Episode 9: Reflecting on NAARCA

In this special episode, we're reflecting on the first three years of NAARCA – exploring what’s been achieved, what the challenges have been, and where things might go next.

We'll also be hearing about all the work that’s been going on within NAARCA, beyond what this podcast series has so far explored – including the role of the Eco Coordinator, the art commissions and writing commissions, and the workshops and pedagogical toolkit for children and young people.

NAARCA's online exhibition (available till 31.07.2024): https://naarca.art/online-exhibition

Creative Climate Champions digital toolkit for young people: https://naarca.art/resources

Sustainability Toolkit for Artists' Residencies: https://naarca.art/2023/11/02/naarca-publishes-sustainability-toolkit-for-artists-residencies

Contributors:
Alex Marrs, Programmes and Communications Producer, Cove Park; Leena Kela, Residency Director, Saari Residence; Rose Tytgat, Project Coordinator, Art Hub Copenhagen; Charlotte Hetherington, Director, Artica Svalbard; Helena Selder, Director, Baltic Art Center; Kamilla Gylfadóttir, Project Manager, Skaftfell Art Center; Lise Autogena, Director, Narsaq International Research Station; Celia Harrison, Director, Skaftfell Art Center; Jaana Eskola, NAARCA Eco Coordinator; Maraid Macewan, Designer of NAARCA's Digital Toolkit for Young People

Credits: Testing Grounds is produced and edited by Katie Revell and includes original music by Loris S. Sarid and artwork by Jagoda Sadowska. With thanks to Alex Marrs and the rest of the NAARCA team.

Contact us: naarca.art/contact-us

Who we are: Art Hub Copenhagen (Denmark), Artica Svalbard (Norway), Baltic Art Center (Sweden), Cove Park (Scotland), Saari Residence (Finland), Skaftfell Art Center (Iceland) and Narsaq International Research Station (Greenland).

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

00:00 Various speakers: Velkommen. Tervetuloa. Tikilluaritsi. Välkommen. Fàilte. Bures. Velkommen. 

00:08 Narration: Welcome to Testing Grounds from the Nordic Alliance of Artists' Residencies on Climate Action. Episode nine: Reflecting on NAARCA. I'm Katie Revell. Welcome back to Testing Grounds. In this series we've been asking: as the climate crisis accelerates, how can artists' residencies be testing grounds for new and better ways of living and working?

00:36 Over the last eight episodes, we've explored that question by bringing together artists, researchers and activists from across the Nordic region and Scotland to explore some of the themes that the members of NAARCA are grappling with, and that we're all grappling with, in the context of the climate crisis.

00:56 In this special episode, we're reflecting on the NAARCA project, exploring what's been achieved, what the challenges have been, and where things might go next. We'll also be hearing about all the work that's been going on within NAARCA, beyond what this podcast series has explored. If you're joining us here for the first time, I'd encourage you to first go back and listen to episode one, to get an idea of what NAARCA is and how it came into being.

01:33 Train manager: Good morning everyone. It's your train manager speaking. I'd like to welcome you to this eleven... 

01:38 Narration: Back at the very start of this series, I said that, for me, this journey began with a train, a boat, and a short drive from my home in Glasgow to Cove Park, which is the Scottish member of NAARCA. Well, the journey ends, or this part of the journey anyway, it ends with a train, a train, a train, another train, and then a ferry and a bus to Saari Residence, NAARCA's Finnish member, located in the countryside of Finland's Mynämäki region. After three years of NAARCA, representatives from each of the seven member residencies, and collaborators like me, we gathered to reflect on the project, to think about next steps, and to unveil and celebrate the NAARCA art and writing commissions.

02:30 Here's Alex Marrs, Programmes and Communications Producer at Cove Park. 

02:35 Alex: I became involved in NAARCA in like 2022, at the beginning of the year. And since then, I've mainly worked on our Knowledge Production and Pedagogy subgroups, but I also manage NAARCA's budget. So I have a bit of involvement in kind of all the things that NAARCA does.

The Alliance is set up originally to be kind of this three-year collaboration. However, there's always been this consideration for how NAARCA might continue past the original three years. We've kind of just always been thinking about that as the time has gone on. But as we kind of near the end of this first phase, it felt like gathering physically together would be important, just to kind of take stock of all we've accomplished and evaluate our processes and consider why like certain objectives might not have been reached or turned out the way we expected them to.

