeye salmon It also sits on what's believed to be the largest gold and copper ore deposit in the world So there's a group called the pebble partnership that's trying to build the world's largest open pit mine at the head So I was approached by Psycon who's a Blues and bluegrass folk Pretty famous in that arena to to sort of translate his Community organizing skills into an online campaign So what we've done in two years. We've built a website and we go to music conferences and Concerts and then through his five thousand fans on Facebook We sort of built out of mailing lists and brought a couple of other people in So on the website, there's a toolkit for musicians The idea when they sign up is that they're going to use their access to the media and use their networks of fans to help get the story out to create original music about the beauty of life on the Bay, but also The struggle to stop the mine And so on the website There's a page of original music and music videos and they're all out to use each other stuff anytime We're actually about to create a video production scholarship. That's Where people who submit songs that don't have the money to make videos will be able to help them do that But the other thing that we do is we have an action alert. So when the EPA comment period opened up We send it out to the musicians and they send it out to their fans So theoretically there's a network of like six hundred thousand people getting what we send out even though our mailing list is 4,000 people So in terms of deployment strategies that are sort of low tech and also in terms of getting people to Like music is such a good way of opening people's Emotional space up to receive information that they might otherwise resist So I kind of wanted to just circle back around a little bit to the conversation of cultural mobility and this International idea that's really the reason we're kind of all here in this building today One of the things that that's come up in a lot of different conversations that I've had with people around kind of arts practice within the climate movement is that The international cultural exchange practices that a lot of us have in the cultural industries that we work in Beyond kind of what our positioning and activity is inside the environmental movement usually contains or holds a lot of the values and operating principles of Mutual respect and reciprocity that are so important for diplomacy international cultural diplomacy in the case of international cultural exchange and I Apart from my work as an artist in generating my own creative practice I also work with it with the national performance network in our international cultural exchange program with Latin American the Caribbean and an over a decade old Cultural exchange where we send groups back and forth every year. It seems easy, but it's not right There's language barriers. There's logistics. There's lots of legal kind of visa stuff We deal with and it's so interesting that those practices and those networks that we've developed are actually some of the ideal Channels to do the same some work internationally because you know if we fix all of our climate issues in the United States It doesn't matter because unless we're working on it globally tactically as a you know as a planetary society We'll never achieve anything and so we've already kind of forged these These alliances internationally through a lot of the gold the global cultural work that we're doing and it just seems really Important for us to me at least to acknowledge that those alliances exist for us and so I just just feels like though those channels are already open and if you know an artist in Syria You know a climate activist in Syria, you know what I'm saying? It's all it's you or if you do you're just one person removed from the artist You know bet your money on it. So it just seems like this network is already there It's just kind of like floating almost and then and if I just wanted to underscore the fact that We already have this network in our hands But with with the cultural work the international cultural work that we're already doing or the you know the interstate cultural work that we're already doing I think You're right in terms of the alignment of the principles especially in terms of diversity and access again, I think in our Problem we've done all of our funding from individuals so far. We haven't gotten any foundation grants or anything Just not like so do we go to climate change people who don't really consider us climate change? Do we go to arts? so we we just had a and I think the UN convention is a great sort of Document for the kind of language that we need to pull to to frame ourselves in that space We had a I'm gonna really get specific here really sort of existential crisis with the Rockefeller Foundation I was pitching a group called Urban Sunspots, which are solar powered cell phone recharging stations made out of 1950s gas pumps So much fun The idea was that the public art would get people to engage with it And then they could get the phone charged really fast and there was a LED component for learning The pump instead of gallons would do amps and then it also had LED lighting and emergency communication protocols proposed disaster So it could be a community beacon after a disaster We had transportation parks and OEM in New York City and the Brooklyn Tech Triangle as partners all lined up And we've been talking to them for 14 months We moved it from one cycle to the next at their request so that they because they have run out of money and time in that cycle and 14 months into it. I got a call saying we need