“Climate Change & Culture Week” Programme

Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy will organise a ‘Culture and Climate Change Week’ from 11-15 May to coincide with the Turner from the Tate Collection exhibition and as part of the Climate Cool initiative. The week will include workshops and seminars for students, designers and museum directors on the concept of low carbon museums and discussions on how culture and the arts can be used to raise understanding of climate change. The professionals whom confirmed to attend the event include Dr. David Viner, Programme Leader Climate Change, British Council; Dr. Declan Conway, Senior Lecturer in Natural Resources, University of East Anglia; Judith Nesbitt, Chief Curator of Tate Britain; Han Yong, Artistic Director of Contempoary Art Center of the Millennium Monument and Professor Lv Shengzhong from Central Academy of Fine Art. There will also be Chinese professionals from the areas of design, museum and arts to attend the event.

Events Details:

1. “Low Carbon Museums” Sustainable Design Workshop (by invitation)
Time: 10:00 - 17: 00, 11-12 May
Venue: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
Content: 8-10 Chinese industrial designers will spend 2 days with an UK sustainable design practiser to design solutions for developing low carbon museums and present their solutions to a group of museum directors and resources managers

2. “Low Carbon Museums” Seminar (by invitation)
Time: 09:30 - 13:00, 13 May
Venue: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
Audiences:  science & arts museum directors and resources managers
Content:

• Share UK sustainability best practices, highlighting a number of successful case-studies with China museum management
• Produce strategies/frameworks to help reduce carbon emissions from some China leading museums & academic institutions
• Develop a programme to inform staff and visitors of the implications of Climate Change & encourage a cultural change in behaviour towards reducing energy use
• Present design solutions from Sustainable Design Workshop
• There will also be an opportunity to discuss with designers from China & UK about how best museum managers can employ design to make their museums low carbon/energy efficient.

3. Open Lecture
Time: 09:30 - 11:30, 15 May
Venue: National Arts Museum of China
Audiences: general public
Content:

• Introduce the work of Turner to the audience and explain how his observations reflect past climate change patterns and the relevance to today’s Climate Change problems
• Introduce the “See Climate” project that the current Chinese artists explore the relations between arts and climate change
• Explore the role of arts in communicating Climate Change messages to different groups in of society