Welcome to our Summer Solstice newsletter, one of our quarterly newsletters planned around the solstices and equinoxes of the year.
This Solstice we are bringing you a light in dark times. We asked our Associates to share what inspires them and gives them a sense of radical hope. We hope their responses help to spread agency and imagination beyond the ecological troubles and rising conflict we are witnessing together this year.
What inspires Bridget:
The Culture Declares Emergency movement
This movement had its fifth birthday in April. As one of its co-founders and coordinators I’ve been involved in a refresh of its strategy, have contributed to a short film inviting people to join the movement, and have produced a new toolkit and Blueprint for Action.
The toolkit is in Beta form and still needs some work on its design and language. It takes you through four stages of developing a Cultural response to the Earth crisis, including collaborating with others locally. The very first step of the process, not the very last step, is to Declare a Climate & Ecological Emergency!
We’ve found that many organisations are minded to declare but feel they need to undergo months of preparation and discussion before doing so. Months turn into years, and many have delayed for even the five years of CDE’s existence. On a planetary scale, the same has happened in terms of required action to sustain thriving life on our planet, since the Club of Rome set out the Limits to Growth in 1972 and climate warnings were issued to fossil fuel companies. The emergency was decades ago, but this does not mean it is too late to declare it and take action together.
Please also read this paper The Roles of Culture in Response to the Earth Crisis, which I’ve written to argue for more investment and practice of regenerative types of Culture.
What inspires Justine:
Imagination as activism
We often hear it’s easier to imagine the end of the world rather than the end of capitalism (a quote originally attributed to philosophers Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek), so there’s something very radical about learning to imagine regenerative futures.
This spring I’ve been deep diving into Rob Hopkins’ newly released Ministry of Imagination, and into Phoebe Tickell’s Moral Imagination talks, which you can access on her website. My intention for the summer is to keep radically imagining how things could be, so as to motivate myself to do my bit to bring these worlds about.
The past is a foreign country they say, and as such, it can also be a source of inspiration for imagining what is possible, simply because it has been done before. This summer, I’m therefore looking forward to sinking my teeth into Roman Krznaric’s History For Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity, which will be released on 4/07 and is available to preorder.
What inspires Tamasin:
Community in action, everyone, everywhere
I have been thinking about things that inspire me and trying to decide what creates that spark to do something whether physical or creative. Is it time in natural spaces which certainly fill me with awe, hope and connection? Is it listening to great communicators like Gaia Vince talking about her new book “Nomad Century” and what spurred her to research and write it? Is it attending get togethers with others who are passionate about change like Restore Nature Now?
I realise it is all of these but sometimes I need the spur of seeing how others tackled something in their community and created an equitable, lively solution that solves a problem without fossil fuels or exploitation and often empowers and enlivens the community at the same time. These sparks of joy are what really give me hope, whether it is visiting a local organic community farm near me called Sitopia, watching a film like 2040 or taking part in an event like ‘#Stitch it Don’t Ditch it’ that encourages practical mending skills on the high street.
It’s what we try to share at the Greener and Cleaner Hub in The Glades (Bromley), to normalise seeing these community projects that need us all but could radically change the future if scaled up. Go out and find these in your local community, they will be there and someone will be having an amazing time and really welcome your help.
What inspires Clemence:
Building a community keeps me going
What keeps me going? Such a vast question. Sometimes, it’s hard to remember.
For me, it’s a lot about other people, how inspiring they can be. I love following the updates, adventures and new scandals revealed by French activist Camille Etienne. Her energy, love of the world, and love of art as a mean to defend beauty and life are energising, and so is the way she manages to bring people together to act.
As an art historian working in museums, and trying to convince my sector that we need more environmental interpretation, more concrete actions, more, more, more, I feel quite drained and alone sometimes. People like Esme Garlake, known on Instagram as the Eco Art Historian, remind me that I’m not the only one who thinks there is power in what I do.
Building a community keeps me going. When friends and I share environmental and political news on social media and then randomly message each other to say how much it means to us to know we’re not alone. When I make new friends and we talk about better futures for hours. Recently, I had a picnic with two women I met thanks to a social media post by Mikaela Loach, whose book It’s Not that Radical is high on my reading list. I love knowing that so many of us try, some louder than others, but that we’d all be alone, if we didn’t have each other.
And sometimes, when that’s too much and I get fed up even with the best people, then nature reminds me why I keep going. When I go walking in the mountains on my own for hours, or wild swimming in the cold Scottish seas, I remember why it’s worth it. I see the beauty, feel the cold, breath the air and laugh, and I remember why we’re all stuck in there, trying to convince others that it matters. When, at the end of a long week, I sit down to watch My Octopus Teacher, I feel connected, awed, and loved, and ready to keep going.
What inspires Lucy:
Multispecies perspectives and connections
My June began on a campsite in Eryri National Park (formerly Snowdonia), floating over the clear water of Llyn Gwynant on a paddleboard with a sketchbook. Water improves my well-being and applying a liquid lens helps me imagine probable futures. The inspirational landscape allowed me to witness the rain’s impact on river levels and observe different species in their natural habitat. We wondered if we might spot a glimpse of the Rosy saxifrage (Saxifraga rosacea), recently reintroduced into the wild after being extinct since 1962 – an important collaboration towards nature recovery.
This week I attended a conference and book launch for Designing More-than-Human Smart Cities. Led by editors Sara Heitlinger, Marcus Foth, and Rachel Clarke alongside authors who contributed chapters to the book. The speakers shared interdisciplinary research on co-designing with nature as a stakeholder to create sustainable and inclusive cities. It was a day of inspiration around the power of stories in nature connection and some reflecting on how to turn speculative ideas into reality. There was also the chance to reconnect with participants I met last year at Sara’s workshop, more-than-human decision-making in water policy. For the interspecies forum, I was assigned the role of otter, channelling empathy and creative licence to imagine their needs along the river Lea. The performative aspect is an interesting space to test environmental narratives and I hope to participate in Lara Houston’s next event to gain more interspecies insights.
What inspires Kathy:
Enjoy and Restore Nature Now
I have been on holiday recently visiting friends and family across England. Everywhere we went we managed to enjoy much of what is left of our Biodiversity. I walked on the Quantocks and saw Pied Flycatchers, on the Cornish Coast path we saw thousands of wild flowers. In the Peak District I saw Redstarts and heard Goshawks. Back in Norfolk I’m inspired by our wonderful Biodiversity in the Fens, Broads and coast. Even in Norwich I regularly see Kingfishers and Peregrines.
I wish I had been in the Restore Nature Now march but instead was busy helping on the community allotment, we were so far behind with planting this year, work was urgent. It is a wonderful place of inspiration. I made a new friend and picked blackcurrants. What could be better?
Other Associate News
Neuro/Queering Nature – an exhibition from artist James Aldridge at Spud, New Forest
Spud Artist in Residence and CMUK Associate James Aldridge has created an installation that draws on his experience of the New Forest’s wetlands from a neurodivergent and queer perspective, considering what sensory and systemising differences may bring to our understanding of wetland systems, in a time of climate breakdown.
The gallery is a short walk from Sway railway station (mainline to London Waterloo) and is open Monday to Saturday. The exhibition runs until 4th July. More info
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Climate Museum UK 