The most pressing issue facing us is climate breakdown. In recent years, as the urgency of this has increased, and as we have come to understand more about the entanglement of all the other issues we care deeply about (for example issues of social and racial justice) with the climate crisis – and as time has got shorter – we have become more bold in identifying why, as artists, we have a specific role and particular skills – and a duty – to be explicitly working for climate justice.

Witnessing the depletion of nature and biodiversity alongside extractive, divisive and impoverished human interactions makes us angry. As artists, we have to channel that anger into creative activity to build hope, agency, connection and community – to spark action. The words we use to describe our work – ’Regenerative Creative Practice’ – speak to us of how we do this: of how our creative work intersects with these issues and allows us to create or provoke change.

Regenerative is the best word we have found: it speaks to renewal and to creating with purpose, for a better future. It’s not about making ‘things’, but about making relationships, citizens with agency, joy, community, wildflower meadows… It firmly rejects extraction – from the earth, from people, from nature, from relationships – in favour of kindness, care, nurture, collectivity, mutual aid. It doesn’t try to control, it watches joyfully as things develop organically. It embraces justice and equity, and it rejects their opposites. It recognises – and celebrates – that building a better future needs everyone.

Our mission at The Nest uses this lens of regenerative creative practice to explicitly foster authentic behaviour change around climate, access and inclusion in the artists and audiences we work with, through:

  • actively modelling our commitment to climate justice, and equitable, regenerative relationships (with people and planet);
  • nurturing imagination and agency through values-led creative leadership, and relational sector/community support; empowering and supporting citizens to take ownership.
  • offering space and making opportunities tailored to those with less ready access to mainstream opportunities; opening doors and making sure people are able to move through them.
  • drawing on extensive contacts and place-based partnerships developed over 30 years to connect people, building an accessible, inclusive and regenerative extended creative community.
  • bringing people together for meaningful conversations and/or projects which foster connection, nurture imagination and build agency.
  • collective, democratic access to the skills, tools, knowledge and people you need to be a part of the just transition.

Related: Our Environment and Climate Justice Strategy and Action Plan