03:31 Narration: We converged on Saari from all across the Nordic region - from Cove Park in Scotland, Skaftfell Art Center in Iceland, Artica Svalbard in Norway, Baltic Art Center in Sweden, Art Hub Copenhagen in Denmark, and Narsaq International Research Station in Greenland. For many of us, this was the first time we were meeting in person.

03:55 Alex: It was really special to finally meet you know, the people we've been working with these past few years. I think Zoom is such an incredible resource for cross-border working, but I feel like we miss out so much on all the like informal conversations and getting to know one other as humans that only kind of comes together when you're in the same room.

04:17 It feels like as arts administrators, we are spinning a lot of plates at once and juggling so much with, you know, limited resources and staff and almost always funding. It can be easy to kind of just steamroll through the finish line of projects. But I think it was always in NAARCA's intention and aim to properly reflect and evaluate and that takes time, and that takes time together.

04:40 Leena: I can't express how happy I am to meet you in person, like all these faces that we've been meeting in Zoom - everyone's now kind of real and complete. That feels good. And I hope that we will have really fruitful coming days and that also that you get to enjoy, enjoy the life in Saari. 

05:06 Narration: Saari Residence was a great venue for this gathering.

05:11 Everything Saari does is guided by consideration for ecological, social and psychological sustainability. And the setting is really beautiful as well. The residency is surrounded by trees, fields and the sea. Those of us who travelled to Saari from other places kept commenting on the birdsong. It was just so varied and so loud.

05:40 But even here, the reality of the climate crisis was impossible to ignore. We arrived in Finland in the middle of a heatwave. Temperatures were unusually high for the time of year, and the ground at Saari was bone dry and dusty, with sprinklers watering the parched gardens, a constant reminder of the urgency of the situation. Together, we reflected on some of what's been achieved in the first three years of NAARCA.

06:15 Leena: I'm Leena Kela. I'm the director of the Saari Residence. What NAARCA has brought us is this really important collegial network, knowing that we are not doing this by ourselves, and there's a lot that we've already done, but what kind of like, really put more emphasis on it so that it's one of the top activities.

06:39 Sustainability in terms of ecological, social, psychological, is something that, with the help of the other residencies, we kind of, empower in that and achieve more. And we were looking for partners already before NAARCA to kind of be wise with, or become wiser with, learn, learn from the others. And I think that's what NAARCA has brought.

07:02 Rose: My name is Rose and I'm a project coordinator at Art Hub Copenhagen in Denmark. And what NAARCA brought to Art Hub is definitely a, a a much higher awareness of what sustainability currently is in the art world, and what it could be as well. And it gave us some like very concrete tools to activate and for us to become a more sustainable institution from many angles.

07:25 Charlotte: I'm Charlotte Hetherington. I'm the director of Artica Svalbard, and our involvement in NAARCA has been really key to our organisation. For me, it all started when I joined Artica as the Director. So it was this really lovely connection because I was also looking for partners to be able to start to share conversations around climate and environment and sustainability.

07:52 And because we're very remote, I was really keen to be able to partner up with other organisations, just to have those conversations. In terms of the practical side of it, it's been super interesting. We've been able to develop our own action plan for sustainable goals within the organisation. And just to be able to have those conversations with our local community and with our peers as well, to highlight these issues in creative ways. So having the residency exchanges, being part of the writing commissions and podcast, it's all been a way of learning and sharing that knowledge. And then just on that network side of things, it's been fantastic for me to be able to meet all of my colleagues and actually share together some of the issues that we have, and some of those problems, and just feel like you've got somebody there that you can reach out to and, and have a conversation with.

08:49 Helena: My name is Helena Selder. I work as the director of Baltic Art Center on Gotland. And for our part, apart from the exchange with the colleagues and the whole deepening of the theme of sustainability in the context of residency organisation, I think it's been one very strong motivation for us to change to long-term stays for artists. So although this work and work in general is very busy, to try to find a slower pace on Gotland for the artists. 

09:24 Kamilla: I'm Kamilla. I work as a project manager at Skaftfell Art Center in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. One thing that we've been working on in Skaftfell is to make it possible for artists to come for longer stays.

