Climate change and environmental degradation are some of the most severe and urgent challenges facing us in the 21st century. Science is unequivocal on the need for urgent and meaningful measures to avoid critical damage to our planet’s life support systems, but action has been slow to follow. As a collective entity the arts shape not just our material world, but our conceptual world too. As such, they have a critical role to play in powering action and inspiring and creating a more sustainable future.
Take the Green Train was born as a new initiative to foster collective action, exploring the environmental issues facing the arts and cultural industries, and how the jazz sector can respond as part of a global movement addressing climate change practically and inspirationally. Europe Jazz Network has partnered with Julie’s Bicycle, the pioneering charity working on environmental sustainability in the arts, for this Creative Europe funded programme.
We want to develop a network response across artists, venues, and promoters, explore how the EJN membership can transform its working practices, and create new collaborative approaches to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing environment.
“Today we are all here to explore how the jazz community will articulate its response to this issue, and become a visible and vocal part of this wider cultural movement. It shouldn’t be seen as a challenge – it is a huge opportunity for this incredible genre of music to do what it has always done, and to get the truth out there loud and clear.”
– Tony Wadsworth, Chair, Julie’s Bicycle, Take the Green Train Seminar April 2015
