Developmental information about the project

Voiced from Gujarati and Yorkshire Rivers

Climate Change and Our Heritage

Objective: To use the arts to consider climate change in Yorkshire and Gujarat

Aims: We aim to use the Arts to discuss climate change and pollution. In the developmental stage we will do this by working with invited writers and workers in both the UK and India. In the second stage the project will broaden out for greater community involvement, particularly through adult Gujarati speakers and primary schools in the UK. We will achieve this through:

• web-based communication


• developmental creative writing workshops


• community arts workshops


• web-based communication between workshop events on two continents.

Our subject is climate change. We will apprach this through three main issues, food, water and energy. Management of these three will produce a change in Cultural Modelling. The workshops we run will take climate change as their focus and develop web based communication technology. There is potential to develop partnerships with the exchange of writers, artists and arts and media innovators between the UK and India.

We welcome:

• partnerships especially higher education partnerships

The project also considers:

• language and translation


• the common ground between cultures


• we expect and welcome debate on the limits of communication and the technology of communication.

Two Phases

Phase I Development – ACE Funding Sought
October – December 2008

In this first phase we will develop a team through experimenting in workshops. This will enable people to take skills uniting our common themes -climate change and pollution- to communities in both Yorkshire and India. This will directly relate to the evolution of the interactive technology; that is, the website we will create.

Phase II Consolidation – funding not sought at this time
January – March 2009

This second phase of the project will benefit local communities via continued workshops and exhibitions. Please reference Appendix A.

Climate Change and the Indian Connection

Climate change is an issue of vital importance which affects our communities with increasingly far-reaching consequences. This project has developed out of recognition that it is important to make contacts with community groups in other countries, because of the need to develop an international response to climate change.

Development Plan

Five Initial Workshops: We are trying to put together a strong core of experienced writers and artists in the developmental stage. The five initial workshops will train up a strong team of writers who will then continue to work with schools and community groups in the Consolidation Phase. To ensure the high quality of these initial workshops from which all other work will stem, we are using writers and artists who have proven records as key tutors. For example:

Barton on Humber: Karen Maitland, Penguin author
Rotherham: Ray Hearne, South Yorks. Songwriter/Poet
Aire: Becky Stirrup, Creative Writing Tutor
Castleford and Nidderdale: Brian Lewis, Writer, Arts Consultant

Workshop leaders will also be working with printmakers and painters. The project will incorporate many art forms, including painting, poetry, photography, film, writing, pottery, story-telling, folk-singing, heritage and travel writing. All of the painters, photographers, publishers, sculptors, crafts people and multimedia workers are experienced and have had exhibitions. The Indian workshops begin on 1 October 2008. We want the UK workshops to take place at similar times, so we plan to start workshops in October 2008.

Website: The IT component is a learning tool which links communities across continents. The website is a convenient place for two groups, who are working together thousands of miles apart, to collaborate on a single arts project. It is also a convenient place for people all over the world, and especially the UK and India, to find out about the project, see the results and become participants themselves. The website will showcase of the project.

The website will support the project by acting as a single repository for:

• Profiles of the artists and others involved


• A Calendar of events


• Descriptions of upcoming events


• The outcomes of past events (written word; e.g. poetry, photographs and other imagery, video, audio etc.)


• cross continental communication and participation via; comments, forums

Forum and comments: The Gujarati and English editor will both need to check the forums and comments sections of the site regularly to ensure that nothing inappropriate is posted.

Communication: Primary communication will have to be in English, therefore the Gujarati editor will need to be able to communicate in both languages. English text will be translated into Gujarati by the Gujarati editor and then posted by the overall editor.

Promotion: Someone needs to contact relevant blogs and websites (arts, environmental etc.) to get news out about the site. This needs to happen at intervals during the life of the site. Similarly, someone needs to contact relevant organisations offline.

Exchange – UK to Gujurat

We propose that members of the general team, Brian Lewis, Jenny Marsden, Adam Ghodiwala, Jane Weatherby and Beccy Stirrup go out to India for ten days in November 2008. We will be present at two Indian run workshops out there, as well as running several workshops of our own over a ten day period. These will be developmental workshops, essentially a test-run. We will then communicate back to UK workshops via the website. We will be talking to educational leaders in India, schoolchildren and their teachers (teacher training) and university tutors in English and Educational facilities. We will work with communities in India to establish contacts and help create work and ideas we can bring back to the UK. During the 10 day exchange we hope to communicate with over 500 people, mostly through workshops.