Community-based festivals have a responsibility to assess their environmental footprint. Suzi Dent looks at one festival that is making efforts to engage with the environment.
The importance of arts festivals analysing their impacts in terms of infrastructure, noise and pollution, and natural, physical and heritage issues is widely recognised by festival organisers. By addressing the social quality-of-life indicators for local residents and broader influences on the wider community, festivals can be image-makers for a destination. A festival that is designed to fit into its unique environment, incorporated into its community, will be of greater relevance to its audience and has a greater chance of ongoing success. Using these events as catalysts for specific arts and environmental projects can then become a realistic option.
In this modern age, it is recognised that we cannot expect nature to sustain itself whilst cultural attitudes remain unchanged, and that long-term solutions require the transformation of societal values. The role of art in society is tackling our important interrelation with the earth, both in natural and built environments within the heart of the community. Artists are creating awareness through the use of natural materials, working with the land or by bringing work out of the gallery and into our living spaces. They are also using their creativity to offer solutions that cannot be envisaged through traditional means. At its best, art can broaden understanding and appreciation of the environment, advocate change and challenge behaviours. The arts are entering communities and integrating art and society, encouraging ordinary people to become involved with environmental issues through artistic collaboration and facilitating sustainable frameworks that live on after the end of a single project.
The arts and the environment is a main development theme for Salisbury International Arts Festival. The Festival took an active role in promoting environmental issues through its In Praise projects and now through an ongoing annual environmental focus, which offers a platform for discussion and encourages artists to work with the community. In 2002, the In Praise of Trees project brought the creative power of major international and national artists actively involved with environmental concerns together with environmentalists, government organisations, individuals and businesses in this arena to provide a shared platform. Through interactive participation with the arts, the public were informed, stimulated and valued. The project encompassed in-depth community involvement and educational projects, free exhibitions and installations in the city, and included a huge participatory exercise within surrounding counties to produce 40 Books of Trees. The In Praise of Trees conference provided a professional meeting ground to examine existing practices and new visions for a sustainable future for British woodlands.
A second large-scale project, In Praise of Earth was launched in 2003 with year-round activities leading up to the 2004 Festival, encompassing exhibitions, community-based projects, a major conference and the commissioned composition Flamenco Requiem. The project received substantial media coverage, involved many sectors of the community and delivered long-term objectives, whilst at the same time dealing with the issue of the rural environment which is fundamental for Salisbury. The Festival is currently developing long-term partnerships with environmental organisations to continue its arts and environment thread. As part of a wide-ranging new project, The Living River, the Festival will be working closely with English Nature to educate and celebrate the Avon River catchment and the communitys relationship with the river, using arts projects to create awareness and education.
Over the past decade there has been increasing recognition within national and local government that the arts are an integral part of community provision and that they provide opportunities to meet their own departments objectives. By collaborating to implement such objectives using a strong concept, which utilises unique environments tied in to the ethos of the festival and evidencing lasting legacies to the community, festivals are in a strong position to enable such projects. It is clear that the potential power of such integrated projects engaging artistic and popular participation has massive educational opportunities and is very different from across the board programming.
Salisbury International Arts Festivals over-arching theme for this four-year period is Resonate. It is hoped the Festival will create a lasting impact on audiences and artists long after the immediate performances, and the re-designed logo creates a more modern and environmentally friendly feel. Its artistic vision to encompass a strong arts/environment ethos provides a workable basis for community and educational programmes and builds on relations that go beyond one single project to make them a significant leader in arts/environment initiatives.
Suzi Dent is a recent graduate of the BA (Hons) Arts and Event Production course at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth.
w: http://www.salisburyfestival.co.uk