Read digital versions of the information panels from the Hybrid Futures exhibition at Salford Museum & Art Gallery. These panels explore Collective Futures, Sustainability throughout the Hybrid Futures project, and some of the key themes of the artwork and exhibition: Collaboration and co-creation, Questioning, and Climate Equity and Justice.
Click on the images below to read each panel.
A transcript of the spoken audio sources for Jessica El Mal‘s work, ‘The Water We Seek’, created for Hybrid Futures and included in both The Poetics of Water at Castlefield Gallery in 2023, and the Hybrid Futures exhibition at Salford Museum & Art Gallery in 2024.
An evolving hub, bringing together recordings of the Climate Crisis >> Art Action two-day symposium that took place in March 2023, alongside opportunities for local action and climate justice, and key resources shared across the two days.
The Gallery Climate Coalition Carbon Calculator is a free tool designed for ease of use to provide a quick but accurate breakdown of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions, based on metrics common to most art organisations.
As part of the wider Hybrid Futures programme Grundy Art Gallery presents a new solo exhibition RA Walden: Object transformations through the coordinate of time.
‘Object transformations through the coordinate of time’, is a solo exhibition of newly commissioned and existing works by the UK born, Berlin-based artist, RA Walden. Spanning sculpture, installation, text and moving image, the works in this exhibition mark and measure the passing of time. Drawing on reference points as varied as, quantum physics, the ecological crisis, ancient timekeeping and the life cycle of worms, Walden is asking us to consider time at both a macro and micro level. More specifically, as an artist with lived experience of a disability, RA Walden also uses their work to explore and express non-normative experiences of time. From sculptures made from hacked office clocks, to texts that ask who and what defines, ‘work’, Walden’s exhibition also provides a poetic meditation on lives and bodies whose timekeeping does not conform to the supposed ‘norm’.
The exhibition opens this Saturday, the 20th of April, until the 15th of June at Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool. For more information on the exhibition and to plan your visit, click here.
How might we best respond to the climate crisis?
“I found the idea, discussed at one of the sessions, of ‘contributing to a future world we will never experience’ to be surprisingly calming. I have faith, even though I struggle with uncertainty.”
Collective Futures has focused on hearing from invited guests – artists, community activists and cultural strategists. Reflection has been a big part of the group’s sense-making, combining facts, feelings, interpretations and unlocking personal and professional relevance. The programme has given those involved new ways to think about their own work and/or working practices and begin to embed these individual and collective responses at carefully considered pace. The programme has led to direct action and infiltrated unexpected spaces, changing the way people think about their everyday activity for example – whether their actions go beyond sustainable to regenerative.
I also shared with (my neighbours) the story … about the polluted river which caused lots of issues in (an) area. This sparked another discussion, a wider one, about sustainability and ‘green’ initiatives, and prompted an old idea to resurface – to transform a small bit of a green space we’ve got between two of the buildings into a community garden. Everyone offered to contribute and it turned out we’ve already got all the resources we need in terms of tools, seeds, et., from people’s balcony gardens(including a 2-ton bag of soil which our neighbour has somehow been storing on his balcony since last summer. We got permission from the facilities management which I thought would be much trickier, and we’ll set the project in motion as soon as spring begins.”
Catch up on all Collective Futures updates and reflections including next steps and outcomes here.
Summary – Collective Futures
How might we best respond to the climate crisis?
Collective Futures has focused on hearing from invited guests – artists, community activists and cultural strategists. Reflection has been a big part of the group’s sense-making, combining facts, feelings, interpretations and unlocking personal and professional relevance. The programme has given those involved new ways to think about their own work and working practices and begin to embed these individual and collective responses at carefully considered pace. The programme has led to direct action and infiltrated unexpected spaces, changing the way people think about their everyday activity for example – whether their actions go beyond sustainable to regenerative.
“…the take away for me: the difference between sustainable and regenerative practices was a real piece of learning for me.”
“I’d like to broaden and deepen my understanding of what it means to have a regenerative mindset.”
