Castlemaine-based Climate Futures project coordinator, Dr Michael Chew, is setting up a Climate Futures Incubator, bringing together artists from Australia and Indonesia.
The not-for-profit project, designed to explore climate futures through community-engaged art and exchange, is currently seeking donations.
Michael told the Mail that while the group has already secured some Creative Australia funding for the basic project foundations, they are now raising an additional $10,000 to ensure that the pilot can fulfil its potential and create sustained impact.
The project was chosen as one of 25 projects nationwide for Creative Australia’s flagship MATCH Lab program – meaning that every dollar raised to $10k will be matched by the Australian government.
“This is a genuine Australia–Indonesia collaboration co-designed with renowned Yogyakarta artist collective House of Natural Fibre, and connected to local sites and communities,” Michael said.
“Rather than treating climate change as an abstract issue, the incubator goes beyond technical framings of climate change to elevate real environments, local cultural knowledge, innovative artistic practice, and shared ecological relationships.”
The incubator will bring together traditional and digital practices, cross-cultural perspectives, and community participation.
Participating artists will create site-responsive new climate artworks from July to early August across multiple sites in Yogjakarta, alongside a public program of workshops and artist talks which will be accessible over the web.
“The Climate Futures Incubator is an invitation to co-create, experiment, and imagine futures,” Michael said.
“A space where human, nonhuman, and technological systems meet to explore possibilities for ecological coexistence in an era of planetary transformation.”
To donate visit: chuffed.org/project/climatefuturesincubator