Call for papers: Staging Sustainability—Arts Community Culture Environment
How can we produce art that reflects, celebrates, critiques and advances the cultural life of our community without contributing to the destruction of the setting that inspires these artistic endeavours? The goal of the Staging Sustainability conference is to create an opportunity for artists and those who support the arts in a myriad of ways—from scholars, critics, producers and designers to policy-makers, industry and government—to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue about the issues and challenges associated with the creation of environmentally sustainable arts practice and performance.
To borrow a phrase from the art critic, author, curator and environmentalist John Grande, we want to foster discussions that will “engage the borderline between art and what is perhaps the most pressing global concern in the new millennium—the quality and sustainability of the environment.”
The conference will consider how the arts engage questions of sustainability from a dual vantage point: cultural and ecological. Thus, the conference encourages an approach to sustainability that encompasses aspects of subjectivity with respect to community and identity.
April 20-22, 2011, York University, Toronto, Canada
Staging Sustainability is produced and presented by the Faculty of Fine Arts, York University with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Call for Papers
The conference committee invites proposals for papers addressing the relationship between the cultural and environmental aspects of sustainability.
Potential topics and questions might include:
- performance ecologies
- green design for performance
- theatre and eco-activism
- How can the arts widen our perception of nature and our
ability to experience, reflect and adapt to the environment?
- What is the relationship between aesthetics and ethics in
terms of our consideration of the environment?
- How are cultural values expressed in rituals and public events creating a human ecology?
Proposals should include:
- a 250-word abstract
- presenter’s name & affiliation
- mailing & email addresses
Please forward proposals to:
Ina Agastra, Executive Assistant to the Dean
Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
4700 Keele St. Toronto ON Canada M3J 1P3
ffadeanasst@yorku.ca
Submission deadline: September 1, 2010
For more information, including a program, go to http://www.yorku.ca/finearts/stagingsustainability/index.htm
