Storytelling’s Superpower: Artistic Responses to the Climate Crisis

On June 2nd, Soulpepper Theatre Company, Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), and Artists for Real Climate Action (ARCA) hosted “The Green Sessions: A Day of Learning”. OC staff attended and were blown away! As we explore and contextualize the implications of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for Canadian orchestras under OC’s 2021-2024 strategic framework, this afternoon of learning offered insights into a key question: What could our artistic responses to the climate crisis accomplish?  

The Green Sessions: A Day of Learning comprised plenary sessions with renowned speakers as well as anumber of breakout sessions to explore specific aspects of the climate emergency in detail. Presenters included Melina Laboucan-Massimo, the Hon. Steven Guilbeault, Jesse Wente, Seth Klein, Annamie Paul, Dale Marshall, Kendra Falconi, David Maggs, Carolynne Crawley, Alanna Mitchell, Toby Heaps, Matt Millares, Gabrielle Bastien, Batul Gulamhusein and Emma Stenning. 

Below, you’ll find a few key takeaways: 

Indigenous Worldviews at the Forefront 

The day began with a heartfelt presentation from Melina Laboucan-Massimo (founder of Sacred Earth Solar and co-founder of Indigenous Climate Action). Melina’s home community is Lubicon Lake Cree First Nation in Little Buffalo, Alberta – situated in the heart of the Boreal Forest and the Alberta oil sands. Melina emphasized the power of Indigenous worldviews to address the climate crisis by valuing reciprocity with mother Earth as well as collective care structures and governance. Melina also reflected on the impact of intergenerational trauma on First Nations people brought on by environmental racism (such as an oil spill in Melina’s home community), residential schools, and centuries of colonialism. For Indigenous peoples in Canada, cultural and environmental genocide are connected, as continued destruction of the land or removal of Indigenous peoples from their lands also contributes to the destruction of Indigenous ways of life. In our fight for climate justice, it is imperative to acknowledge the strength of Indigenous worldviews to inform paths forward as well as pain, exhaustion and trauma Indigenous communities face amidst settler colonialism. Orchestras Canada stands in solidarity with the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people on the frontlines of the fight for environmental justice. 

Watch Melina’s keynote, “Indigenous Issues and the Climate Emergency,” here 

 

Storytelling’s Superpower: Inspiring Action and Change 

In his keynote, The Hon. Steven Guilbeault (Minister of Canadian Heritage) drew from his experience working in environmental activism prior to joining the House of Commons. He mused on the limitations of climate communication focusing on dreadful statistics or doom, expressing his belief in the connection between the arts and a new wave of more effective climate communication focused on instilling hope to inspire action. 

In his keynote, Jesse Wente (Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts) emphasized the power of art to “liberate our imaginations” to envision better futures than what capitalism and colonialism currently offer, socially and environmentally. Further, he argued that storytelling is “crisis resistant” — as artists, we have the power to reframe and raise the profile of the climate emergency, within and beyond our sector, starting any time. We can use art to communicate and vivify our current emergency and our futures; to mobilize communities and inspire new thinking about our present and future relationships with the Earth. For example, through partnerships with scientists and environmental organizations, The Only Animal uses theatre to foster a “love story” between audiences and the natural world.  

Watch Minister Guilbeault’s keynote, “The Climate Emergency and Politics,” here 

Watch Jesse’s keynote, “The Climate Emergency and Culture,” here  

Rallying Around The Emergency 

Author Seth Klein’s keynote presentation distilled the arguments from his recent book, A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, connecting the lessons from large-scale mobilization around the Second World War to our present-day climate crisis. Every great mobilization needs the arts! For example, looking back to World War II, artists played a critical role in helping to sell war bonds, creating paintings of the front lines, and producing relevant music. It was an era when art and hope met to motivate people amidst an incredible challenge.  

Seth argues that prior to going into “emergency mode” to address a crisis, societies usually experience a denial period (you may be familiar with this challenge in the climate sense…). According to Seth, the four markers of when a government has upgraded its efforts to emergency mode are:  

  1. Spending whatever it takes to “win” 
  2. Creating new institutions to get it done 
  3. Turning voluntary/incentive-based policies into mandatory measures 
  4. Telling the truth to communicate the sense of emergency 

As of yet, no Canadian political party meets all four markers regarding the climate emergency. Take the COVID-19 pandemic for comparison; these 4 markers were hit very quickly in Canada! The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) estimates that the government spends $5 billion a year on the climate emergency, and $5 billion a week on the COVID-19 pandemic. We saw extraordinary spending to protect our population against the threat of COVID-19, which (Seth argues) demonstrates that these funds have always been available for emergencies — they just haven’t been allocated to issues like climate change. With the majority of Canadian leaders not acting as if climate change is an emergency, our greenhouse gas emission levels are not reducing at the rate needed to meet the crisis looming. Currently, all measures are voluntary and, thus, easy to ignore.  

Watch Seth’s keynote, “The Climate Emergency and the Artists,” here 

Artists Leading 

Personal contributions matter, but if we want significant changes, we need the government to act. As multiple speakers noted, we have 11 years to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid catastrophic climate change. Annamie Paul (Leader of the Green Party of Canada) reminded attendees that Canada ranks among the top five countries in the world for greenhouse gas emissions per capita, with the worst reduction records among the G7. Since signing the Paris agreement in 2016, our emissions have actually increased every year – not declined. If we want to reduce emissions by 60% by 2030, Annamie argues that we need carbon budgets and big changes. By and large, the public recognizes the scale of our emergency – but why don’t our political leaders? How can we motivate them, or increase the number of people in politics willing to act on the climate crisis? Annamie encouraged artists to run for politics, to take up seats at the table with our voices advocating for climate action and the vitality of our sector. 

