Culture and community energy: Building power locally

Join us online to explore what art and culture can bring to the community energy movement – and what becomes possible when cultural spaces, local relationships, creativity and collective power come together to build more locally rooted, participatory and democratic energy systems.

Community energy is when local people come together to produce, own or have a say in how energy is generated and used in their community, often through renewable energy projects. The community energy movement is gaining momentum, supporting people to take greater control over their energy and ensuring that the social, environmental and economic benefits of energy projects stay within local communities.

In this session we will learn more about the key principles of community energy and explore how cultural organisations can contribute to this movement – creating places for people to connect, imagine alternatives, build relationships and take collective action around energy.

Following the event, Culture for Climate Scotland will be developing a guide to community energy for the culture sector, informed by your questions and contributions, so please come along and get involved!

What's on the agenda?

The event will begin with an introduction to community energy, followed by a short presentation from each of the invited speakers and an opportunity for questions. We will then move into small breakout rooms for discussion, before coming back together to share reflections and open the conversation with the wider group. While this session encourages participation, you are also welcome to simply listen in.

Our collaborators

• Hillary Powell and Dan Edelstyn, creators of Power Station, two artists who decided to turn their street into a power station.
• Andrew McConnell, Glenkens Community & Arts Trust, who is working on a community plan for a carbon-neutral Glenkens.
• Katheen Painter, Local Energy Scotland, who is delivering the Scottish Government's Community and Renewable Energy Scheme.

This event will be facilitated by Training and Events Officer, Emma Jayne Park.

Why should I attend?

Learn more about the role of arts and culture in the community energy movement. Discover practical examples of community energy in action, hear from people working across the movement, and connect with others interested in locally led energy projects. You will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to the speakers and explore ways to think about the topic in relation to your cultural organisation. You will leave with new ideas, perspectives and connections to take back to your own work. While the content is designed with Green Arts Initiative members in mind, it is open to anyone working in culture in Scotland.

Watch Power Station for free online

In the run-up to this event, our speakers, Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn, are hosting free weekly screenings of their documentary Power Station, followed by a Q&A. Join them to explore some of the ideas we will be discussing together.

Register for a free streaming of POWER STATION via the POWER STATION website.

Do you need support to attend this event?

Culture for Climate Scotland is committed to ensuring that our events are welcoming and accessible for everyone. We value the diversity of our communities and the different experiences, identities and perspectives that people bring, including disability, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, economic status or caring responsibility.

We will make all possible adjustments to our events so that no one is excluded. These adjustments will, most likely, differ from event to event and person to person, so we need your help to get it right. In the past, we have provided quiet spaces, British Sign Language interpreters and internet dongles for portable internet access. We now provide access packs including ear defenders, sensory supports and reading overlays at in-person events.

Some adjustments may take more time to arrange than others, so we appreciate you giving us as much notice as possible about what you need so that we can support you to get the most out of this event.

Please inform us of your accessibility requirements for this event during the registration process. If you have any questions or concerns, please send an email to emmajayne.park@cultureforclimate.scot or telephone +44 (0)131 243 2760 and speak to a member of staff.

Do you use an AI assistant?

We recognise that AI assistants like Otter.AI can be useful to help with accessibility and participation in online meetings. If you decide to use an AI assistant in a Culture for Climate Scotland event, please ensure that it does not share notes with other participants or use the information it is recording for training and improvement.

In Otter.AI, please go into settings and ensure these features are set as follows:

• Set ‘Default audience for shared notes’ to ‘Don’t share’-
• Set ‘Help Improve Otter’ to ‘Off’

There are similar settings in other AI assistants, but if you are unsure, please contact emmajayne.park@cultureforclimate.scot.

By adjusting your settings as outlined this ensures that Culture for Climate Scotland’s events and the contributions from our partners and attendees are not used to train AI models without explicit consent or compensation. Culture for Climate Scotland will ensure that presentation slides will be shared with participants a minimum of 48 hours prior to the event to support your participation.

If there is anything else we can do, please contact emmajayne.park@cultureforclimate.scot. Additionally, if there is anything we could provide which might support participation and reduce the need for an AI assistant, please let us know.

This is part of a series of webinars designed for Scottish cultural organisations, especially our Green Arts Initiative members and signatories to the Green Arts Charter.

Previously, we hosted webinars such as communicating about your environmental actions and digital carbon emissions for Scottish cultural organisations.

Header image courtesy of Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn.
Original screen prints made in collaboration with Daniel Heath Studios