The Art & Creative Materials Institute, Inc. (ACMI) is an international association and is organized to assist its members in providing the public with art and creative materials for children and artists that are non-toxic. ACMI produces a downloadable list of arts products that undergone extensive toxicological evaluation and testing before they are granted the right to bear the ACMI certification seals.
resources
seven thousand oaks is developing a comprehensive section of resources to begin to create a picture of the practitioners, organisations, publications and ideas that are informing the sustainable art movement. Here you will find our growing list of educational tools, a bibliography of related publications and additional links from around the world.
If you would like to contribute to these resources, we welcome your input. Please send your request through to .
educational tools
seven thousand oaks is currently developing an educational toolkit that can be taken into classrooms, which will be free for download and posted here upon completion. In this section you will also find a range of tools to help the arts industry understand and mitigate its ecological impact.
Byteback
Byteback is a free computer take-back program to help people dispose of end-of-life equipment, or equipment that has reached the end of its useful life responsibly.
Call 1800 353 233 (Victoria only) for your nearest location or head to Byteback.
Code of Best Practices for Sustainable Filmmaking
This code provides tools for filmmakers to measure whether their practices are as sustainable as they can be throughout the production process. Accompanying online checklists, trackers, and Web resources provide a summary of current approaches that implement that rationale.
Read the Code and download the tools at Sustainablefilmaking.org.
Good Environmental Choice Products Register
The Australian "Good Environmental Choice" program launched in November 2001 provides to the community an environmental mark of recognition for a wide range of products and services. The benefits of an independent environmental label is that all Australians can easily recognise products which are sensitive to environmental pressures.
Learn more about the program or check the green credentials of a product at the Geca website.
Green Gallery Guide
Designed to be simple and easy to use, the GreenGallery Guide, developed by the Australian Conservation Association and the Australian Commercial Galleries Association, assists gallery owners and managers to identify simple changes to make in galleries that will save energy and water, reduce waste, and help artists and clients to live more sustainable and healthy lives. The Guide contains ten top tips for greening a gallery, including such simple measures as remembering to turn off computers and appliances and installing low-energy lighting.
Learn more and download the free guide here
Green Theatre Toolkit
In Fall 2008, Mo`olelo, the San Diego performing arts company received a MetLife/TCG "A-ha! Think It ,Do It" grant. It was awarded to research and develop a tool to measure the environmental impact of theater and help the industry make choices that do not cause long-term damage to our communities.
Download the toolkit [PDF 300KB]Recycling Expanded Polystyrene
REPSA represents the manufacturers, distributors, raw material suppliers and recyclers of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) products.
Sustainable Event Management A Practical Guide
Written by a leader in the field, this new practical, step-by-step guide leads readers through all of the key aspects of how to understand and manage the impacts of events of any type and scale anywhere. The book references the emerging BSI British Standards BS8901 standard for sustainable event management. It is also coupled with a companion website that provides further materials, case studies, contacts for suppliers, discussion groups and more.
publications
Art Community and Environment
Art, Community and Environment investigates wide-ranging issues raised by the interaction between art practice, community participation, and the environment, both natural and urban. This volume brings together a distinguished group of contributors from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Finland to examine topics such as urban art, community participation, local empowerment and the problems of ownership. Featuring rich colour illustrations and informative case studies from around the world, Art, Community and Environment addresses the growing interest in this fascinating dimension of art and education, forming a vital addition to Intellect's Readings in Art and Design Education serie
For more information, head to Intellect Publishers site to find out more about Art Community and Environment.
Beyon Green - Towards Sustainable Art
Balancing environmental, ethical, economic, and aesthetic concerns, sustainable design has the potential to transform everyday life and has already dramatically reshaped the practice of architecture. Beyond Green introduces a new generation of international artists who work at the intersection of sustainable design and contemporary art.
