Creativity with a Conscience: Our Programmes
We can’t have ‘Creativity with a Conscience’ without delving into what we offer as part of our programmes!
As a University Arts Centre we are lucky to have varied and diverse programmes that cover a range of artforms including performance, creative courses and workshops, outreach, art exhibitions and more. Each department works together to reach our goals of making art accessible for all while developing unique ways to make their work more sustainable while raising awareness for environmental efforts. Below is just a handle of what we do on the daily basis:
Re-using art materials
Throughout our courses and workshops, we use a lot of materials to allow our audiences to create a range of outputs including oil paints, yarns for crochet and knitting, pencils and pens for life drawing classes, metals and glass for fusing workshops and a lot of paper for everyone. Our team are conscious of how much is used; therefore, we make sure that we don’t over purchase materials for upcoming classes by monitoring capacities.
However, when we do have leftover materials you best believe we are saving every possible part to use in future classes and workshops. This means we reduce our consumption and waste, allowing all participates to engage in art and creating with no worries.
Performances at the Botanic Garden
Our performances range from music to dance, theatre to children shows, and more. In the last few years, as well as amplifying the voices of the artist we work with, we have collaborated with the University of Leicester Botanic Garden to host a range of incredible shows at the garden. Founded in 1921, the Botanic Garden focusses on global biodiversity and aims to demonstrate the significance of plants in a rapidly changing world.
By hosting theatre shows at the garden, we are able to bring in a new audience to the beauty of the garden to facilitate further conversations about the importance of biodiversity for our world. In the past we have collaborated on such performances as Botanical Birdsong, As You Like It by Duke’s Theatre, family show Errol’s Garden and more.
This Summer we welcome back The Duke’s Theatre company with their presentation of Macbeth, offering a dynamic reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. With a strong focus on the psychological unravelling of the protagonists, this adaptation takes The Duke’s into a new era of open-air Summer touring. Keep an eye out this Summer for more shows that will be announced soon!
Environmental exhibitions
Throughout our art galleries we have shown exhibitions directly related to the themes of the environment and sustainability. Artists provide a platform to communicate with different audiences on important issues, and can help raise important questions and considerations for individuals and communities
One such exhibition was by the internationally acclaimed Lucy + Jorge Orta, who produced artwork that questioned the social and ecological sustainability of our planet. This solo exhibition across brought together artwork related to the Ortas’ ongoing concern with human migration, escape and survival from environmental and political catastrophe.
Another such exhibition, Plant Culture, explored how artists have used plants as a subject matter, material or aesthetic. The exhibition constituted an investigation into the relationship between humans and our natural world, and our often perceived ‘power’ over it that leads to a global imbalance with the natural world around us.
In 2023 we welcomed in Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now, an exhibition in which artists challenged our expectations of landscape painting and invited us to think outside the box. Each piece rethought landscape painting in the 21st century, examining the climate crisis and a capitalist era while raising pertinent questions about who has access to nature, where and how. It acknowledged that people in the UK access and experience landscape now in many different ways.
In Tim Fowler’s exhibition ‘The Ground’, his worked focussed on nature and plants that have made a migratory journey similar to his own DNA highlighting the connection between the environment and ourselves. Tim’s focus shifted from plantation crops linked to the transatlantic slave trade, such as tobacco, cotton and indigo, to plants that were used by indigenous and enslaved communities for their practical and medicinal properties.
In the future we are planning to continue highlighting exhibitions that have environmental and sustainability themes addressed within the work.
In all areas of our work we will continue to work together as a team to develop our understanding of our environmental impact and how we can make changes that benefit us all.
To get a further understanding of our commitment to environmental responsibility, visit our Environmental Strategy page on our website and keep an eye out for our next ‘Creativity with a Conscience’ post.