09:38 So it's a lot about securing funding to be able to offer sustainable opportunities for artists to stay longer and have more possibilities to engage in a deeper way with the community. Another challenge is to also, you know, have opportunities for international artists and also Icelandic artists, as we are quite far away from the main artistic hub, which is in the Reykjavik area. But a lot of the funding possibilities for Icelandic based artists are only to do residencies abroad. So we want to have a, a mix. 

10:16 Lise: My name is Lise Autogena. I'm Director of Narsaq International Research Station in South Greenland. We're a young organisation and for us it's been really important to be part of this context in order for us to think about how artists' involvement, particularly in collaboration with scientists as well, might work.

10:35 But also in terms of how to give voice to a very remote place in the world that doesn't necessarily have a lot of resources. What kind of platforms are possible, and how a collaboration across the Nordic countries can strengthen that. 

10:50 Celia: My name is Celia Harrison. I'm the director of Skaftfell Art Center in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. As a newcomer to the NAARCA project, just a couple of months ago, the clear highlight has been actually being in one room with all of the partners and having that possibility to discuss in real life and actually really create partnerships. 

11:10 Alex: My name is Alex Marrs. I'm the Programmes and Communications Producer at Cove Park in Scotland. One of the major highlights for me during the course of these, like, three years is this moment where we at Cove Park hosted Mairi Macleod as our young Gaelic writer-in-residence. And then as, you know, the writing commissions were coming around and we were thinking about potential people to commission, Mairi came to mind and we commissioned a short story in Scottish Gaelic.

11:39 And as part of that, Mairi was able to travel, slow travel, to Saari and be part of Saari's programme. And I think was here for eight weeks or so, yeah, which was an incredible opportunity for her as a young writer. She was able to travel across many countries and, like, expand her horizons in so many ways and meet so many incredible people while here in residence, while also working on her NAARCA writing commission, which was then also a bonus episode on the podcast as well.

12:11 So I think for me that was like one of the biggest highlights is to kind of see that through line, where one of the artists we work with had such a full experience from NAARCA, and not just one thing. It kind of shows how the relationship can always be building.

12:25 Lise: I think, um, the, the podcast was very, a very big thing for us. It was just really inspiring to, to feel how that kind of platform could connect local and national and international perspectives and give voice to things.

12:45 Narration: I asked Alex Marrs to give us a bit of an overview of everything that's been going on within the NAARCA network. 

12:52 Alex: So I can kind of start with the first major project we did, which was the ecology toolkit that our Eco Coordinator, Jaana, made. So Jaana Eskola, who is based in Finland, is our incredible Eco Coordinator.

13:04 She first became involved with NAARCA through her work as the coordinator of ecological activities at Saari Residence. So they already had a position like this on staff. And then Jaana also participated in the Creative Climate Leadership Scandinavia training programme organised by Julie's Bicycle. So through that, plus her experience at Saari, she was kind of the perfect person to carry out these like in-person and also digital site visits with each of the NAARCA partners.

13:33 So basically like her overall aim was to kind of provide each of our different organisations, with completely different context, kind of bespoke advice for how to adapt to even more sustainable modes in our everyday operations. So not even just on like an overall vision or policy level, but like even the nitty gritty, kind of operational side of each residency. So basically she helped shape each of our visions for how our individual organisations approach sustainability, but also directed how we collectively will share those practices and methodologies across the network.

14:15 So from her learnings, we published a sustainability toolkit for artists' residencies with resources and practical examples that can be used to help other kind of arts organisations develop their own environmental policies and action plans, and this can be accessed directly from our website on the "Resources" page. But it's also one of those things too, like, for example, that toolkit was first published at the end of 2023 and as we kind of reviewed it together, there's always these new things that we're learning and adding to. So it feels very much like a living, working, breathing document. 

14:49 Narration: Here's Jaana Eskola. 

14:51 Jaana: So in my role as an Eco Coordinator, I visited almost all the residency centers besides Greenland and Gotland. I was privileged to do that. And that gave a lot, because I think I couldn't have done the work that I did with them without actually visiting the places. We had a bit of a different programme in different sites, but what we normally did is that we went through the site, we, we talk, we went through the practicalities, the sustainability, ways of operating, with different residency organisations.

