Kick-off: 6th October 2023
Funded by Fonds Zero: www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/zero
Project management & climate officer: Kolja Schwab
Contact: kolja.schwab@pavillon-hannover.de
According to calculations by the German Advisory Council on the Environment, Germany would have to be climate neutral as early as 2031 in order to comply with the 1.5°C path according to the Paris Climate Agreement. A goal that thus also applies to art and cultural events.
But how can this climate neutrality be achieved in such a short time? Surely only if all those involved, such as the organizers, artists and audience, get together and think about it. We want to do this in a creative and diverse way within the framework of the ACT NOW! concert series and then use the experiences for our daily operations.
The project idea
The focus of our Zero Project ACT NOW! is a series of four concerts in which different approaches and concepts will be played through and tested in practice in order to gain as much experience as possible. The biggest challenge will be to greatly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of all participants during travel to and from the concerts, as well as to reduce electricity consumption and make it climate neutral. The knowledge gained will then provide the future benchmarks for climate-neutral events.
A central component will be the comprehensive involvement of artists and bands in the climate-neutral implementation of the concerts. Therefore, musicians and bands who are already committed to the topic of the climate crisis and have gained experience in climate neutrality will play. The concerts will be accompanied by a supporting programme including workshops and panels as well as artistic interventions on the topic of the climate crisis. The public relations work accompanies the series in the style of storytelling to make the various challenges in the context of climate-neutral implementation transparent.
The project partners
ACT NOW! will work closely with Culture Declares Emergency (CDE), a global climate movement of arts and cultural practitioners and institutions. Several thousand artists such as the Tate Gallery, Billie Eilish, Radiohead and Abbey Road Studios are involved with CDE and other Declares groups such as Music Declares Emergency internationally. The movement hosts one of its currently ten worldwide hubs in Hannover, Culture Declares Hannover, and is supported locally by over 100 cultural practitioners and institutions such as Klubnetz e.V., The Hirsch Effekt, the Stadtkind and of course the Pavillon Cultural Centre. In view of the climate crisis, Culture Declares sees culture in a special role to create space for new perspectives and positive visions for our world through artistic debate. This is why the movement is also active in ACT NOW! with creative actions to raise awareness of the climate catastrophe through art and culture and thus promote the necessary change.
The series is also supported and advised scientifically by Scientists for Future Hannover.
The Zero Fund
ACT NOW! is one of 25 climate-neutral art and culture projects funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation’s “Fonds Zero“. The aim is to support cultural institutions in testing climate-neutral forms of production and new aesthetics of ecological sustainability. Together they learn how artistic works can be realised with the least possible impact on the climate. For the transfer of knowledge within and beyond the programme, regional network meetings and academies will take place until 2025.
With the creation of climate balances for the institutions and projects as well as their development and implementation in 2023 and 2024, cultural institutions and artists are to be sensitised to ecologically sustainable production. The aim is to make a model contribution to a reorientation of the German cultural landscape in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in the long term.
Funded in the programme Zero – Climate Neutral Art and Culture Projects of the Federal Cultural Foundation. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
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