Art, Craft, Sustainability and the Local: Issues, Opportunities and Challenges

Description

The world is facing a profound sustainability crisis. Whilst ecological challenges, such as climate change, pollution, bio-diversity loss and resource depletion, stand front and centre in our thinking, sustainability involves far more than 'just' the ecological.

A sustainable future requires that we address obstacles to human flourishing, including those associated with social injustice, inequality, alienation and marginalisation. It also requires that we find ways to build economies beyond the growth imperative; post-growth economies that facilitate a vibrant and viable ecology of small enterprises able to produce value through making. Ecology, society and economy make up the triple-bottom-line of sustainability.

Making, in the arenas of art and craft, plays a vital role in supporting a sustainable future. Ecologically, such making may be associated with sustainable and localised supply chains, production practices and markets. Socially, art and craft enterprises may embed important forms of cultural and spiritual expression, embodied creativity, and a symbiotic relationship to place and community. Economically, such making is linked to skilled unalienated working, and potentially to viable business models grounded on the creation of value through quality over quantity.

This event will explore the sustainability-related experiences, potentials, opportunities and challenges associated with making in the art and craft sectors. How might art and craft-making positively contribute to a sustainable present and future? What are the opportunities and challenges associated with art and craft's contributions to a sustainability agenda? How might we upscale the art and craft sectors to further realise their sustainability potential? What role might national and local governance have in supporting this upscaling of art and craft's sustainability potential?

This public seminar brings together academics, practitioners, organisations, policy makers, and the interested public to consider these important questions.

Small Group Chat

How can we grow vibrant communities of creativity and making? Opportunities and challenges?

Making it Local

A sustainable future is necessarily a more local future. Localities and communities offer vibrant and beneficial ecologies of support for sustainable creativities. St. Anne’s is a prime example.

The Bricks Gather St. Anne’s Project sheds light on the historical and contemporary lives lived in this corner of Bristol – Listen to the St. Anne’s Stories Podcast, produced by Rowan Bishop, and supported by Bristol MShed and Museums and the National Lottery Heritage Fund for supporting this project.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet local makers and hear about their missions, experiences, making processes and plans for the future of their own work and the sector as a whole