The story of imagining climate-ready futures

Creative Climate Futures is a project led by sustainability charity Verture, supporting local climate action in Glasgow through work with embedded artists in two pioneer neighbourhoods – Easterhouse and Gorbals – and a city-wide learning, training and capacity-sharing programme.

For ‘The story of imagining climate-ready futures’, we spoke to Easterhouse’s embedded artist, Rebecca Fraser, and local charity youth organisation, The Pavillion, about the value of creative approaches and collaboration in community climate action.

Why did you want to be involved in the Creative Climate Futures project?

Rebecca Fraser: I grew up in the East End of Glasgow and have lived most of my adult life here. The role of an ‘embedded artist’ is something I feel strongly about, especially when it comes to projects that involve community consultation or information gathering. It is important that local people feel valued and commissioning a local artist is the first step towards this – seeing someone they know or have heard of creates a sense of trust that the project truly is for them.

I’m always attracted to projects that prioritise grassroots artists and organisations and Creative Climate Futures had this at its core. I felt confident that the project would value the voices of local people, respecting their differing views on climate issues, while also being supportive of my ethos that community care and individuals’ wellbeing should be at the forefront of our process.

The Pavillion: Creative Climate Futures offered the Blairtummock & Rogerfield Partnership, of which The Pavillion is a member, an exciting opportunity to make use of and develop our relationships with our partners and to support the local community to make positive changes to the area. By inviting the residents of Easterhouse to take a fresh look at climate change and equipping them with a creative way to approach the issues that matter to them, we saw that the project could allow us to bring together local people and local organisations to address the most urgent local problems in a truly collaborative spirit.

What have you learned so far from working in the communities as an embedded artist?

Rebecca Fraser: My hope for this project was to create sessions built around friendly (and fair) exchanges. Relaxing sensory activities were at the root of my ‘Future Spa’ workshops because I wanted participants to feel they had the emotional margin to connect with ideas about the future and the environment.

‘Consultation fatigue’ is common in communities where opinions are asked for frequently but often result in little visible change. It is impossible to avoid this completely – opening public conversations inevitably raises local expectations – but I was intentional in creating enjoyable spaces that prioritise a positive experience rather than information gathering. Conversations were secondary to the creative experience.

It is hard as a practitioner to let go of the pressure to get the ‘right’ information or have the ‘right’ conversations, but I have learned to trust the creative process and my intuition that the best conversations come from a place of safety, peacefulness and mutual respect.

What do you see as the value of creative approaches in helping participants in Easterhouse to take action and create futures their communities need?

The Pavillion: The creative emphasis of Creative Climate Futures has offered us the opportunity to take an innovative and grassroots approach to a problem that is often construed as remote from people’s everyday concerns and that admits only specialist, scientific approaches. Using various creative arts to collaborate with the local community and reach solutions to problems that directly affect their day-to-day lives, the project has allowed us to catalyse discussion about climate change and have people of all age groups participate when they might otherwise have been difficult to engage.

What lessons have you learned about collaboration through working together on this project?

Rebecca Fraser: I have really enjoyed the opportunity to widen my network in the Easterhouse area – the ripple effect of the project demonstrates that there can be lasting impact on a community by investing in a local artist. Often there are a lot of crossovers between community projects and organisations so being able to work fluidly, connecting local people with different groups and activities brings me a lot of job satisfaction!

It has been great to witness so many open-minded, hospitable organisations that are focused on the wellbeing of the community. It is reassuring as a community artist to know that participants can link in with regular long-term groups in the area so that when the project ends, there is a legacy of social impact.

The Pavillion: As a partnership project, collaboration has been utterly central to Creative Climate Futures. Working with organisations both within the Blairtummock & Rogerfield Partnership and beyond has allowed us to reach diverse segments of the local population. This collaborative approach has allowed us to develop a more detailed picture of the climate-related issues affecting Easterhouse and to discover the striking consensus on the pressing nature of problems such as flooding, fuel poverty and the lack of natural recreational spaces in the area.

Culture for Climate Scotland is working on Creative Climate Futures with project lead Verture and partners Community Land Scotland, Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector, the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network and Glasgow City Council.

Rebecca Fraser is a freelance community artist based in Glasgow’s East End. She collaborates on partnership projects working holistically to celebrate and advocate for the local culture.

The Pavillion is a charity youth organisation based in Easterhouse, Glasgow, providing young people a safe and welcoming environment. The answers in this article were provided by Project Co-ordinator Jordan Shaw and Business Development Manager Simon Bilcock on behalf of The Pavillion and the wider Blairtummock & Rogerfield Partnership, a collection of groups including The Pavillion working with and for the Easterhouse community.

This story is part of a series developed for Scottish Government’s Climate Week 2024, showcasing the work Culture for Climate Scotland is supporting to help achieve an environmentally sustainable Scotland. This year’s Climate Week is a chance for communities and organisations to celebrate and encourage climate action by sharing ‘Stories for Change’.