Image: Palestine Heirloom Seed Library
‘These diverse case studies remind me that creative practice is most transformative when it is ethically grounded, nurtured through long-term relationships, and responsive to the social and environmental urgencies that shape our lives. Witnessing how these artists work beyond conventional spaces, prioritising the voices, experiences, and knowledge of the communities most affected, has reaffirmed my belief that when we put people first, we also create the conditions for more equitable gains for the planet. ‘
Dana Olărescu
On 5th March we launched a new insight paper Cultural Interventions in Climate and Displacement. The insight paper was co-commissioned in partnership with British Council, researched and written by the socially engaged artist, Dana Olărescu. Around 70 guests witnessed Dana in conversation with three artists out of eight case studies who contributed to the paper – Fozia Ismail, Emmanuela Yogolelo and Edward Lawrenson. We heard them speak about their artistic practices and the ways they explore climate and displacement with care, creativity, commitment and ethics when working with communities, in alternative spaces and with other sectors. The artists reflected on the role of memory, storytelling, music, film, land justice and collective experience in helping their collaborators and audiences engage with climate justice and displacement in ways that create empathy, reflection, dialogue and action. Together we explored potential of the arts in helping create impact and change, and how funders, institutions and cross sector collaboration can support artists and organisations to respond and create work at this intersection.
Below is the Counterpoints introduction at the event, with an ask for our network to use, engage with and share the insight paper.
Download the Insight Paper here:
Cultural Interventions in Climate and Displacement Insight Paper
‘Thank you for giving your time, your attention, and your curiosity this afternoon. We are very glad to be hosting you together as this partnership. The collaboration with the British Council colleagues matters to us as it reflects a shared commitment to long term work at the intersection of culture, climate justice and displacement. Thank you to the British Council colleagues for this year of excellent collaboration.
A very quick introduction to Counterpoints, as I’m aware that among you there are individuals and organisations we haven’t worked with before. We are a national organisation producing and supporting work in the field of art, migration and cultural change, and the transformative art with, by and about migrant and refugees whose stories shape our culture and the way we see, talk and feel about displacement. Someone recently described our work as seeking to create a more compassionate society through culture, which sounded really nice. We’re also known for coordinating Refugee Week UK and supporting its global partnerships, for PopChange and the work in narrative change, for Platforma and our supporting of national networking and arts infrastructures, for thinking and supportive spaces with our arts and mental health strand. In some way we’ve produced and supported the work at this intersection of climate and displacement for ever, and with much more focus and resources in the last few years and through collaborations, commissioning and programming with others, through networking and close relationships with experts in artists and organisations whose work very much sits within the theme of climate justice. The aim of this paper is very much to present some practices and artists, produce this as a resource for others, and for us to connect with more organisations and funders in order to build on what we have done and in order to support materially and through collaboration bolder, responsive but also slower, long term and ethical work.
Dana has written this insight paper after many months of research, conversation, and care, we are finally sharing it publicly. So I want to start by acknowledging Dana. Dana has led this work with depth, generosity and precision. She has listened closely to artists and organisations working in often challenging conditions. She has held complexity without smoothing it over, and has collected much more learning that we hope to continue to share. She has asked really important questions about ethics, power, timescales, and commitment. This paper exists because of her own commitment and her practice. We are grateful to her.
We also want to acknowledge the eight case studies featured in the paper. These artists and organisations are working across music, film, visual art, heritage, and socially engaged practice. They are based in the UK, Europe, Africa, SWANA, South Asia, and the Pacific. They are working with communities living through climate disruption and displacement right now. They have shared their time, their insight, and often their own experiences of commissioning, fundraising, practice development. This paper is shaped by their experience. It would not exist without their generosity.
We want to thank Ben Margolis for his insight and for bringing in his own research and practice, his specialism in this intersection and his advocacy. In some way Ben’s work and especially his and Ruth Grove White’s research Building Common Ground with Unbound Philanthropy gave this work wider context.
If you managed to scan any part of this paper, you might have gotten the sense why we wanted to launch the paper in a room like this. Artists. Organisations. Funders. Policymakers. Campaigners. People who shape resources, narratives, and agendas. The paper is not complete without you engaging with it. Challenging it. Using it. Sharing it.
We see this launch as a starting point. We want this paper to travel. We want it to be read, cited, argued with, and applied. We invite you to share it within your organisations and networks. We invite you to use it when designing programmes, funding criteria, commissioning projects or partnerships. We invite you to come back to us with questions, critiques, and ideas for what comes next.
Thank you again for being here. Thank you to Dana. Thank you to the artists and organisations whose work grounds this paper. We look forward to the conversations that will begin today and continue well beyond this room.’
Dijana Rakovic, Senior Producer
