Arts and heritage: How can we deepen engagement with the climate emergency? (online debate)
Weds 27 April, 7-8pm.
How can the arts and heritage sector engender deeper engagement with the climate emergency? This is a question we will explore with a trio of special guests from the sector who have an astonishing range of experiences and insights into how our natural and cultural worlds are affected by climate change.
- David Buckland, director, Cape Farewell
- Bridget McKenzie, founder, The Climate Museum
- Subathra Subramaniam, director, Akademi
Our discussion, chaired by Kristina Broughton of Wessex Museums, will centre on creative and collaborative approaches, practice and engagement with culture that are redefining the narrative on climate change. In doing so we will explore and question whether there has been genuine growth and change in the sector that has helped people to connect with the climate emergency through thought, feeling and action.
The talk is free but you need to book online beforehand.
Our speakers
David Buckland, Cape Farewell
David Buckland is a designer, artist and film-maker whose lens-based works have been exhibited in galleries worldwide. He has published five books and designed over 20 stage sets, as well as costumes, for organisations including The Royal Ballet and Rambert Dance Company.
David is the founder and director of the Cape Farewell project, whose ambition is to bring artists, scientists and educators together to collectively address the Climate Crises. It has engaged a global public through artworks like Michael Pinsky’s Pollution Pods and broadcasting the film Burning Ice on Sundance TV.
Bridget McKenzie, Climate Museum UK
Bridget McKenzie is a researcher and creative curator in culture, learning and environment. After 14 years in roles such as education officer for Tate and head of learning at the British Library, she founded Flow Associates in 2006, who supported the evolution of Flow India.
In 2019, Bridget founded Climate Museum UK, an experimental museum which stirs and collects the emerging response to the Earth crisis. She is an advisor for Culture Unstained and co-founder of Culture Declares Emergency. She presents and publishes internationally on possibilities of Regenerative Culture.
Subathra Subramaniam, Akademi
Subathra Subramaniam is Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Akademi, a South Asian dance charity. She is one of UK’s leading choreographers and educators working at the confluence of dance, culture and science. Subathra spent over 20 years as Artistic Director of two of the UK’s pioneering South Asian dance companies – Angika and Sadhana Dance.
Subathra was co-education director of Cape Farewell where she co-organised two voyages to the High Arctic and was instrumental in writing resources for science and geography curricula from the footage, photography, art and scientific research that was carried out during the voyages. She is regularly asked to speak at international conferences.
