As we count down the weeks to COP26 in Glasgow next month in November, Season for Change is thrilled to present an eclectic collection of over 30 multi-disciplinary artists and communities, all committed to raising awareness and activating change within the climate emergency. 

This autumn, the nationwide cultural programme, Season for Change, continues to inspire artists offering digital and live platforms for diverse and unique creative responses to the climate emergency with projects including, an all female led procession from Walking Forest, to an interactive Wilding Nature game presented by Hwa Young Jung, to an exclusive drill recording from Drill Minister and immersive performances from Apples and Snakes’ Cece’s Speakeasy collective. 

Coming up:

Planet, People, Power explores South Asian diaspora experience and action in relation to climate change. The project, by artists Balraj Samrai and Farah Ahmad Khan, will take the form of grassroots radio networks to transmit sounds of ecological imagination, thinking and action across Manchester, touching on intersectional environmentalism, environmental inequality and ecological interconnectedness between Manchester and the Global South. 
Listen here

Immersion by artist Selina Thompson presented performances across Tower Hamlets, one of London’s most polluted boroughs,  that shared a chorus of breath from an intergenerational group of women of colour and tuned into the beauty of breathing at a time when breathing has never felt so loaded, due to racism, Covid and air pollution. Around COP26, Artsadmin shares a film capturing Selina Thompson’s project and sharing it with a wider audience.
Watch the trailer for Immersion

Set in a future world where coffee and chocolate are nearly extinct, Cece’s Speakeasy is an immersive poetic experience where storytellers, poets and musicians share new work exploring hope and action during the climate. Following on from its live performances, there will be an online launch for the poetry films and a Cece’s Satellite Speakeasy in Bristol. These events are designed to be a creative comment on issues of climate and environmental injustice leading up to COP26. Using the latest digital platforms to develop community, Cece’s poetry films will also spearhead a resource hub and knowledge sharing space for a poetic campaign that encourages people to go outside and be in nature.
Book now for The Satellite Speakeasy: Trinity Community Arts Centre in Bristol – 13 November

Residents in Coventry as part of Coventry City of Culture 2021, Walking Forest is co-creating a performative action with local women inspired by forest ecology and stories of ecological injustice and repair both locally and globally. The work will inform how Walking Forest is present at COP26: the iterative shaping of the project continues to be co-designed by participants, leading up to the culmination in 2028 with the planting of a woodland to honour women Earth Activists from around the world. 
Follow their journey

This immersive audio walk transforms the sounds and voices around you into a poetic environment that asks you to perceive the world anew. As sea levels rise and wildfires burn, Only Expansion remixes the sound of the city around you to conjure up a sonic portrait of how your life might change in the future. A beautifully produced guidebook prompts you to explore your location; you can choose your own route as customised headphones capture and manipulate the sounds that surround you. Field recordings of climate collapse bleed into this environment – you might hear your city as it sinks beneath waves or is battered by desert winds. A powerful and impressionistic reflection on what it means to live on a planet in crisis, Only Expansion connects the here to the elsewhere, letting you experience our troubled environment through sound. 
Book now for 7-10 October, 14-17 October 11am-5pm at the BFI Foyer Southbank, London & Frequency Festival

Drill Minister’s (Documentary/Musical,) new music track and accompanying interviews, collectively titled Eco-Cide, is the artist’s reflection on the perception of environmental issues held by some members of the British public – what understanding and outlook do people have on the situation we are in and what their fears and hopes are for the future, living with global warming, air pollution and many other areas of climate breakdown. What are the possible solutions and just how informed is the British public on the current situation? How can Drill Minister help to remedy these outlooks in his original art and think piece? Released to coincide with the start of COP26 on 1 November 2021, this work aims to (really shake things up) open up urgent conversations and bring a true urban perspective to Environmental issues.
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Ergon Theatre present a new show, The Wicked Problem, setting the scene in the year 2061, where an ecological genocide trial is taking place. Audience members will play the part of both judge and jury in an interactive performance to decide the verdict of the person accused. The mock trial will raise debate over geographical privilege, climate grief, climate justice and environmental anxiety whilst exploring where the responsibility for the crime lies.
Book tickets: 3 – 6 November 2021 

Over several years of research and collaboration, interdisciplinary performance company METIS, led by Zoë Svendsen, have been imagining alternatives to the current global economic order within the context of climate change. Part documentary film, part live discussion, this virtual event invites you to explore the power of the imagination to stimulate hope and shift mindsets. Meet the creators behind METIS’ latest work Love Letters to a Liveable Future. Enjoy extracts of the show. And hear from change makers who are already living and breathing the world that Love Letters conjures into being. The future is on its way – it’s time we started rehearsing for the kind of world we need to build together. So come and exercise your imagination with us as we create new possibilities for an eco-logical future.
Book now for Love Letters to a Liveable Future: Online at the Change Festival on Friday 5 November 2021

Bringing the missing voice and viewpoint of young people at risk of entering, and experience within, the criminal justice system to the forefront of environmental discourse, Wilding Nature by the socially engaged artist Hwa Young Jung challenges the ideas of a ‘natural state’ for humans and non-humans resulting in a prototype game. Workshops with the young people using socially engaged, heavily discursive methods, focused on the loss of biodiversity and rewilding as one solution to the climate crisis. The final co-produced artwork has taken the form of a game, with a group of Young People to play test the prototype game during COP26 at Metal Peterborough. 
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The Korea Foundation (KF) and the British Council invited applications for a creative commission which integrates art, science and digital technology and responds to climate change. This commission is a part of the cultural programme for P4G Seoul Summit held in Seoul in May 2021 and the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) taking place in Glasgow in Nov 2021. Among high-quality innovative project proposals, The Greenverse jointly submitted by Art Center Nabi, Watershed and Bang & Lee has been selected for the commission. The online Creative Camp will support young people in Korea and the UK, amplifying their voices through supporting, shaping and sharing their ideas on the climate crisis. The outcomes will be presented for the first time on The Greenverse digital platform during COP26.
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