you to talk to Sam from the resiliency department And I had I was really worried because I've been to the Rockefeller Pop tech resiliency summit at BAM and had spent a whole day there and walked out furious that they had never mentioned renewable energy And I just couldn't understand how that could be so They Sam said please resubmit your proposal in the language of our resiliency website So I did some research I found a New York Times article that actually Listed the main investments of the Rockefeller family members that were on the board and then I went to their resiliency website And I wrote to the team and said please be careful realize on the resiliency website The only time to mention renewables is in India and Africa not once in the United States as part of the strategy So I thought we did a great job of like focusing on community workshops and making workshops with Certified emergency response teams in those days. The idea is we were going to bring one to New York for six months and put it in Three different locations for two months each with workshops and publicity events and teaching people about it So we submitted it and I got a letter back 16 months in saying really sorry. This is not the answer you want to hear I'm sorry It's taken so long that resiliency department liked a lot of your proposal particularly the workshops in the post-disaster But the renewable energy part to them is mitigation and our strategy is adaptation and mitigation isn't bad But it's not adaptation. So if you want to resubmit it as an adaptation proposal basically take out the renewables We're willing to socialize it into the next cycle and I was like, yeah But the problem is that Judith Rotem is the head of every blue ribbon panel on resiliency that any politician in New York City Pulse together. They have the 100 Resilience Cities Project and they are actively keeping renewables out of the conversation and that's what we're up against We have compiled this list that went around the room. We have about 35 40 minutes left and I want to I mean we can decide collectively how we want to use our time We can go through this list But I'd also like to invite everybody to contribute because we put this together with kind of stuff that we had, you know Like I'm not asking you what we know what we know works, but there's probably other funding sources there's probably state-based stuff that's really specific to you know local and While going around and talking about each of those things might not be the be as efficient We're going to pass her on our business cards You can write us with all that and we're going to compile a much larger amended list with your recommendations and then redistribute it and we'll be diligent about about doing that Just I just wanted to that's how this is going to work. I'm sorry the recommendations are for It's for anything that falls in so many of these categories or a category that you would like to add and we have So on this list, you'll see that we have a section that talks about different kinds of networks of people that are you know doing whether those are online communities Whatever form it takes mostly virtual And there may be some meetings that are hosted by these networks And then there's funding which is you know foundations or That are really specific to artists doing our environmental work. There's residencies And then other resources And then there's conferences meetings meeting platforms What came up earlier today and like the general session I think is really important is how how important face-to-face meetings are And I'm a true believer in face-to-face convenience Whether or not that's a sustainable Proposition is like a completely different part of that conversation. I don't know the answer to that But I do think that it's nice to get together I think that's where artistic collaborations are going and I think that's where you find the money I think that's you know, just there's a lot and yeah, it's where you learn new language about what we're doing And we're inventing this language as we go. So that's cool So anyways, I just wanted to you know point that out What what do you guys want to pick one of the burning questions that we talked about and dig deeper into that as a Conversation do we want to go one by one through this list? Well, I just had As we were going around I was thinking about Well, what can any of us contribute to the burning questions? As as possible answers For and you take what you want out of you know what anybody has to say already people. I've already suggested several things but One thing that came to my mind is Which was what you brought up about how do you reach out beyond your normal audience or How do we and it's actually a several people have sort of mentioned it in different ways, but How do you how do we? Make the the issue compelling enough to make people are really listen so To what we're trying to say I have two suggestions one of which we've experimented with for several years now and Have found to be more and more successful Because every time we do a play it's about a different issue and so we have to reach a different audience and That's actually a wonderful kind of challenge to Get you off your ass and Also to reach a new community. So What we have done is we combine every single performance with an expert on the issue from a different aspect of that issue and Of course, so the this last play with because it was about the environment issue has produced the most incredible range of people and It is wonderful a way to do it because the audience when you open them up Okay with whether it's music visual language