Online Event

Upgrade Yourself: Process | Public Programming and Climate Activism with Julie’s Bicycle

Thu 08 Apr 2021

13.00 - 14.30

Online

Webinar

Ahead of Earth Day (22 April), we're delighted to present team members from global leading charity Julie’s Bicycle, a resident organisation based at Somerset House, who bridge the gap between environmental sustainability and the creative industries.

Farah Ahmed (Climate Justice Lead & Events Coordinator), and Salome Wagaine (Seasons for Change Manager) will each share their career experiences to date, their current roles and practice when planning, commissioning, developing, and delivering public programmes across audiences and platforms.

In our 90-min process workshop, Farah and Salome will focus on climate justice and activism, delving into two of their initiatives; The Colour Green Lab, a programme aimed at supporting people of colour in creative organisations and individual artists of colour who would like to engage with climate and sustainability, by sharing knowledge and tools. They will also discuss the nationwide Seasons for Change project, a call to action to the cultural sector to fight the climate crisis, inspiring urgent and inclusive action on climate change, through artist-led and public participation.

Julie’s Bicycle work across creative communities with sustainability at its heart, providing ongoing inspiration, expertise, and resources to make that happen, so there will be lots of scope to ask questions, interact and engage with both speakers during this session via the Q&A chat box.

In this session, Farah and Salome will be covering topics around:

Their own journey into the climate justice and wider creative industries
Digital programme The Colour Green Lab, how to engage audiences, build resources, connect culture and climate justice.
The process of developing the Season of Change public programme from conception to realisation.
Working as collaborators and facilitators within a world leading organisation.

About the speakers

Salome Wagaine (Seasons for Change Manager)
Salome joined Julie’s Bicycle in March 2020 to work on Season for Change, a nationwide programme of artistic and cultural events that celebrate the environment and inspire urgent climate action. Before this, she was Project Manager for Diverse Actions, a three-year initiative championing representation and cultural diversity in Live Art. As an independent producer, she has worked with a number of arts organisations in a freelance capacity, with a particular focus on developing new work for the stage and collaborating with early-to-mid career artists.

She has a particular interest in climate justice and exploring the ways broader societal and economic factors influence how involved and empowered people feel to make sustainable changes in their lives.

Salome is a trustee for contemporary music company, Filthy Lucre.

Farah Ahmed (Climate Justice Lead & Events Coordinator)
Farah Ahmed joined the Julie’s Bicycle team in September 2016. She supports the delivery of events programme, profiles the work of the artists and organisations in the Julie’s Bicycle network, and develops Julie’s Bicycle’s climate justice programme The Colour Green, which provides resources, training and events for the arts and culture sector to embed climate and environmental justice into their work. Her interests lie in the connections between environmental, racial and social justice, creative activism and how art can reshape climate narratives.

Farah is a co-founder and facilitator of Diaspora Dialogues for Our Futures, a reflective space for people of colour to centre collective care in the face of the climate crisis. She an alumni of the peer-led accelerator programme Enrol Yourself, where she developed a self-portraiture project exploring climate grief, mental health and activism. She is also an Arts Emergency mentor.

About Julie's Bicycle
Julie’s Bicycle is a pioneering non-profit organisation, mobilising the arts and culture to take action on the climate crisis. Founded by the music industry in 2007 and now working across the arts and culture, JB has partnered with over 2000 organisations in the UK and internationally. Combining cultural and environmental expertise, JB delivers on high impact programmes to meet the climate and ecological crisis head-on. Change culture, culture changes the world.

Stay connected:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/juliesbicycle
Website: https://juliesbicycle.com

Upgrade Yourself: Process

We bring participants together in small groups to meet innovative creative industry thinkers and doers (either individuals, collectives, or organisations). We encourage everyone in the room to contribute to the session, allowing for deeper engagement, which could be conversational, bitesize prototyping and/or creative play, alongside a Somerset House Producer.
Led by members of the Somerset House creative community and external partners, these digital sessions primarily aimed at people aged 18-25 are for those looking for access routes into the Creative Industries and the Cultural Sector.