15:20 We did a workshop or two, depending on the place, and we just generally looked at the surroundings, the locations, the space and the site, thinking together what could be done differently, what's already done in reference to ecological sustainability, and kind of brainstorm together, try to identify the biggest development points and the challenges and the obstacles.

15:45 Katie: And here's Charlotte Hetherington from Artica Svalbard. 

15:48 Charlotte: So at Artica Svalbard, it was incredibly beneficial for us to work with Jaana because we are an archipelago based in the Arctic Circle and there are a lot of challenges when it comes to sustainability and climate responsibility. So it was really helpful to just go through all of those things and have very honest conversations about what we can and can't do. And through those conversations, we were then able to develop our own sustainability action plan. It's always going to be adapting and changing. It's not a set action plan and we need to always review it, but it's, it's there as a tool for me to use to work with the residents that are coming with our community, with our board and try to achieve some of those goals that we can.

16:39 And it's really simple things like changing our lighting to LEDs and encouraging longer stays with our residencies as well, which are also financially supported through our funding. But it's been more about having those conversations with our community. So we've tried to become this space where we can share that information.

17:04 Um, so actually in Longyearbyen in a couple of weeks, the local council are hosting a sustainability week festival. So Artica are taking part in that and we're going to be sharing NAARCA and the work that we've been doing, and also our toolkit that's been developed by Jaana and then the things that Artica have been able to do as part of that work, in the hope that it will inspire people to see what they can do.

17:35 Narration: Another one of NAARCA's areas of work was art commissions. 

17:39 Alex: Rose from Art Hub Copenhagen and Helena from Baltic Art Center led NAARCA's art commissioning programme and curated what is now an online exhibition available to view on NAARCA's website until the end of July, the 31st, I think. And the brilliant artists selected to be part of this strand of NAARCA are Rikke Luther and Nikhil Vettukattil.

18:01 Rikke's film, which is called Dust & Flow: Muds, Movement, Time and Scale, explores the new mud landscapes and their kind of social, political, and biochemical impacts on human and marine life. While Nikhil's body of work, which is called Cantina, explores what a healthy, affordable, and climate-friendly diet in the Nordics might look like.

18:23 And through this, he's written recipes centered on themes such as disaster, survival, and resistance. They're distributed online, but also in community cooking sessions and on embroidered garments. So at Saari, it was like really exciting to debut both of these projects, not just to like the NAARCA partners, but also with colleagues involved in the Finnish, Swedish, and Estonian, uh, residency networks.

18:48 So Rikke and Nikhil developed their work through a series of residencies too. So as part of the residency exchange programme, Rikke visited Skaftfell in Iceland, Artica in Svalbard, Norway, Art Hub, of course, in Copenhagen, Rikke's based in Denmark, and Baltic Arts Center in Sweden. And Nikhil visited Artica in Norway, Narsaq in Greenland, and is currently here at Cove Park right now.

19:13 Narration: Here's Rose Tytgat from Art Hub Copenhagen. 

19:17 Rose: For me, it was amazing to see Nikhil's and Rikke's work come to life, actually, after such a long development, but it was so fruitful. And Rikke's film is so beautiful and really opens up our eyes on many phenomenons happening around the world, connected to many aspects of sustainability, intertwining food as well, and very like practical aspects to sustainability. So they have very different approaches, but it just came out so beautifully. So very grateful for, for this.

19:52 Narration: Another one of the NAARCA subgroups was responsible for knowledge production. 

19:59 Alex: Our Knowledge Production subgroup, which included Charlotte from Artica and Lena from Saari, well we worked on this podcast together of course, but also commissioned new texts from artists and researchers and activists from all the countries involved, in the hope to kind of spark an international written dialogue.

20:16 Uh, six of the seven commissioned pieces are available to read on our website, with the seventh, from a Greenlandic writer to soon be published this summer. All the texts were written in the author's kind of preferred language and have been translated to English, but we also have plans to perhaps print a special edition.

