Green Arts

History

Between 2018 -2020 TDNI worked with various partners including Theatre Forum and British Council NI to share learning and practice around Green Arts and to ensure that the issue of climate change and responses remained on the agenda in the arts sector across the island. This was a key theme of our 2019 all-island conference with Theatre Forum which took place at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. Speakers included Catríona Fallon, former CEO of Siamsa Tíre, who was instrumental in getting the first Green Accreditation for a cultural space in Ireland, Ben Twist, Director of Creative Carbon Scotland, and Catherine Bottrill of Julie’s Bicycle. With British Council NI, we hosted Maïa Sert from On the Move/ Creative Climate Leadership programme who shared her insights on European and international good practice examples of Climate Leadership. Other activities included partnering with IETM & Theatre Forum to deliver a Satellite event on climate change in Galway in Dec 2020. Unfortunately, our engagement as partners in this programme was derailed by both Covid and our merger with DRB. This event went ahead digitally.

The Theatre Green Book

In 2021, TDNI was a co-sponsor and supporter of the production of the first ‘Theatre Green Book’ with our partners Theatres Trust and other UK resource organisations. The Theatre Green Book resource, brought together theatre makers and sustainability experts to create a common standard for making theatre sustainably. We continue to engage with Paddy Dillon, the co-founder and co-ordinator of Green Book and our other UK partners to ensure that this resource becomes more widely known, practised and shared. 2024 saw the launch of its 2nd edition with all 3 sections Productions, Operations & Buildings in one place & new easy-to-use Excel tracker.

Advocacy

The Executive Director of TDNI served as a member of the CAH Taskforce who delivered the “Investing Creative Delivery – A report from the Culture, Arts & Heritage Strategy Taskforce, which is currently informing the development of the new Department for Communities strategy for the sectors. Within this report are specific recommendations on climate change mitigations including the development of local, regional, and multi-jurisdictional initiatives that acknowledge the vital role of arts organisations and practitioners in crafting creative responses to the climate emergency. TDNI has also been working to support the development of the new ACNI ten-year strategy (2024-2034) which includes actions to drive awareness, engagement, and positive change in response to the climate emergency.

Green Arts Forum

We are delighted to sit on the Steering Group of the newly established Belfast City Council’s Green Arts Forum, and we will continue our relationships with relevant partners across the UK, Ireland and beyond to ensure our strategic and environmental objectives are achieved and promoted across our suite of annual programming. This currently includes delivering a strong digital element in our programme, working to reduce our own carbon footprint, as well as sharing resources and learning across the sector.

We look forward to continuing supporting this amazing initiative with BCC and encourage our members to join us on this mission.