a Great story by the way is important One of the ways that you can get people engaged is to give them a good satisfying story and usually if you can base it on real events real events that Come out of their community or some community that they know And then add whatever you want to add but You know keep it in that realm and we also we took a the story of this The climate change scientists a very famous one James Hansen who quit the and who quit NASA to become a full-time climate change activist And he he was the first guy to get in front of Congress in 88 and tell them, you know Hey, there's climate change in them. They all went to sleep and ever since then he's been fighting to get the message out and he they keep censoring him and You know taking him off the list and so and so so and then we combined that with a family Struggle over the land use of a piece of land that they had Which was totally fictitious, but it allowed us to bring in fracking and Renewable and the carbon tax and all these things and the audience loved it Because it was a struggle within a family But what they really loved also was the very satisfying thing of getting to hear what the experts have to say about it, so they got the double whammy and Then the experts brought their own audiences because they're all well-known people in their field there and so we had really the best kind of The last few weeks were sold out and you know, it made a huge difference. So I throw that out Just a couple of things I've picked up from what I would be saying I love I mean the sense of urgency is something that that that it's just We've been talking about this in Britain for as long as I can remember and every year that goes by It's getting closer and it's scary And I loved your idea of the militia or actually pulling pulling this all together and actually getting the blogs and getting So there's lots of information I could supply from people in Britain are doing this sort of stuff I think the the hope and the and the despair argument is really interesting I don't know if you've heard of a scientist called Steven Emmett who's written a book called 10 billion And he staged this on the stage of the Royal Court Theatre in London a couple of years ago It was the most depressing picture I've ever ever he wanted to come out and put the gun straight into a temple And he'd seen if it was it was really strong, but terrifying and on the other hand another scientist who called called But he was saying how he feels the arts can Totally from the scientific point of view shouldn't can inspire people to make change and he was working at the British Antarctic Survey And he they they drilled down into into the ice for Thousands upon thousands of years and he just said showing people this ice that was 125,000 years old or something was actually in a way for him That was almost as an art thing in itself and making people totally inspired by how old the world is And how this ice has been impacted what we're doing to it And I think so these two opposite scientists views Chris Ratley his name was I remember the other thing I'm really aware of a few of you said and coming from an English perspective West we still thank heavens have some state funding and actually the idea that you might help people on your board who are Sitting coming from one of the fossil fuel industries to me is so terrifying and we it makes me go home I think I've got we need to hang on to this state funding because actually I think you know I've always thought it there must be a way that people self-censor in In the simplest of ways that the way they're using we were told Yes, we were told by a theater you best take your play to England because our Board members are all invested in fossil fuels And see but sort of then coming back to Naomi Klein as she says it all its own It's it's nothing we have to relate it to everything else is going on and that's right All of this is such a big area to the climate change because it's on its own it doesn't I mean sorry These are just a jumble thing that there's everything you're grandchild Will not be able to live in the condo that you bought on the beach with the fracking money Which is literally going to happen because of the water is rising It has the stories also have to make things real for people in a way that relates to them and the militia thing I have to tell you like that idea scares me Because it's I while I'm fully in support of the ideas behind it. I think that by using radical language It's another way of putting fear out there and people are afraid or it's too much for them It's such a big issue So even for myself as just a human being on the planet where this is something I think about all the time I would love to talk about what what can like How can we collaborate and in eco-friendly ways and in sustainable ways? Because I work in mutual understanding as well, but to get on the plane to be here means I'm harming the environment And so there's a balance there. And so I think that's also a conversation I would really like to have because I'm using paper. I'm using electricity These are things I have to use to do my job. And so the idea that the mutual understanding for me is about the multiple The multiple roles that we all are because all artists are members of society in some way But they defuse everyone and I'm always conscious of the fact that while I may have a more risk-taking Activist personality in my family. I'm the only one But they're all really opinionated and they all really you know want to want to fight and and be passionate And so I think there have to be ways for us to also How much does human