20:37 The commissioned writers include Hanna Guttorm, who is a Sámi writer in Finland, and also Anna-Maria Hällgren, who is a Swedish art historian. We also have a text in Gaelic from Mairi Macleod, who's based in Glasgow. And then Palestinian-Icelandic writer Mazen Maarouf wrote a series of short reflections. Emmy Laura Pérez Fjalland is a DaDanish-Columbianriter and scholar specifically kind of around cultural geography. And then lastly, we have Norwegian writer, Zeshan Shakar as well, with another commission soon to be published this summer.

21:27 Katie: And finally, there was the Pedagogy subgroup. 

21:30 Alex: Our Pedagogy subgroup included Emma, Cove Park's Curator of Engagement, Celia and Kamilla from Skaftfell, and Lise from Narsaq International Research Station. So over the course of this project, we partnered with freelance artists and developed and delivered five creative workshops for young people related to issues around the environment, which you know, we touched on sustainability, of course, and climate change, but also a lot on climate anxiety. So we spent a lot of time kind of testing out these workshops in different contexts. So for instance, if a workshop was created in Scotland and with Cove Park, we then would test out the curriculum in a completely different context, such as Artica and Svalbard, with the hope that these workshops could be delivered wherever in the world and still be relevant and understood.

22:19 So from there, we commissioned a wonderful artist called Maraid Mcewan to collate these materials into a digital toolkit that we hope to share with schools and community groups and parents. So the toolkit includes material lists, workshop instructions and showcases kind of the, the artistic practices of the artists we worked with to develop it.

22:41 Right now, the toolkit is free to access and download from the "Resources" tab on our website, naarca.art. Right now it's provided in English. Uh, however, it is our aim to hopefully have these translated to other languages represented within the Alliance too, but that might come in phase two of NAARCA. 

23:01 Maraid: My name's Maraid and I'm a designer, and I created the pedagogy toolkit. And I think my hope or ambition for the toolkit itself is a kind of reframing for young people of what it means to engage with climate action in the future.

23:21 I work as a creative educator and I think that often we tend to put a lot of onus and responsibility on young people which um, I think is really difficult for them. So to have a fusion of creativity and climate action is actually quite rare. Um, and I hope that other organisations see it as something that they can invest into for the future and to keep it really playful and fun. Obviously these are really big topics, heavy topics. And so, yeah, I really hope that that is something that can come out of those toolkits.

23:59 Narration: The gathering at Saari was also an opportunity to look forward, to share our aspirations for this next phase of NAARCA. 

24:08 Charlotte: Now that we've spent all this time together and those big, bold ambitions that we had at the beginning of this project, and now we've got these tangible outcomes. So I'm really looking forward to being able to share that with our networks and with our communities, but also to hope that it continues to inspire. So it's really had an interesting effect on the residents that come to visit Artica Svalbard, because they're all have either read about the NAARCA project, or they've listened to the podcast, or they know about the residency exchanges, and they're already thinking about those questions that we've been asking through this project when they arrive with us.

24:51 So it's having a very positive effect on their stay and their thinking and their processes. So now, that's only going to grow because we've got this fantastic artworks to share and essays and all of this material is there and, uh, to run more of the educational workshops with our communities. So that's what I'm hoping is going to continue to, to grow and expand.

25:16 Leena: Especially now by listening to the, the colleagues from different places, from different residencies, I think that as residencies are extremely special places of like artistic thinking and ecological thinking and processes and production. And then also how the, the residencies in the NAARCA network are like doing in their own sector, kind of like really ambitious work, on climate action.

25:46 I think like the ambition would be how to bring that out, how kind of like have wider or stronger societal impact. Our podcast series is called Testing Grounds and that's what the residencies are. So how could we kind of be a positive catalyst to kind of inspire others also to take climate action and, and that we do it with artistic tools and kind of from care. That's what residencies are about also. 

26:17 Jaana: My ambitions for all the organisations involved here is to put the climate crisis and biodiversity on the top of the hierarchy of actions. And also what has been referred to earlier about residencies as platforms and catalysts for better life, more sustainable life.

26:39 I also consider them as safe spaces for artists and scientists who want to live sustainably. Residency centres can really be the safe havens for that kind of life and that kind of lifestyle, even for shorter periods. But I'm really hoping that we would all our best to offer that safe havens for the artists.

