Impact Radio Hour

During the final ACT symposium, ACT teamed up with Artsadmin’s What Shall We Build Here festival, held at Toynbee Studios in Aldgate, east London, 28 June – 2 July 2023. The festival featured “The People’s Palace of Possibility: For utopian scheming and rageful dreaming” by The Bare Project. For two days, Arie Lengkeek and Jacco van Uden were given the opportunity to host their ‘Impact Corner Radio Hour’ from the Palace Radio booth. The perfect setting for some final reflections on ACT’s Learning to Impact Work Package of ACT. Arie and Jacco invited four art professionals who participated in the conference to talk impact.

While ‘flying dramaturg’ Mathieu Charles (BE) from Theater Rotterdam (NL) doesn’t use the word itself very often, impact does play a very important role in his work. Far more than being a numbers game that revolves around target audiences, impact is all about action. Colonialism and violence are everywhere, Mathieu says, and he has little patience: “the system cannot be changed, it needs to be burnt down. At some point, art needs be the light that burns shit down.”

Glasgow (UK) based Ellie Harrison was trained as an artist. Over the years she has come to identify herself more and more as an activist in the field of climate change and social justice. Ellie produced ‘Bus Regulation: The Musical’, inspired by the 1980s hit musical ‘Starlight Express’, and features performers on roller skates to re-enact the history of public transport provision. A seemingly lighthearted performance that critically reflects on the social and environmental effects of bus de-regulation and privatization. ”This seemed like a good way to illustrate chaos.”

Aidan Moesby (UK) is an artist, curator, writer, and a practice based curatorial PhD candidate. Already an environmental activist, Aidan first pursued a degree in environmental studies. Becoming more and more interested in how environmental change affects people, he specialized to become a therapist. Now combining his interests in climate change, therapy and art, Aidan is interested in how art (institutes) can help address issues like climate grief and trauma. To Aidan, hope plays a central role in pursuing impact: “Hope does not eliminate grief or ignore it, hope implies change for the better. If you haven’t got hope, why act”?

Lisbon based Carolina Mano Marques (PT) reflects on impact from yet another angle. As coordinator to ACT, Carolina has been in close contact with EU decision and policy makers in the Creative Europe programme. Firmly placing impact making at the heart of its funding strategies, Carolina witnesses a clear policy shift in Europe. Applying for EU funding, you now need to have a change theory: in what ways will our activities address the climate crisis? Carolina argues that there is a widespread agreement that these times call for negotiations. That is, while many agree that traditional criteria (‘tickets sold’) fall short in seizing impact in a meaningful way, alternative models for defining, capturing, and valuing impact are still very much under development. Carolina: “we are all relearning”.

You can access the podcasts from Palace Radio on Soundcloud:
Mathieu Charles*
Ellie Harrison**
Aidan Moesby
Carolina Mano Marques***

*Unfortunatley… the recording of this interview apparently missed the first introduction of the guest and hosts.
**Unfortunately… the interview recording was cut off halfway due to technical defects. But have a look at recording of the musical itself (https://www.ellieharrison.com/busregulation/) and the many reports on Ellie’s work!
***Unfortunately… the first 7′ of this interview were bothered with technical issues- please bare with it!