SPARK #36: Degrowth Toolkit for Artists

How can a degrowth approach to the arts be imagined and implemented? Art is often mobilised within activist movements in the service of social change, but how can activist values enter artistic practices to create a more equitable and humane field?

Emerging from the field of political ecology, degrowth signifies, first and foremost, a critique of the narrative of perpetual economic growth, and of the centering of growth as a social objective. Degrowth intersects with multiple streams of ecological and social thought (such as decolonial theory, institutional critique, politics of care, and mutual aid practices), and calls for bringing forward a new imaginary – a change of culture and a rediscovery of human identity, disentangled from economic representations.

In this session we will explore degrowth in the context of artistic practices. Through discussion and creative mapping, the aim of this workshop is to create a space for us to come together and imagine artistic practices that are centred on the values of well-being of human and more-than-human life, equitability, autonomy, simplicity, conviviality, and care.

Participants are invited to think about what they would like to see ‘degrown’ in the art world (or their own practice), then to collectively map out these demands, identify how they intersect, and finally discuss how they can support each other (sharing skills & resources, or collectively organising) to bring about these changes. We aim to finish the session with a map of what degrowth might look like in practice for SPARK artists and some practical next steps.

This workshop is part of Alexandra Papademetriou’s ongoing artistic research project The Degrowth Toolbox for Artistic Practices. For more information about the project, visit degrowthtoolbox.net. 

Please note that this session takes place on Zoom. It will include breaks and some time outside. You are very welcome to bring food and drink to the session!

Alexandra Papademetriou is a Greek/English artist and researcher born in Athens in 1994 and currently based in Gothenburg, Sweden. She earned her MFA in Fine Art from HDK-Valand and her post-master from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Through a practice of shared learning, her work aims to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogues and collaborations.

Operating at the intersection of art and ecology, her work explores how artistic practices can provide the testing ground for pragmatic environmental and social change, while cultivating a sense of interdependency with the more-than-human. Her current research focus is on the subject of degrowth, and specifically how degrowth thinking and strategies can be mobilised within artistic practices to create a more equitable and humane field.
https://www.instagram.com/alexandra.apapa/

SPARK
The SPARK network was set up by Castlefield Gallery in 2022 to facilitate a Greater Manchester/North West-based network of artists wanting to intervene in the climate crisis. The gallery initiated SPARK in response to the high demand for places on the 2021/22 SUSTAIN programme focussed on low carbon artmaking. 

SPARK #36 follows SPARK sessions at Manchester Art Gallery, Rogue, The Birley (Preston), Eccles Friends Meeting House, Manchester Museum, AIR Gallery, Paradise Works, Editional Studio, Cadishead and Little Woolden Moss, Gallery Oldham, the John Rylands Library, Dunham Massey, Lindow Moss, Castlefield Viaduct, Gallery Oldham, The Atkinson, Castlefield Gallery and Ancoats Central Retail Park; and a 2023-24 group exhibition and events programme at Rogue Studios.

Castlefield Gallery continues to provide admin and co-ordination support via its Artist Environmental Lead, Jane Lawson.
https://www.instagram.com/sparkartistsnetwork/

Image: Alexandra Papademetriou