The book explores the ways that this design strategy is being used-and sometimes intentionally misused-by an emerging group of artists who combine fresh aesthetic sensibilities with constructively critical approaches to the production, dissemination, and display of their art. Lavishly illustrated, the book also includes texts by and interviews with individual artists, along with substantial essays by exhibition curator Stephanie Smith and design historian Victor Margolin. What results is a bracing volume that will be of interest to practitioners and aficionados of design and art alike, as well as to environmentalists.
Head to ICI to learn more about the exhibiton the book is based on.
Cradle to cradle
William McDonough's book, written with his colleague, the German chemist Michael Braungart, is a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. Through historical sketches on the roots of the industrial revolution; commentary on science, nature and society; descriptions of key design principles; and compelling examples of innovative products and business strategies already reshaping the marketplace, McDonough and Braungart make the case that an industrial system that "takes, makes and wastes" can become a creator of goods and services that generate ecological, social and economic value.
For a full description and stockist details head to McDonough's website.
Daylight Magazine
Featuring portfolios by: David Maisel, Edgar Martins, Leonie Purchas, Joel Sternfeld, Bo Thomassen, and Jeff Whetstone In exploring issues of “Sustainability,” this edition of Daylight suggests that the dualistic representation of humans and nature can change, and that documentary photography’s role in this transformation can range in scope from the immense landscape.
Find out more about the issue and Daylight Magazine.
Ecological Aesthetics - Art in Environmental Design - Theory and Practice
Numerous tendencies in landscape architecture, science and theory have driven research and landscape transformation for over thirty years. Approaches as different as Ecological Aesthetics, Art in Nature, Ecoart and Reclamation Art are united by a search for dialogue with natural processes. This book describes the diverse aspects of ecological aesthetics from the point of view of artists, landscape architects, scientists, philosophers and politicians. Authored by Heike Strewlow, Herman Prigann and Vera David.
Learn more about Hildegard Kurt a cultural researcher and feature writer in Ecological Aesthetics.
Land art a cultural ecology handbook
Land, Art: a Cultural Ecology Handbook presents a compendium of texts, dialogues and collaborations by and among ecologists, economists,cultural theorists, activists and art writers that extend from the notions of land, cultural production and the emergencies of 21st century. Reproductions of existing artworks by and original contributions from international practitioners - as well as artists on-the-page `studio visits', for example - explore art's varied modes of response - from detached crisis commentaries to engaged activist solutions.
To learn more about the book at its contributors, head to the review at Worldchanging.org.
Relational Aesthetics
After the consumer society and the communication era, does art still contribute to the emergence of a rational society? Author of Relational Aesthetics, Nicolas Bourriaud attempts to renew our approach toward contemporary art by getting as close as possible to the artists works, and by revealing the principles that structure their thoughts: an aesthetic of the inter-human, of the encounter; of proximity, of resisting social formatting.
Learn more about Relational Aesthetics and related works here.
Sweet Earth
Sweet Earth- Experimental Utopias in America by Joel Sternfeld looks at 60 representative historic or present American utopias. Neither a conventional history nor a conventional book of photography, Sweet Earth brings together what might otherwise seem disparate, individualized social phenomena and makes visible the community of communities.
For more information on where to find Sweet Earth, head to the artbook website.
links
Research groups and networks
RSA Arts and Ecology Group
The Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts Arts and Ecology Centre is an organisation whose role is to catalyse, publicise, challenge and support artists who are responding to the unprecedented environmental challenges of our era. Using their inspirations, RSA Arts and Ecology aims to create a positive discussion about the causes and the human impact of climate change through commissioning, debate, interdisciplinary discourse and a high-profile website.
O2 Eco-Creatives Network
The O2 Eco-creatives network aims to raise the profile of Australian eco-design in Australia and throughout the world and to grow and nurture the eco-creative industry through sharing of knowledge and to gain recognition and awareness of the essential role of eco-design and designers.
Cultura 21
The International network of Cultura21 aims to bring together organizations and individuals across the globe striving to advance social, economic and ecological justice. Cultura21 stands for Cultures of Sustainability, allowing human social systems to evolve in harmony with one another and with their environment.