you are using that word militia the sort of not I thought it was a sort of galvanizing right? Yeah, I mean, I think there's I think there's you know This we could you know kind of pick the semantics of it But I do mean it in a way that is not you know traditionally militaristic, but I do in a sense of in a sense of coming together and this and and of and of Being willing to take a risk of making some people uncomfortable. I think that there is this tension around okay Like how do we all go to you know, New Mexico? I'm so I'm totally looking you because my mom is living in the Hamas, so I know this area But so so what has anybody ever heard of that book slow violence and the environmentalism of rapport by Rob Nixon He articulates beautifully the idea and the speaks to a little bit about dramaturgy and How do we create effective narratives about things that have no heroes that have no That aren't starring anyone. They're about this time scope of you know three generations of people that are slowly being poisoned and To the point where it's like by the time the grandchild is born with some unidentified Unidentifiable cancer. No one even remembers the company that was you know had that power whatever plant was making whatever toxic I mean, it's it's this really difficult thing to work with dramaturgically as an artist So this is something that I think is important for us to I don't know how we're gonna fix it or work with it But we need to be aware of that's why it's hard to tell these stories and and if you anybody is interested I'll share that that on our list but My clients with musicians are always centering at my militaristic References I agree. I think there's a place for no I understand I understand where you're coming from, but I understand the impulse to use it as well I really think That part of what we need to do is I think there is anger worldwide about social injustice and the oligarchy And I think we need to tap into that somewhat because anger is a better emotion than despair at this point And it is all social justice. I mean mineral rights are about a company being able to take Your land away from you because there's minerals underneath the surface of the dirt and I mean it's all about the Benefit of a very few who don't seem to understand that they have grandchildren So I feel like part of our job is to Without losing focus constantly broaden How people view us so that they don't go oh, no And I think that there's room for that because it is a social justice issue I wonder if people in this room are familiar with the dark mountain project I just pulled them up on the website because I didn't want to misquote them But the dark mountain project isn't I'm just gonna read the website is a network of writers artists and thinkers who have stopped believing The stories are civilization the civilization tells itself We see that the world is entering an age of ecological collapse material contraction and social and political unraveling And we want our cultural responses to reflect this reality rather than denying it I'm gonna pull quote out of Please forgive me for that. I'm about to mispronounce the connections the in East Indian books And it's often a quote often attributed to Gandhi Which is that the thought is to the word the word is to be the deans to the action and the action is your life as You think and as you visualize whether it's militaristically or darkly That's what you create and that's what we create if we go that route of Addressing it in those kinds of terms. So that's my contribution as the muggle of the day Good, I wonder With all the questions that we brought up if there are if maybe we can think about Possible solutions like if is there are there any ways we can help each other? Are there any other resources we could tap into do we need to educate funders sort of Something a little bit more action-oriented that we might be able to I do think funder education could actually be a useful Effort, I certainly have found in our efforts to fundraise around this cause, you know, I looked at your listing, you know there the number of funders who Understand the role artists play Not necessarily as disseminators. I mean so many people want artists to basically be there the Puppet for Disseminating facts and information about you know, which are all well and fine But as we've discussed are not necessarily actually what moves people to reevaluate their own behaviors and actions and getting funders to understand The unique role supporting artists who are actually making art that opens up that space for Residents to be found as opposed to a more dogmatic approach, you know I don't know all of these fenders, but the Rauschenberg Foundation is like one of the few incredibly enlightened You know because it's founded by an artist who did work But I wonder how many other people would be open to that kind of a conversation Very little hope for the funders No, I mean they are that they've always been the sentinels of the rich in the status quo and other rich in status So it's no wonder that almost all the New York got to be so pulled out of arts funding it makes perfect sense There's only like two three standing left Because I think also to paragraphs I think you need to try to see what you can affect right and so I thought what's really interesting is this She was talking about bringing artists to different. I think she was talking about scientific conferences Showing people how artists can be a part of the conversation And I think that that's very useful when you're doing interdisciplinary work And I think there's also maybe something reciprocal there where