A Climate for Art (ACFA) is a new initiative aiming to mobilise the arts industry for climate action. It will officially launch during the Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) on 16 June at Footscray Community Arts and is dedicated to bringing together small and medium sized (SME) arts organisations.
This announcement follows the recently launched ‘fossil free sponsorship’ pledge by 350 Australia, which garnered the support of major events and companies, including RISING Festival and La Mama Theatre.
ACFA takes the initiative a step further with the formation of a new Climate Union that aims to include 30 organisational members by December 2023.
The ACFA campaign has been created by Melbourne-based independent producers and co-instigators, Lana Nguyen and Eliki Reade. Nguyen says in a media release: ‘We’re seeing a mounting range of artistic works responding to the increasingly urgent climate crisis – so this campaign builds on that voice, asking for organisations that stage these works to also structurally reflect the concerns of the artists and communities.’
Reade adds: ‘We’re very heartened to have the leadership of our organisational members who have taken on this task on top of the massive undertaking that is running a small to medium organisation… The climate crisis creates and is inherently connected to cultural loss – so particularly as workers in the cultural industry, it needs to be a major concern and situation we take into our practices.’
Footscray Community Arts, Next Wave and Theatre Network Australia are among the early adopters of ACFA, with West Space, Seventh Gallery, APHIDS, Platform Arts, Schoolhouse Studios, Centre for Reworlding, Climarte and Chamber Made also among the founding members.
The Australian Performing Arts Market will host an APAM Gathering alongside RISING in June. The Gathering includes a dedicated Climate Justice program curated by Angharad Wynne-Jones.
New Code details the path forward to fossil fuel free sponsorships
The Climate Council has also launched a voluntary Code for arts institutions and sports clubs to remove fossil fuel sponsorship alongside a new report, ‘Calling Time: How to Remove Fossil Fuel Sponsorships From Sports, Arts and Events‘.
The Code includes information and evidence on how climate change is upending Australian sports, arts and public events; an explanation of fossil fuel greenwashing; and a step-by-step guide to assess current sponsorships in order to align with community, stakeholder and audience expectations.
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A parallel is drawn with the banning of tobacco company sponsorship in the 1990s and today’s call to cut ties with fossil fuel companies, which many see as inevitable, but the call is for it to happen sooner rather than later.
Fossil fuel companies have been sponsoring the things we love to redeem their social licence and gain community acceptance. Greenwashing, sportswashing and artswashing are part of the strategy to intentionally downplay a company’s negative environmental impacts and gain positive associations.
The report shows how the climate crisis has been disrupting sporting, arts and cultural events in real time, including flooding, fire risks, damage to Aboriginal cultural sites and more.
But it also highlights the alternatives to fossil fuel company sponsorships, and the rapidly growing renewable energy industry is a sign for optimism.
Artists, musicians and athletes are invited to drive this change. This can be done by starting conversations with different governing bodies, organisations and boards, as well as engaging with public audiences and fans/followers.
Introducing a framework for organisations
Companies and organisations need to start this conversation around who their sponsors are and whether their values are aligned. ‘Calling Time’ provides a framework for how this can be done.
It recommends starting with an audit of the company’s values and impact, completing a ‘sponsor fit’ evaluation and assessing the risk of the potential sponsorship.
Sponsorship risks can be reputational, but equally they may be legal and financial too with a wide range of stakeholders involved.
Read: Have you got your organisation’s climate action plan in play?
‘Calling Time’ also details a step-by-step guide with case studies that lead to the final discussion and decision-making phase. These conversations are led by boards and executives, but should be backed by consultation and engagement with stakeholders, including artists, audiences and employees.
The #CallTime campaign recognises the existing and unending work of organisations including 350.org, Comms Declare, Greenpeace and more.
Something to note is that this recent chain reaction of campaigns feels particularly Victoria-centric, but there has been decades of work done both on home ground and internationally to drive out fossil fuel sponsorships from the arts.
Earlier this month, Australia finally established a Net Zero Authority under the Albanese Government, which aims to set in motion the commitment to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, bound by law.
This transition will not only have an economical impact, but will also fundamentally change our sociopolitical and cultural landscape as well. And as these fossil fuel-free initiatives show, the arts have a role to play.
