Arts Council (ACE) and Julie’s Bicycle have announced the first cohort for their Accelerator Programme, a new strand of work that will discuss perspectives on climate change and the environment.
Until September 2020, successful organisations will receive support through tailored mentoring, personalised one-to-one support as well as a training programme adapted from Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Leadership course.
Francis Runacres, executive director of Enterprise and Innovation at ACE, said: “At the Arts Council we are committed to helping arts and cultural organisations embrace environmental sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint. I’m proud of all we have achieved since beginning our work with Julie’s Bicycle, but there is always more to be done. We know that the sector has the ambition, energy and creative thinking to develop more innovative approaches to sustainability, and this programme is designed to help shape those ambitions into concrete plans.”
The programme will support arts and cultural organisations to develop innovative approaches to their environmental practices and explore new sustainable models such as developing products from festival waste and developing roadmaps on city-wide carbon reduction.
Some of the organisations and groups that are in the first cohort are, Norwich Theatre Royal, Sadler’s Wells, Young Vic, Lyric Hammersmith, Philharmonia Orchestra, Manchester Arts Sustainability Team and London Theatre Consortium. HOME and Opera North have also been brought onboard to help collaborate with organisations in the cohort whose projects share similar aims.
Funded by ACE, the programme provides space, resources, time and expertise that will aid the organisations ideas.
Alison Tickell, director of Julie’s Bicycle, said: “The Accelerator Programme is so important. The 2018-20 participating organisations – an extraordinary gathering of talent – show the ambition and commitment to tackling environmental issues across the creative sector. This particular combination of creativity, values and imaginative reach will unlock ideas that will, I am sure, impact far beyond the programme.”
Julie’s Bicycle and ACE have been working together for over a decade to bring awareness to organisations about their energy consumption.