Emerging concerns

In spring 2010, a chance meeting between Fern Smith, actor and manager of Swansea-based Volcano theatre company, and Rhodri Thomas, Development Officer for Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales and a former professional actor, led to the birth of the Emergence – Eginiad initiative. At the time, Fern was on a sabbatical funded through the Clore Fellowship, and helping the Julie’s Bicycle organisation to quantify the environmental impacts of touring theatre. Rhodri was trying to involve the arts community in a dialogue – to face up to the realities of the global environmental crisis and the profound cultural changes that these major threats necessitate. Together they conceived of and co-produced the Emergence initiative, at first with Fern seconded to Cynnal Cymru and later as a partnership project with the Volcano theatre company.

The on-going aims of Emergence are to develop a low-carbon arts infrastructure, including the management and development of venues, whilst also developing the role of the arts as a crucible of ideas and visions for a low-carbon ‘One Planet Wales’. The latter phrase relates to the Welsh Government’s sustainable development scheme ‘One Wales One Planet’ and the Ecological Footprinting method that calculates that we in the UK are living a lifestyle that requires the resources of three planets to sustain itself.

Emergence-Eginiad owes its success to the development of a wide partnership, headed by Cynnal Cymru and Volcano but involving leading venues and other organisations in Wales – National Theatre Wales, the RSA Fellowship, Julies Bicycle, The Centre For Alternative Technology, The Welsh Government, British Council and The Arts Council of Wales (ACW). The senior management of the ACW recognised the significance of the initiative and like the British Council, awarded funding to help deliver three major conferences around Wales. These presented an opportunity for arts professionals to network, share ideas and get tools for a more sustainable practice; to celebrate the anarchic and unpredictable spirit of art, and learn practical ways in which artists can make a difference. Speakers have included Lucy Neal, Ben Todd from Arcola Theatre in London, Judith Knight of Arts Admin, Alison Tickell of Julie’s Bicycle, artist Bedwyr Williams, poet Menna Elfyn, John E. McGrath (Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales), scientist Jean Bolton and teacher and visionary Satish Kumar. Edited transcripts of all the talks given at the conferences plus contact details of support agencies and on-line resources have been published in a bilingual report, online at Sustain Wales and Volcano Theatre.

Since the conferences, a number of spin-off initiatives are presenting exciting opportunities. For example, a forum of Welsh-based venues and touring companies is to collaborate on lowering the environmental impacts of their operations; there will be a report by Lorraine Frater of Cardiff University on the environmental impacts of touring theatre; and plans are taking shape for a major international summit in 2012 at which artists and scientists will seek to establish common ground.

At the second conference, Satish Kumar explained what Emergence means – aligning your life and actions with the self-organising processes of nature, allowing change to occur. But what about Eginiad? It is a Welsh word. Its most direct translation is ‘germination’ and it refers to the sprouting forth of new growth. Emergence-Eginiad is a passionate act of faith – a statement of what Rhodri and Fern hope will be the unfurling of a new age of spiritual, scientific and artistic enlightenment at this our darkest hour, this time of change.