Dialogue on Arts, Culture & Climate Change http://artandclimatechange.blogs.culture360.org Beijing, China 9-12 October 2008 Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:34:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Welcome http://artandclimatechange.blogs.culture360.org/2008/09/28/welcome/ http://artandclimatechange.blogs.culture360.org/2008/09/28/welcome/#comments Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:34:10 +0000 jerneja http://203.142.22.131/?p=251

Dear participants,

From the 9th to the 12th October 2008, the Asia-Europe Dialogue on Arts, Culture & Climate Change aims to explore creative cross disciplinary and intercultural linkages in the dialogue and actions related to climate change. In the search for creative solutions in sustainable development, the dialogue will bring together a unique gathering of 45 participants of diverse backgrounds – artists, designers, architects, cultural practitioners, environmentalists and scientists as you will discover in the participants section.

This project is one of five projects in support of the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit held in Beijing, China. Asia-Europe Foundation works in partnership with the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and the Danish Cultural Institute (DCI) and with Cultura21, Research Center for Sustainable Development of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and National Climate Change Center, China as associate partners.

All our partners, facilitators as well as our advisor Katja Helkoetter have contributed to the set up of a varied programme allowing for both formal and informal exchange and have set up artistic projects prior to the Dialogue you may explore further in this blog under ‘projects’

Many of you may be wondering what to bring, or prepare, before arriving so we have put together a short briefing for you.

Thursday evening (9th October) is an informal evening designed to help you arrive, orientate to the environment, and meet your fellow participants. Friday (10th October) is a more as you are aware is a more formal, and structured public forum. The material and ideas of the first day will be an input for the following two days which are a time to engage in cross boundary inquiry and exchange more deeply.

Throughout the weekend (11-12th October) we will be drawing ideas from participative techniques such as World Café and Open Space and weaving these with more structured processes. Our facilitators Maggie Buxton and Angela Liong will be leading us through the process.

They have designed  opportunities for you to host conversations on topics you are interested in, hold dialogues on questions that you are thinking about, and share material that you are working on related to our key questions. (This will be in an informal setting, so please bring only material that is not technology dependent, and can be shared with small, self organising groups in a relaxed way).

Our aim is to explore  the differences and similarities between Asian and European perspectives on the following questions and themes:

  •  What is your relationship to climate change? What are the emotions/feelings do you have? What thoughts and questions do you have? What personal experiences can you share related to this issue?
  •  Share your work with each other: What are you doing? How are you doing it? Why are you doing it? 

  • What are your experiences of working across boundaries of culture, identity, profession/mindset? What are the opportunities of doing this in relation to climate change? What are the challenges?
  • Collaboration and climate change: Imagine we have the opportunity to continue collaboration with each other in this group? What ideas do you have about how this could happen? (research questions, project ideas) How can we strengthen connections across boundaries generally? (Asia/Europe, Art and Culture and other disciplines) What other questions or ideas contribute to this theme?

We would like to ask you to reflect on these questions, and notice how they may relate to the themes of food, shelter, movement and clothing (practically and metaphorically).

We will begin the workshop with a story sharing exercise so think of a story you are willing to share about a time when you worked with others from different backgrounds, disciplines or points of view, and, as a result, you made a positive contribution to the wellbeing of your family, your organisation, your community, or perhaps even the entire planet. We imagine other questions, and other avenues of enquiry will surface as we engage together.

Between now and the workshop if you would like to begin a discussion, or share information online please go to the resources section of this blog.

We are looking forward to seeing you all very shortly in Beijing!

If you have any questions related to practical information, please check out the further pages in the blog or send an email to Katelijn.verstraete@asef.org

Best Wishes,

Jean Anes, Director Cultural Exchange

Katelijn Verstraete, Assistant Director Cultural Exchange

Asia Europe Foundation

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