PH artists awarded UK grant tackle climate change
FILIPINO grant awardees from the British Council’s Connections Through Culture Program in 2023 highlight the urgency of climate change through their art and media. Their projects used creative endeavors like comics, design installations and literature to highlight topics ranging from biodiversity protection, farming and fishing practices to youth participation in environmental preservation.
The grants help build long-term relationships and collaborations between East Asian and British artists, cultural professionals, creative practitioners, and art and cultural organizations. About 645,000 pounds in funding was awarded to 76 projects which were developed by the winners from countries like the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand and Thailand.
Climate change was the first of the two subjects that the program focused on.
“Biosignals” is a collaborative project between the Philippines represented by Diego Maranan of the University of the Philippines’ Open University-Faculty of Information and Communication Studies, the United Kingdom represented by Amy Holt and New Zealand (AwhiWorld). It aims to collect, process and transmit signals from local plant life at each site, addressing challenges posed by climate change and biodiversity loss.
“Comics Create a Better World” exchanges knowledge between the Philippines’ Komiket and the UK’s Lakes Arts Festivals to engage children and young people to create original work on climate change. Creators, selected from underrepresented communities in the two countries, received virtual training sessions and mentoring.
“Inspiring Creative Action to Help Artisan Communities Surmount Climate Change-Induced Disaster” aims to develop a practical toolkit for textile artisans in disaster-prone areas, drawing on experiences in Kerala, India, Sri Lanka and Peru. The toolkit focuses on pre-disaster planning and post-disaster recovery, supporting mainly women-led creative enterprises. This project is jointly developed by Filipino artist Twinkle Ferraren and the UK’s League of Artists CIC.
Forests and farming
“Listen: Can you hear the fish cry?” is an embodied audio project with the Philippines’ Binhi Creatives and the UK’s Michelle Roche, co-founder of Play Inside. It will amplify underrepresented voices affected by climate change, particularly women.
Filipino artist Mica Cabildo and Curtis Cresswell of the UK collaborated on “The Possibility of Forests: Twin Installations in a Celtic Rainforest and a Tropical Cloud Forest.” Connecting Celtic rainforests in Britain with tropical cloud forests in the Philippines, the project explores climate-sensitive biomes through interactive media, art and ecology practices.
“Song and Sovereignty: Food Justice and the Preservation of Local
Farming Culture” by the UK’s Tilted Axis Press and the Philippines’ Gantala Press Inc. preserves the literary culture of women in the Philippines amid changing farming practices due to climate change and political instability. It will record folk songs, poetry and recipes. Literary translation workshops and collaborations with Filipino migrants in the UK will contribute to diverse publications.
“Where The Flowers Bloom: Transforming the Colonial study and artistry of Philippine-UK Botanicals through weaving identity in the retelling of Biodiversity amid the Ecological Crisis” is a collaboration between the UK’s Beatriz Gemperle and the Philippines’ TAYO House of Culture & Creativity. It deconstructs and reimagines the colonial study of Philippine botanicals by weaving Filipino identities such as myths, patterns, stories, relationships and rituals into a collaborative process of botanical preservation.
The second subject highlighted by the program is diversity and inclusion. Filipino projects awarded in this area are “God Save The Queers, Bless The Badings,” “Performing Diwata: ecotransfeminism in precolonial Philippine mythology” and the “Wild Patch.”