Manifestos for Greener Arts Exhibition
Exhibition dates: From 4th August, end date tba
Made by the many hands and minds of the Green Arts Oxfordshire Network community in collaboration with the Old Fire Station. Designed and printed by commonbooks.org
What can an arts manifesto be?
What can it change?
Earlier this year Green Arts Oxfordshire Network and the Old Fire Station collaborated to harness the power of culture for climate action, in a creative manifesto writing workshop as part of Marmalade festival 2026. A manifesto is a sparkly public policy – something formed outside of institutions that comes from strong personal belief.
Artists, performers, musicians, writers and many others that work in the arts came together to discuss what an action plan for the arts could look like. We talked about the importance of communicating our values, together, in this climate emergency to work collectively towards climate justice and regenerative futures.
We heard from local artists who have already been creating manifestos for greener arts in Oxfordshire and beyond. Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck wrote a manifesto for The Ordinary Society For Kindness To All Animals In The Art World. Julia Utreras (Common Books) worked with Name it Project (Oxford Youth Enterprise), Sam Skinner of Fig Studio, Resolve Collective and Make Space for Girls to design a “Green Space & Us” Manifesto, written by young women in Oxfordshire.
Based on Julie’s Bicycle Environmental Policy and Action Plan writing resources, we explored 3 key questions that can help us to write manifestos for greener arts:
- What is your motivation for taking environmental action?
- What are your main impacts?
- What are your key environmental commitments?
In a creative activity led by Common Books, we summarised our core values related to these questions in a few words, displayed here. Green Arts Oxfordshire Network invites you to share your own Manifesto for Greener Arts. What’s important to you?