Wandsworth Arts Fringe Goes Green

Wandsworth Council has declared a climate emergency, setting the targets of being a carbon-neutral organisation by 2030. This ambition, outlined in the Wandsworth Environment and Sustainability Strategy (WESS), is reflected this year in Wandsworth's flagship annual arts festival, Wandsworth Arts Fringe (25 June - 11 July).

In 2021, a wealth of WAF events celebrate our environment and highlight the climate emergency in a creative programme spanning sculpture, photography, painting, walking tours, outdoor games and workshops.

Wandsworth Council's Cabinet Member for Community Services and Open Spaces, Councillor Steffi Sutters says:

"Wandsworth Council is proudly embedding our promise to tackle climate change into the work we do with our communities. Sharing the message of sustainability through arts and cultural activity is one of the key goals highlighted in our new Arts and Culture Strategy for the next ten years. I am delighted to see so many Wandsworth Arts Fringe projects engaging with this message and giving Wandsworth residents and artists an opportunity to share creative responses to the climate emergency."

In addition to eco-friendly events and exhibitions, WAF is going green behind the scenes, with biodegradable seed cards replacing traditional paper surveys. Visitors and audiences scan the QR codes to access the digital WAF audience survey, then they can plant their card to grow a crop of summer wildflowers. The aim of this initiative is to reduce waste paper and littering in our streets and green spaces - and perhaps increase the bee-friendly wildflower population around the borough as a bonus.

This year, WAF also produced 200 re-usable face masks for staff and visitors, to reduce the use of single-use face coverings at indoor events.

WAF Green Fringe events include:

WHABB Studios' Citizens of the Climate is a collection of personal written stories and audio recordings from Wandsworth residents on how they feel climate change is affecting the environment in which we live.

Woodfield Pavilion's Trees at The Woodfield uses Tooting Bec's trees as an inspiration for a range of creative activities including painting, movement, creative writing and narrative therapy.

A Wandle Wonder Wander is an augmented reality walk made especially for Wandsworth Arts Fringe by XAP. Audiences are invited to wander at leisure along the banks of the river Wandle, from Merton Abbey Mills to the Thames, using a mobile device to summon up sights, sounds and animated artworks, and revealing over 80 wonders of the Wandle's rich heritage.

A Greener Picture: Photography and Climate Change is an exhibition of artwork made and photographed by 670 young people from 15 primary schools in the borough, in a collaboration between Wandsworth Council and the Royal College of Art. The project aimed to inspire climate change awareness through the use of art and photography, with pupils creating sculptures and cyanotypes which they then photographed. The photographs can be seen online at www.agreenerpicture.com, as well as on physical display on railings around Wandsworth Town Hall.

Featuring students from Griffin Primary School, Forest Tales, Hunting for the Wild Things is a Forest School-inspired creative storytelling session. The session is led by the school's Deputy Head and Forest School Leader, Louise Black.

Meet and Make Spaces teach us how to make trees out of recycled materials in a fun family workshop at Woodfield Pavilion for Tooting's Carnival of Trees. The trees are then displayed at the Pavilion for everyone to come and enjoy, and Tooting residents are invited to film their favourite tree in Tooting as part of an event on Zoom.

Finally, The Great Pebble Dash is an outdoor game for all ages and abilities. Players follow visual clues posted on Facebook and Instagram to match shapes, textures and patterns in the landscape to find tiny 'pebbleface' artworks by Raysto, hidden in plain sight around Heathbrook Park.

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