bring scientists in Not only to consult on the topic and the content, but Scientists and artists follow very similar processes And I don't think that in general that we put our heads together around the processes And I think there's a lot of Strengthening that we can do for each other there because sometimes scientists don't express things very well And sometimes artists don't necessarily capture their process the same way. So I think there's something there and also I notice on this list that The this is I think this is a really great listening so much for starting it But also for people who really are inclined to do advocacy work I think there's really a place to talk to environmental organizations about we have artists activists on this issue What can we do with you? Can we come to your advocacy events and what can we offer you? But also what can we learn from you and work with them directly? Not everybody can do that not everybody wants to do that And I just kind of want to swallow because I don't want to totally give up on the thunder I totally understand Actually, it may be that we're approaching we're approaching from an arse lens And could we make a case to people who are already on the environmental bandwagon, but not necessarily in the arts Furthering the conversation And I also wonder you just said something that triggered something need that like could we get in it just a small Actual thing like the group of people together and put together a panel discussion at the grant makers and the arts conference Then where the audience is funded Conversation about what we need to do this work And not just what artists do why funders actually have to take the way the rational like I would call the head of the Rauschenberg Foundation and say can you organize a panel about How we get other funders you're a leader here get other funders to follow your lead about why it's important to be supporting this through the arts and there are two there are already two Funder organizations that do social change work. So there are social change funding collaboration the other thing is All the council and foundations they have annual conferences every year their members are Foundations they've looked at environmental issues before Yeah, there's and so now I just think there's a new It's it's just starting to kind of bubble up I think this marriage between there, you know what they're not calling kind of climate activism and culture Yeah, so it's gonna be like the Rauschenberg that I'm on here the Surna Foundation has done some initiatives And also the Nathan Cummings is has announced that they will be kind of unveiling their programs for next year I was just gonna say there is a did you know it's on this list tipping point in the UK? I've done a lot of work with them in a lot of conferences I've been to lots of them with arts and scientists together and those debates are really interesting It's really interesting getting the two to compete on that and but we went to see our arts council I know this is state funding again, but the gang of maybe 15 organizations went to see our arts council and said Would you please put it into our funding agreements that if you give us funding we need to write a green You know green document like we have to do for diversity and disability of things and their first reaction was oh god If we give you any more bureaucracy, you're going to be shouting this look that we don't really want to do We said well, please will you do it? We're asking you to do it and they did and actually now they're proud of themselves I think They went home to tell me they went up in the Australian arts council saying what goodness me if that's the year So actually it does what I absolutely agree. I think you should be it's it's really worth talking to the funders Educating Well, maybe she'll get shamed Or forget it like there's some people fine. That's not what they're going to do, but there are other people who Yeah, I wouldn't give up on the entire People who wait ten years because they would love to do that But for whatever reason the climate that they're in won't like that and they wait and And you know and we know that foundation funding and government funding to a large extent Moves in cycles. They you know like this whole creative place making You know thing this wave that came over the United States about how to do that And I don't know if you're familiar with that particularly those so it's like, you know How do we build these communities that are all about the creative industries and then but there is all these embedded kind of I You know consequences of gentrification Renovated through a culture Right and so all this money all of our culture money from the United States went into those initiatives And I think like conceptually they're really great But it was like wait a minute who drove that and how that happened and so this happens in funding and I think you know We can try and be vigilant trying to be participated in that process We kind of got to ride those waves One of the things that that I'm doing in Miami is developing an initiative to create kind of a conversation platform with a little performance Embedded into it and we're inviting mothers sectors to meet with artists to have a dialogue about you know What is that what is an arts field that's capable of paradigm shift look like in our region? What is that what do we do as artists to contribute and one of the questions? We're asking to the office of sustainability from Miami-Dade County is what do you need from us? What do you need from artists to help us create this this this community that we all want to be