27:01 Alex: My hope and ambition for not just Cove Park, but all of my colleagues in the NAARCA alliance is that somehow we'll be able to find it within ourselves to keep the momentum, not just in our own institutions, but I guess just kind of like emotionally be able to like sustain ourselves in this work by relying like on this community that we've built, um, and that we're not in it alone and that we have each other to kind of hold each other up as we work towards solutions to save our future and also find you know, the spaces of joy within what can be really heavy on the heart and on the mind.

27:42 So yeah, I hope that we can find that resilience and inspiration through our work and within each other.

27:58 Katie: On that note, um, this might be quite a big question, so yeah, answer it in whichever way you like. But what's next for NAARCA? We had this wonderful time of gathering and reflection and discussion. What comes next? 

28:11 Alex: Our next practical step is to source funding for a second iteration of the programme. You know, we hope that with such tangible outcomes, we have kind of a strong case for why NAARCA should continue.

28:24 From there, the partners will decide what feels most pressing in terms of which areas we'd like to further develop, such as, as I mentioned, like more translation for the resources we've already published, and we're all very keen for more residency exchanges. That's been an incredible part of the programme.

28:41 There's also this question around how we can be more inclusive as well and welcome others who are interested in what we are doing. So that's also like something we're thinking about is what, what would it look like and what would it mean to open up NAARCA past the partners that we currently have?

28:58 Despite the limited capacity of everyone involved, since all of our residencies are extremely busy, we've accomplished, I think, an extraordinary amount together. I think we're, you know, quite hopeful that other organisations or groups, perhaps in other geographical regions, will want to create their own alliances that are kind of centred around these ideas around climate action.

29:20 And now it felt like the opportunity to share the blueprints of how to do that, what to consider, what would we have done differently. So I think that's why it felt like important to gather and spend the time doing that. As for Cove Park kind of as an organisation, we'll definitely continue to evaluate and audit our practices and policies, because, you know, we constantly have to keep going back and reevaluating and, you know, making sure that we're consistently working towards, like, better sustainability on all fronts.

29:54 But of course, like, we also hope, I think, to communicate all this learning with our peers here in Scotland. Sharing more feels like the right next step because I feel, you know, knowledge is power, of course, and the more people we can encourage to get involved in climate action, the better chance we have, like, to collectively make change and not to get all, like, existential, but... survive.

30:21 Katie: I mean, I think you're totally right to get existential. It is existential!

30:30 Alex: I've learned so much from being involved with NAARCA, and when I first started I really didn't feel like I had like enough information or experience to be an advocate in any kind of climate activism spaces. But now like I think through all the shared learning I'll be kind of taking forward hopefully like all this like energy and momentum I've accumulated through this project, to just kind of kind of keep going, to keep trying.

31:00 For me, like, kind of reflecting now, I feel really excited for what's to come from NAARCA in the future. It didn't feel like at all like a closing of a chapter. It felt like a reflection and then, "Okay, and?"... dot dot dot.

31:24 Katie: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Testing Grounds from the Nordic Alliance of Artists' Residencies on Climate Action. Please do stay tuned to find out where things go next for NAARCA. Until the 31st of July 2024, you can visit our online exhibition featuring specially commissioned works by Rikke Luther and Nikhil Vettukattil.

31:47 You'll find the exhibition and lots more information about NAARCA's work at naarca.art. If you enjoy the Testing Grounds podcast, please do tell your colleagues and friends, and leave us a rating and a review. It really helps other people to find the podcast. This episode featured Alex Marrs, Leena Kela, Rose Tytgat, Charlotte Hetherington, Helena Selder, Kamilla Gylfadóttir, Lise Autogena, Celia Harrison, Jaana Eskola, and Maraid Mcewan.

32:19 It was produced by me, Katie Revell. Our series music is by Loris S. Sarid, and our artwork is by Jagoda Sadowska. Thank you also to Alexia Holt, Jacob Fabricius, and Iben Mosbæk. And a huge thank you to Ida Enegren and all the staff at Saari Residence. The members of NAARCA are Cove Park in Scotland, Saari Residence in Finland, Skaftfell Art Center in Iceland, Art Hub Copenhagen in Denmark, Baltic Art Center in Sweden, Narsaq International Research Station in Greenland, and Artica Svalbard in Norway.

00:32:59 NAARCA's initial three-year program is generously supported by Kone Foundation and Nordic Culture Fund.