Watch Annamie’s keynote, “Climate Action and Policy,” here 

The Green Sessions: A Day of Learning was inspiring and shed light on how artists and arts organizations can engage our skills to champion change together. Stay tuned to Soulpepper Theatre for news on upcoming Green Sessions: A Day of Training and A Day of Action which are scheduled for late August/early September (exact dates TBC). You can reach Soulpepper Theatre at [email protected] and can view all recordings from The Green Sessions in this YouTube playlist: The Green Sessions: Day of Learning recordings 

Are Canadians ready to return to the arts?

On Tuesday, Sept 22, Chief Data Scientist and Founder of Nanos Research, Nik Nanos shared findings of the latest Arts Response Tracking Survey (ARTS), a partnership between Business / Arts, the National Arts Centre and Nanos Research, which polled over 1,000 Canadians to gauge their attitudes on returning to and supporting the arts across Canada. The fieldwork for this study was completed on July 30th, 2020 and targeted Canadian arts-goers. 

These latest findings offer terrific insight for arts organizations, in particular, fundraisers to help inform programming and fundraising models.

ARTS focused on three axes: 

1- Timing of Return, which tracked the impact of the pandemic and when arts-goers plan to return.

2- Conditions for Return, which tracked what precaution Canadian arts-goers would like to see in place prior to returning to arts and cultural events

3- Donations, which captured reported donation activity for 2019, 2020 and projected to 2021 to understand the likely immediate impact of the pandemic and to plan for 2021. 

Key findings:

 

• Timing of return: 

For indoor cultural activities, 23% of Canadian arts-goers would go back immediately, while 38% said they’d wait 6 months on average before going back. 1 in 3 still unsure about going back.

As for outdoor cultural activities, 37% said they’d go back immediately, 30% would wait 5 months on average, and 1 in 3 are still unsure about going back. 

Museums and galleries are the venues which Canadian arts-goers are not certain about the most, with a whopping 43% who said they’re unsure about when they’d go back. 

 

• Conditions for Return:

Culture-goers increasingly say that masks are a precaution that would make them feel comfortable to attend in-person. This suggests an alignment with public health recommendations. 

For indoor performances, 40% of indoor culture-goers (compared to 27% in May) who plan to attend immediately after reopening want masks. 

As for those who plan to wait 1 to 5 months before returning to attending performances, 43% expressed that they want masks (compared to 29% in May). 

The numbers are very similar for Outdoor performances: the consensus is that people would feel much safer if precautions included masks. 

 

• Donations:

In 2019, 43% of culture-goers donated to arts/cultural organizations an average of $158. In 2020, it is anticipated that the numbers will go down: 39% of culture-goers except to donate an average of $126 , which is a drop of 20% compared to 2019. 

On the bright side, 2021 seems to be promising: 42% intend to donate an average of $222, which is a 40% increase compared to the current year. 

Nik Nanos highlighted the fact that arts organizations will be hit hard this year. However, depending on the economical environment, there will likely be a rebound in donations in 2021. 

It is worth noting that the 35-54 age segment plan to donate less in 2021. This, however, will be compensated by a growth in donation amounts by the 55 plus cohort: their generosity is expected to continue into 2021. 

 

There was a discussion after the presentation by five panelists:

1-  Wesley J. Colford from Highlanders Theatre shared an inspiring success story; This relatively young theatre company, based in Sydney, Nova Scotia, was expecting to go bankrupt by August 2020 due to the pandemic. Instead of giving up, they started a program called “Radical Access”, where they pivoted from selling tickets to a crowdsourcing model by requesting monthly donations. The model has been a great success and they are already at 98% of their funding goal.

2- Irfan Rawji from Glenbow Museum in Calgary discussed finances, and what the Canadian government could do to help arts organizations. He highlighted the example of a UK government program that covers 50% of restaurant-goers’ bills on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In essence, the government is allowing the public to pick which restaurants will survive. 

3- Monica Esteves, ED of Canadian Stage in Toronto, said that they surveyed their audiences in June, and learned that their audiences were concerned about the company and its survival. At the same time, audiences were not willing to make long term commitments. In response, Canadian Stage is programming and selling their activities in three month “mini-seasons” and will continue to do so for the next 12 months at least. The board of directors reviews progress and approves plans in three month increments, enabling rapid organizational response to emerging situations.   

4- Claire Sakaki, ED of Bard on the Beach (Vancouver), spoke about their 31 year old Festival, which typically presents 300 performances in an iconic Vancouver location in the summer months. Ticket sales and donations make up the largest proportion of their $9 million annual revenues. Transcending physical location, they quickly re-branded to “Bard Beyond the Beach” with a temporary logo, and started “Bard in your Heart”, a brand for donors. At the same time, they re-imagined all of their activities on virtual platforms, ranging from (performances – you didn’t say?) through backstage tours and an annual dinner.

5- Jayne Watson, CEO of the National Arts Centre Foundation, talked about the NAC’s efforts to keep donors connected and happy at a time of great uncertainty.  She noted the strong connection between appealing projects and donor generosity, highlighting such initiatives as the NAC funding 12 theatre companies to deliver socially distanced performances, and the continued success of the Canada Performs series of free, live-streamed performances. She also noted their pivot from their traditional fall gala to an emphasis on individual donations, including a donation matching program. 

Slides from the meeting 

Video of the meeting