Now begins the countdown to Emergence Swansea which is at Taliesin on Saturday 29^th January. This is our second event so in some ways I know a little of what to expect – or what to hope for. Our first event was in Cardiff in October and it was an incredible day in terms of those attending from the arts community in Wales. There was a palpable feeling of energy and momentum. We were being pro-active, inspired, with an awareness of what united rather than divided us as artists and arts professionals. Conversations were open and unguarded with a sense that the issue of sustainability was something that affected us all as artists and as human beings.

Emergence is an arts and sustainability initiative in Wales developed to inform, inspire and empower the arts sector to take its role in the visioning and creation of a One Planet Wales (ie where we use one planet’s worth of resources rather than the three we are currently using). Emergence is also more than that. The name underlies the fact that the future is uncertain and we are living in a time of emergent practises, theories, organisations and movements. It is a time where we need to truly look at sustainability and the art of living. Creativity and the arts are at the heart of this. We have not accomplished this art by any measure and have yet to understand that we need the planet much more than it needs us. Emergence is essentially a space where we can find one another, discuss and make choices of how we want to live and  how this decision informs how we make our work as artists in Wales.

Our first event was all about the ‘context’ – a snapshot of where we are in terms of sustainability thinking in Wales and the UK. We heard from Centre for Alternative Technologies in-depth report ‘Zero Carbon Britain’ and about ways to reduce our carbon emissions and waste whilst operating as touring artists at home and overseas from Julie’s Bicycle. Our second event – in my adopted hometown Swansea is on ‘Interconnectivity’. This is about recognising that we are all part of an ecological system, that the actions of any of us can affect the lives of all of us.

Satish Kumar is one of our guest speakers at Emergence Swansea and talks in the most inspiring and compelling way I have heard anyone speak on this issue. He finds a language which unites ecology, art and spirituality and speaks directly from his experience as a young Jain monk. This early spiritual path, his commitment to the teachings of Mahatma Ghandi informed his later thinking and teachings. He is also the founder of Schumacher College and Resurgence magazine, also  inspired by the economist EF Schumacher’s maxim ‘small is beautiful’. This is the first time that Satish has spoken in Swansea and in many ways Emergence was inspired by his work and by the work of many others in different fields all calling for a change to our current unsustainable lifestyles.

All of the other speakers at Emergence Swansea are artists and creators in their own right and have been invited due to their belief in the pivotal role of artists at this time of great change. My hope with Emergence is that we working in the arts in Wales can recognise that we have the creativity, flexibility, the organisational, communication and practical skills to see how we can contribute and even take a leading role in radically reshaping Wales to be a ‘One Planet Nation’. We have a small window of opportunity in terms of  peak oil, climate change, rises in sea level, food security and carbon emissions. We need to support one another in our creative responses and see this as a time of challenging possibilities in which to truly commit to learning (in the words of Professor Tim Jackson)‘the art of living well within the ecological limits of a finite planet’.

To book your place at Emergence go to http://www.sustainwales.com/home/en/Emergence.aspx