Sustainability in the Arts

Thursday 20 April 2023 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Location: Leeds Arts University, Blenheim Walk, Leeds LS2 9AQ
Booking is essential as places are limited.

Join us as Creative Networks explores sustainability within the creative industries. Following an introduction on sustainability within the arts from SAIL, Hannah Fletcher and Aphra Shemza give insight into the industry and how they consider sustainability within their practices.

Creative Networks is Leeds Arts University’s major professional events programme with talks from high profile speakers from across the creative industries who entertain, challenge and inspire.

As we strive towards achieving Net Zero by 2030 locally in Leeds, 2038 regionally in West Yorkshire, and nationally by 2050, it is essential that all sectors of our economy actively work towards decarbonising their activities.

The creative and cultural industries play a significant role in the region, with 6,365 creative and 1,270 cultural organisations, employing a workforce of 33,540 individuals. However, the sector also creates a significant environmental impact, with high energy and resource consumption, waste production, and carbon emissions.

As we confront the worsening global climate crisis, it is imperative that our sector’s organisations and individuals take urgent action towards reducing their environmental footprint, and use our unique communicative abilities to engage our audiences in climate action.

SAIL (Sustainable Arts in Leeds)

SAIL is a community interest company, and a membership network of over 250 creative and cultural sector organisations and 150 individuals, based or working with West Yorkshire. Working as a collective, SAIL aims to unite the sector behind a common goal to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the sector, sharing knowledge and establishing best practice, and effectively communicating climate to our audiences. SAIL’s aim is to empower everyone in our local creative sector with the skills, knowledge and confidence to make sustainable changes within their individual work, organisation and wider sector.

Hannah Fletcher

Hannah Fletcher is an artist, working with cameraless photographic processes, founder of The Sustainable Darkroom, Co-director of London Alternative Photography Collective and a facilitator of sustainability within the arts.

Aphra Shemza

Aphra Shemza is a UK-based multimedia artist. She is the granddaughter of the well-known abstract painter Anwar Jalal Shemza. Inspired by her grandfather, her work explores Modernism, her Islamic cultural heritage, sustainable practice and creating art for all. As an artist and activist, she finds ambitious ways to fuse methodologies from the past with new innovations in technology to imagine what the role of art could be in the future.