Getting Started
Your Journey Toward an Impactful Creative Practice
Explore how you can pivot your practice in dynamic ways toward socioecological sustainability, beginning with our ‘starter kit’ of key considerations.
Guiding Questions
Message & Influence
What are my guiding values as an artist that I would like to translate into my work? How can I integrate and amplify socioecological messages without becoming didactic?
Community Exchange
Could I collaborate with other artists, cultural organizations, and/or education or research institutions to pursue intersectional collaboration, share resources and/or develop mutually beneficial processes and outcomes?
Voice & Representation
Whose voices am I centring in my work? Who can I consult to deepen my engagement with the community the surrounds the topics I want to address through my art? Am I representing perspectives that are not my own respectfully and with permission?
Material Origins
What materials do I most often use, and where do they come from? Can I replace or supplement them with reclaimed, recycled, or natural alternatives?
Local Sourcing
Can I shift toward using more locally sourced materials, pigments, or tools to reduce transportation emissions?
Slow Practice
How might slowing down my process foster sustainability—both in material use and in resisting fast-consumption culture?
Energy Use
How much energy do I consume in my studio or during production (lighting, tools, digital work, firing, etc.)? Where might I reduce or transition to renewable sources?
Exhibition & Distribution
How sustainable are the ways I show and share my work (shipping, framing, printing, digital platforms)? Are there lower-impact alternatives?
Waste Streams
What waste does my practice generate (scraps, chemicals, packaging)? How can I rethink my process to minimize or repurpose it?
Life Cycle
Can I shift toward using more locally sourced materials, pigments, or tools to reduce transportation emissions?