Culture Declares Emergency

Since 2020, the Foundation has supported Culture Declares Emergency (CDE) to widen the impact and engagement of its network of cultural sector workers and climate campaigners. Our initial funding in 2020, of £20,000, went to the development of decentralised regional hubs and to the development and resourcing of a communications strategy to amplify stories and increase public engagement. In 2021, the Foundation gave further support, of £20,000, for CDE to deepen this work, particularly to empower participants to take action in their local communities through the development of CDE’s network of regional hubs, amplify that activity via a new comms strategy and inspire audiences through a series public engagement workshops, supported by a stronger core structure.

A key aim of the Citizen Engagement on Climate strand is to support messengers from different sectors to communicate effectively about climate change, so as to expand the audiences who are engaged on climate action. In particular, we are interested in the potential of cultural communicators to bring new skills and audiences to the climate conversation. Since 2020, CDE has developed five Regional Hubs, in Kirklees, the South West (Bristol & Bath), Birmingham & the West Midlands, and the North East, with and South East Coast soon to launch. This activity at local level has become a key driver for engaging people in the climate and ecological emergency. Our current funding will enable CDE to strengthen its impact, increasing action and engagement in local cultural sectors and their audiences and communities, and moreover this funding will support the CDE to become established as an institution.