IFACCA D’Art Report 34b

Julie's Bicycle group talking in a circle

Over the last two years, Julie’s Bicycle and the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) have been working in partnership to develop resources aimed at informing international arts leaders about global developments in policies and programmes related to culture and environmental sustainability, and how these impact on national arts and cultural organisations.

D’Art Report 34b is the result of surveys and interviews carried out by Julie’s Bicycle and IFACCA between November 2013 and May 2014 and supplemented with desk-based research. It follows the D’Art Report 34, released jointly in 2009 by IFACCA and Arts Council England that presented examples of good practice in the arts and sustainability.

D’Art 34b provides a snapshot of national policymakers’ level of engagement with environmental sustainability with an emphasis on policies, not on artistic content or wider arts practice.

The report includes best practices from around the world and recommendations for enhancing the level of inclusion of environmental sustainability in cultural policymaking and action. The arts and cultural sector, in the main, has well-articulated values that promote equality, inclusion, diversity and community and strong arguments around social and financial sustainability. The sector is well-placed to integrate the environmental dimension with the social and financial dimensions: in part, the narratives have already been written.

We hope that this report will lay the foundations for the sector to build on existing good practice and take on this leadership opportunity, particularly in the context of the ongoing campaign to include culture as part of the new post-2015 sustainable development goals (championed by IFACCA and five other networks in consultation with UNESCO) and the run-up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference Of the Parties 21(COP21) talks in Paris in December 2015.

French and Spanish translations are available.

IFACCA and Julie’s Bicycle wish to acknowledge the financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Council Ireland for this project.