Direct Short Term Outputs
‘The effect of these workshops will still be felt much later down the line.”
“Revelling in the ‘just do it’ mentality, unconstrained by KPI and organisation hierarchies -[these artists are] living their politics on a daily basis, anarchic and anti-capitalist – found it inspiring.”
“It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten”.
The group immersed themselves in the landscape as they did in the very first session. This time taking in the architecture, mountainous views and heritage of Windermere Jetty Museum on the lake shore.
As planned, we immersed ourselves in the landscape as we did at the very first Collective Futures session. Taking in the architecture, mountainous views and heritage of Windermere Jetty Museum on the lake shore, we also noted that the building has high eco credentials including being heated by the lake.
The session took place in three defined areas: a gravel circle, meadow to one side, lake to the other bordered by moss covered trees; mini amphitheatre where the boat house is situated; where the lake enters the building; and the learning room with floor to ceiling lake and fell aspects. The sun was just breaking through, the temperature was around 14 degrees.
Prior to our final meeting, Alia had shared a survey with the group to support the process of ending well. Beginning in the learning room, Alia shared the aggregated survey results and how this helped shape the day’s plan in response in which:
Alia reminded the collective of the purpose of the day: to ‘end and/or transition well‘ and articulate what this could mean.
We started the sessions and set the tone of the day discussion with Sankofa (pronounced SAHN-koh-fah) – a word in the Twi language of Ghana meaning “to retrieve” (literally “go back and get”; san – to return; ko – to go; fa – to fetch, to seek and take). It also refers to the symbol of a bird with its head turned backwards while its feet face forward.
Sankofa is often associated with the proverb, “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi,” which translates as “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten”.
Moving outside to the gravel circle, standing and facing each other, Alia guided the group to take a breath and to presence our minds and bodies using the weather and our internalised forecast as a barometer to understand and absorb where we find ourselves and what is available to us. We worked in pairs to discuss ‘hope’ and how long we could project this forward.
Breaking out to the lakeshore, Collective Futures’ Creative Producer Kit Abramson gave a summation of activity of the Collective Futures programme noting opportunity for iterations – woven into the process – and the impact the programme has had on individual thinking and behaviour in personal and professional spaces.
Returning to the circle, the group were positioned into an inner and outer circle and tasked to share what they had enjoyed most and what they had found most challenging in a 30 second burst. The outer circle then moved clockwise one space and the process was repeated with one caveat: we were not allowed to repeat anything we had already spoken about. This process was repeated five times.
The lunchtime task was to find an object that represented our experience of Collective Futures, to further explore the museum and grounds, and take the opportunity for chat and projection. Echoing our Resonant Objects session, we talked about the objects and images we had collected – an offering of moss, an oak leaf, a photograph of a bee, a photograph of a tree, a photograph of upcycled plant pot wellies, a fragment of pink acrylic fabric, a photograph of a fish, a forked smooth and flaky twig, two slates threaded with white sediment and two connected ivy leaves.
Moving on to the learning room, we each created a series of ‘I need’ statements on yellow post it notes, followed by the offering of support and resource that we could give to each other to support the development and realisation of activity/proposals/ongoing relationships. These were quickly and loosely grouped into categories of need aligned with committed offers of support and resources. The group discussed Collective Futures as a model and how to embed this model to create systems change if they could apply it to their own workplaces.
I need:
There was agreement that the drop in, drop out structure suited those involved and that the role of the reflective notes/supporting media supported this approach. Going forward the collective committed to meet on a quarterly basis with a structure in place – we called these Provo-Catch Ups.
We moved on to writing with the hand we don’t normally write with – reflecting on the day – what we enjoyed, felt challenged by and what we were proud of. We finished the workshop with a gratitude circle and a poetry reading from Alia to close the day having supported the transition/extension of Collective Futures beyond this first phase funded programme.
This online session focused on the roles we can play to support or build projects or change. We used a metaphor of the scaffold to draw out and better understand the roles different people in Collective Futures naturally lean into – some people have ideas they want to run with, some want to support. Find out more here.