Community Arts Network
The Community Arts Network (CAN) is a portal to the field of community arts, providing news, documentation, theoretical writing, communications, research and educational information.
Green Museum
Green museum is an online museum of environmental art, which emerged from seeing firsthand some of the challenges facing artists, community groups, nonprofit organizations and arts institutions when presenting and developing a dialogue around environmental art.
International Artist Projects
Illka Halso
Illka approaches restoration of nature by means of technology and science. Halso shows ironic visions of man´s relation to nature and his confidence in technology to solve problems caused by his own activities.
Translocal.org
Maja and Reuben Fowkes are curators and art historians who deal with issues of memory, ecology and translocal exchange. Translocal.org hosts collaborations in curating, research and writing to create translocal knowledge and experience."
The Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is the nexus where art intersects science, architecture and activism- an incubator for thought and expermentation for artists and innovators who seek out and foster areas of collaboration to engage in the central issue of our time.
Vladimir Arkhipov
Dr. Vladimir Arkhipov, a self-taught artist, has formed a photographic collection of "functional folk art" - handcrafted items with utilitarian purposes, which he presents at the "Museum of Handmade Objects". He describes these items as "unintentional folklore" or "everyday folk creation in its contemporary form", explaining that the objects have been made "by specific people under specific circumstances" and are "united by the one and same aesthetic – the aesthetic of a compromise between individual possibilities and needs, which is based on ethical choice".
Conferences, Symposiums and Gatherings
Impact 09
In December 2009, the world’s nations will join forces at the UN Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen, Denmark to define a new global climate treaty. In the lead up to the UN convention, we will be launching a series of programs starting with web-debates on this site, and culminating with a major international media show touring the Nordic Countries.
Rising Tide 09
The Rising Tide conference is a series of topically organized panels, seminars, and roundtable discussions, bringing together creative professionals, scholars and students to engage in conversations and debates about the intersections of ethics, aesthetics, and environmentalism. This groundbreaking conference will be jointly hosted by California College of the Arts and Stanford University.
Green Platform: Art Ecology Sustainability 09
The exhibition presents a series of works by international artists who, acting in the wake of the pioneer experience that developed in the avant-garde movements of the Sixties and Seventies, address the issues of the environment, ecology and sustainability.
Transmediale - Deep North 09
Through DEEP NORTH transmediale.09- a festival for digital art and culture- looks to explore the cultural consequences of an issue that has come to dominate virtually all aspects of life and society. Whether ecological, social, or economic, DEEP NORTH alludes to the intense fragility and inherent instability of human interaction with global systems. In the context of climate change, transmediale.09 reflects on the urgency to read global events in fundamentally new ways, developing new cultural vocabularies factoring the autonomous and critical nature of art into the complexity of these equations.
Re:live09
Third International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology.The next iteration of the Media Art History conference is Re:live which is to be held in Melbourne, Victoria in 2009. The event follows the success of the two previous Media Art History conferences, re:fresh (Banff 2005) and re:place (Berlin 2007).
Selling Yarns 2: Innovation for sustainability
Selling Yarns 2: Innovation for sustainability is a conference and workshop program that addresses contemporary Indigenous craft and design practice. The aim of this conference is to demonstrate that through cultural practice a dialogue can be had that draws all interested parties together for the benefit of a rich and sustainable Indigenous culture. It will be held at the National Museum of Australia in March, 2009 during International Women's Day.
Creativity, Support and Sustainability
The ESA Research Network for the Sociology of the Arts is organizing its 8th meeting at the end of March 2007 in Lüneburg (Germany), with additional events in near-by Hamburg. Following the triad theme of the conference, "Creativity, Support, and Sustainability" , we will put an emphasis on those issues that are of sociological interest within arts worlds but also relate to those powerful developments in economy, ecology and ethic contexts on the macro level that influence, manipulate or determine production, content and forms, distribution and reception of the arts. Download the conference report here.