able to live in and because I think artists Many times, you know, we have a really clear idea of what we want to make and we bring our art as our offering and But I think there's other ways that we can participate, you know We maybe we can sit at policy tables and put our creative thinking and you know next Invite sit down next to a scientist like you're saying, you know And then with where the thinking processes are so similar right the creative processes are so similar and so I'm really in favor of that and So I don't know and that's obviously, you know, very Particular to where you live, but I think those are ways that artists can really participate in civic engagement Beside the work that they're making Well, it's so important that I mean everybody around this table is is is making or trying to make Eco art and it's so important. But one of our the people who spoke after one of the shows who was a Written several books on this Just on the whole eco issue. He just said it's so important that Ecology appear in the culture in the art that people make because the the voice has to come from Other, you know, it has to come from artists as much as it has to come from experts I mean the the art has to start speaking these things these truths and I mean, I'm sitting here listening to some wonderful projects because that there's where Ordinary people who are like either afraid about the issue or overwhelmed by it. They need to be moved by art and Because art is the one thing that opens you up You know, once you're open, you know people start being able to listen But if they're just closed in with fear, you know We won't get anywhere. We'll just be yelling at each other. Like you said, so Yeah, but but that's just you know, I think we're also in the most difficult part of the journey in the sense that You know, we're still very marginalized and it's we're still very much talking about an issue, right? People are doing eco theater or they're doing eco art or kind of change our just like, you know, there was all this advocacy for Women stuff and yeah, like we have to get over the hump where we don't have to It doesn't have to be its own niche that people are just used to Experiencing that because that's just part of how we live and that's just part of our world and it's reflected in the art that we make I in my experience also Doing my own work. I've had a lot of success with universities I think that's it. That's a really big untapped resource right now Because because there are the people who are open to thinking about this stuff. They're open to thinking about it into this in interdisciplinary way and I think they're hungry. I think we're both hungry for each other But we don't know how to find each other So I'd like to speak to that and touch upon something that Amy first mentioned about the process you asked a question about you know, we Process and and you're so new to superhero clubhouse But for the past I think four years we've been working with with Jeremy the superhero clubhouse and they are exemplary in their process of Engaging the scientists and the institutions surrounding the scientists in a very collaborative Art-making process so they don't just come to the scientists afterwards and I would imagine Mara with with phantom limb Jessica right but she's because she was we invited Jessica to the first tipping point conference in North America Which we hosted at the earth Institute at Columbia University And so and Jeremy from superhero clubhouse was there too and we really talked a lot about process and a positive feedback kind of formed in response to tipping point Proceeded us as an event that took place and then there were a few of us around the table that were like Tipping point was designed to be a catalyst for Something else to happen and we were the something else that happened at Columbia with also NYU and CUNY and And in terms of resource opportunity There's a lot of government funding that does go into the sciences at universities that In a way that those university researchers and their departments and their centers can be Conduits for that government funding to go into the hands of artists and Marta Kern who just left the room a little while ago would definitely speak to that She's seen a lot of success with very very large large-scale funding from NSF and NASA come through the scientists and The scientists might think they have a small grant for $250,000 to do a tiny little project of what they're working on because really they have maybe like five or six of those small $250,000 grants and then there's a tiny It's a little component of that small grant that goes to public outreach Maybe like ten twenty thousand dollars a year or something now to this scientist in a large institutional Organization whose salary, you know if their faculty is already paid for by hard funding from the university They're not even raising their own salary They're eager to find artists and artists organizations with whom to collaborate to Basically further their reach because they're really focused on their research project But you know even a small portion of that teeny little bit of ten thousand dollars Which I'm being facetious here because that can go a long way for an individual artist and an art-centered organization and so it's that is one of the avenues of untapped potential and Then the other avenue. I think is within pretty much each university. There is someone or some group that is a part of Like an office of government and community engagement that is the conduit for both the sort of political Outreach that the university has to their local political leaders and then also to their local on-the-ground community activists and they play sort of You know a middle man ground and I think that there's a big opportunity for the arts to come into That realm and I can speak Columbia The person who heads that office at Columbia Marcia sells comes from an arts background herself She has a dual appointment in the school of the arts and in the president's office at this Government community fairs and she's just started a university seminar series on arts and science collaborations and how artists and scientists work together and Here in New York City the newly appointed head of sustainability initiatives for the mayor's office Nilda Mesa Was a participant in the first tipping point conference that we held here in New York. She is an artist herself She used to run an artist residency retreat in France She happens to be working in environmental sustainability in New York right now And I know for a fact that she's very receptive to the the power and the collective power of the arts in Sort of You know combining with environmental sustainability. I don't quite yet know how I don't know With the right English, but the this is real tangible Offices and people and institutions and I'm only speaking about Columbia because I'm there right now I I know that our our institutional partners and why you and CUNY also have these pretty much every University both in the United States and abroad is going to have similar areas and offices and and to tie this into the to the theme of today's Symposium of cultural mobility There's a lot of cultural mobility in the sciences already That's very very heavily funded by their respective governments of those institutions and by a lot of other You know private foundations and so again kind of connecting and collaborating and developing partnerships with the universities and the academic institutions in those countries and In this room, we're talking about environmental sustainability and climate change to tap into those leaders within the universities Is I think just a great idea? So I think we should we should do more of that and we're trying positive feedback What we're looking to do in the upcoming year year and a half ahead is to organize our own Symposium on the role of universities In this exact field what we can do how we can lend our resources to both the artists organizations the activists organizations connecting through the the sciences No, that's the court anymore But we're we're in that realm we want to be there and and this is great to hear and like there's a need for it Well another thing too that I was thinking about and we had to please book about this in my research Is that I can't find any texts out there about this work? They're not like they don't exist yet because we're just we're making that work And we haven't enough years to kind of reflect on it in an academic setting to make those texts surface in Academia and elsewhere, so I just think that universities can be a great portal for those that writing and that research If I could just take you off on a tangent before we all disperse We've talked a lot about about the funding that goes into You know what we're what we're trying to put into effect here, but there's also I guess from from my perspective a way of telling these stories that you mentioned that you know you have to have a good story and and I would encourage all of you to tap into the seemingly underutilized resource that is Native America and The 36 tribal colleges and universities in this country from West Coast to East Coast There's your militia right there. There's your there's your group of people who have these I guess Primordial original instructions is what we like to refer to it as and there's a great book out there called original instructions and in it it'll Tell you about how there's already this this dialogue It's a it's an ancient and sacred and beautiful dialogue of our traditional ecological knowledge And it's a beautiful way to tell these stories to get that information out there and it's been around for you know So many years so many years I'd also like to add to the networks on your sheet It's called the indigenous environmental network. So there is already a group out there that is That works with a lot of indigenous groups and tribes specifically, you know for fracking and for Just tar sands, I mean I so many my friends just went to I think it was North Dakota or one of the Dakotas to talk recently about the Keystone Excel I mean and they just went on their own just got a bunch of caravans going in and so there's students and young activists And young leaders out there I'll include myself in that group who who are willing to get into this and so please don't overlook us and Calling us Thank you We're almost done So I say that I mean some so so the three takeaways that I'm identifying from our time is the first thing is this list Besides everybody's contribution to this list. We have your contacts What I think that maybe the good system would be I'm gonna go ahead and pass out my card So if anybody just wants to be a direct connection via email that can happen Also, so please don't hesitate if you have anything to add to this list will Put it in and then go send the list again to everybody in the digital format And maybe what I'll do is just send a group email out prompting you to do that as a reminder And you know again like anything like any kind of I think a bibliography is also really nice So if there's books then you would like to recommend this is all I think it's a really important to have This job was kind enough to write the minutes. Can we get a copy of