Transformational change at SPRINGBOARD 2025
At the beginning of March, Culture for Climate Scotland held the second SPRINGBOARD: Assembly for creative climate action, building on the first, which ran from 27 February to 2 March 2023.
We learned a great deal from SPRINGBOARD 2023 but two things were key: Scotland’s cultural sector has a strong interest in and commitment to thinking about change and Culture for Climate Scotland provides vital space for connection. Our 2023 cohorts were powerful and two years later continue to make ripples in the sector, but this was just one way of thinking about change and so we set out to explore other methods.
What did we hope to achieve?
SPRINGBOARD 2025’s aim was to help attendees from the cultural and climate sectors, as well as academia and public bodies, think about transformational change. We focused on how all of society, including the arts, will need to reimagine itself in the face of the climate change we are experiencing, and how the cultural sector can contribute to this transformation.
Transformational change
The premise behind the programme was that we need to think positively about change. The arts in Scotland have been through massive shifts, climate change is visibly leading to physical impacts everywhere and there is an urgent need for significant emissions reductions and climate adaptation. The international situation has also changed rapidly in the last few years: international and domestic inequality is increasing, and we face a biodiversity as well as a climate crisis. In this cauldron of change, organisations and individuals that continue to focus on business as usual will fail.
We focused on providing an introduction to some tools for working on transformational change alongside inspiring examples from organisations and leaders actively working on change. There are many different ways to approach change, whether that is using the Three Horizons framework presented by Rebecca Ford (Director of International Futures Forum), Design Thinking championed by Leonie Bell (Director of V&A Dundee) or grassroots intersectional community activism demonstrated by representatives from Ubuntu Women Shelter. We need innovation in how we can be different in a tomorrow that is radically so, and we hope our event played some part in this reimagining.
‘(The event highlighted) the importance of giving space to imagining the future – and the lasting impact this can have.’ SPRINGBOARD 2025 attendee
People and connections
We’re very pleased by the number and range of people who attended, spoke at and contributed to the assembly. Although we’re known primarily by the arts and culture sector in Scotland, we’re always aiming to raise awareness of our work with non-arts people and organisations and attract them to our events so they gain understanding of how creative practice can help tackle climate challenges. Around 30% of SPRINGBOARD 2025’s attendees were not from the cultural sector, a pleasing confirmation that other sectors are seeing the value in culture’s role in transformational change. We received encouraging feedback about opportunities to not only learn but to connect and engage.
‘It is stimulating to process the information the speakers are saying as much as the questions/reactions/challenges from the crowd. Thank you so much for all the insightful comments. This is the most engaged online I have ever felt.’ SPRINGBOARD 2025 attendee
We recognise that our day 1 programme featured a large representation of organisational ways of working and, as a result, lacked some important voices, specifically those of freelancers in the climate and cultural fields. We were encouraged by the positive feedback for the sessions and will take this learning on board for future events.
Our day 2 sessions featured a variety of speakers from a greater range of fields including many creative practitioners, with attendees able to choose from a selection of rich topics including place-based work, just transition and the arts, degrowth and creativity, shifting public thinking on climate change, creative climate collaboration and much more. We hope attendees who participated in these sessions found the insights valuable and inspiring.
Local watch parties
As our day 1 programme consisted of talks broadcast in a linear way, it was possible for people to gather locally to watch together, while benefitting from conversations that can only happen in person. We are thrilled that an innovation we dreamed up was supported by many partners.
Watch party held by Agile City and National Theatre of Scotland in Civic House. Photo credit: National Theatre of Scotland
We had volunteers from across Scotland, including Aberdeen Performing Arts and The Barn, University of the West of Scotland in Ayr, Lyth Arts Centre in Caithness, The Stove Network in Dumfries, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, ArtMovesFife, Creative Stirling and three watch parties in Glasgow organised by CILIPS, Woodlands Community Development Trust and Agile City with National Theatre of Scotland. There were also private watch parties for the staff of Creative Scotland, Scottish Government, Live Music Now Scotland and more.
Although the turnout for the watch parties was lower than expected or hoped for, we were glad to hear many of the watch parties still felt the event was worthwhile, as the lower numbers meant stronger bonds could be formed amongst the attendees.
‘We feel (the event) joined up thinking in our local area to a wider national picture, deepening existing connections across the board as well as building our organisations’ profile and making new connections. The event was inspiring and felt like a call to arms to those involved in culture. It felt powerful to all be in the room together.’ ArtMovesFife, watch party host
We greatly appreciate the support and generosity of watch party hosts in trialling this experimental concept with us. While we encountered some issues, we are happy to have facilitated the offer of physical spaces for people to meet locally and may work on refining the workings of watch parties for a future event.
‘One of the takeaways from the day, partially fuelled by the opportunity to share the space and experience with others, was a degree of hope for helping improve the climate situation. A great degree of solidarity and excitement was to be found, leading to a positive and constructive atmosphere, with a desire to move away from some of the more negative and hopeless narratives, and focus on what they can market in terms of the positive change which is being made. The existence of the event itself prompts an inherently hopeful outlook, serving as tangible evidence for the power of community and how everyone can move towards making a difference.’ National Theatre of Scotland, watch party host
Were we successful?
We have heard that people have already started using some of the tools for change our speakers presented. Perhaps more importantly, some people seem to have come away from the assembly feeling more positive and confident about change.
Before SPRINGBOARD 2025 began we asked attendees to respond to this prompt: ‘We’re entering a period of great change, driven by climate change, economic challenges and significant inequality. Change brings about risks but also opportunities. Use a few words to tell us how you feel about change.’
The resulting word cloud looked like this:
Towards the end, we repeated the question and were pleased to note more positive feelings:
We also asked attendees before and after the two-day assembly how confident they felt about what change might mean for them or their organisation. The graph below shows a significant positive shift to being more confident.
Before: ‘Transformational change can be defined as the “emergence of a new state prompted by a shift in what is possible or necessary resulting in a very different structure or culture.” How confident are you about what this might mean for you/your organisation?’
After: ‘The focus of the assembly was transformational change. After attending the event, how confident are you that you understand what transformational change means for you or your organisation?’
While we continue to reflect on and review feedback from SPRINGBOARD 2025, we say a huge thank you again to our collaborators, speakers, panellists, watch party hosts and the many attendees from Scotland and beyond.
If you have any thoughts or feedback you’d like to share, don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected].