Learn the most impactful ways to tackle climate change through your creative practice or cultural organisation... Get certified as Carbon Literate with South Oxfordshire's creative community this Earth Day!

What is Carbon Literacy Training?

Carbon Literacy Training equips learners with the knowledge, skills, motivation and confidence to embed positive climate action in your work and personal lives. Our course is catered to Oxfordshire’s creative community, helping learners to measurably reduce the carbon cost of creative projects and creating a cultural shift towards climate justice and a zero-carbon future.

Is this course right for me?

Our course has been designed for independent creatives, freelancers, artists, writers, performers, members of community groups and staff and volunteers from cultural organisations and venues.

This session has been funded by the South Oxfordshire District Council Councillor Community Grant Scheme, awarded by Cllr Axel Macdonald, Cllr Denise Macdonald and Cllr Mocky Khan of Didcot South.

The training is open to anyone working or based in South Oxfordshire.

To access this training, please join the network (for free) by signing the Green Arts Charter.

Spaces are limited. Please let us know if you can no longer attend, so that we can offer the space to someone else.

Who are we?

Green Arts Oxfordshire Network (GAON) exists to unite Oxfordshire’s artists and cultural organisations in their work to tackle the climate & ecological emergency. We believe that a better future is possible, and that we as cultural leaders need to create the change we want to see in the world.

What's the format of Carbon Literacy Training?

Our training is a full day of learning made up of 3 parts:

Part 1: Online e-learning Platform

This section increases your understanding of the science behind climate change, and the global and local impacts. It is self-directed, including videos and quizzes, and is completed online in your own time ahead of part 2. We expect this to take around 2 - 3 hours.

Part 2: Training Session with a Carbon Literacy Trainer

This section outlines what we need to do as a society to reduce carbon emissions, introducing national plans, local initiatives and high impact actions that you can take, in the context of the creative sector. This is an interactive session including group discussions and opportunities to ask questions. The session will last 5 hours inclusive of a 30-minute break, with free lunch provided.

Part 3: Participant Details Forms

The final part of the training involves you developing an action pledge both as an individual and with a wider group, in order to reduce carbon emissions. This section should take around 1 hour to complete.

Accessibility

The venue is fully wheelchair accessible, with accessible toilets on each floor. If you have any access requirements, please let us know when you book your training session.

What's the impact?

The sustainability consultancy firm Jacobs did a study on the effectiveness of Carbon Literacy training, and discovered that there is between a 5 - 15% carbon saving per person for those that undertake the training. A study at the University of Leeds also found that Carbon Literacy is an effective way of instigating lasting change.

Testimonials from GAON Carbon Literacy Training Participants

“The trainer was very passionate and inspirational. The training has really opened my eyes to what changes I can make as an individual and artistic director of a small charity. Thank you and please keep up the great work!”

“Thank you Green Arts Oxfordshire for providing such a thorough, well-informed, accessible training! I feel the training helped us gather more accurate info about our carbon footprint, and gave a lot of useful insights on how to reduce it. Everyone should take this course!”

“This is a very informative and helpful introduction for anyone in our times.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed the training. I learnt a lot and it helped me clarify what direction I should take next in my commitment to doing something about climate change. It left me feeling positive, which is something I rarely feel when our future can appear overwhelmingly disastrous.”

* This session may be postponed if we do not secure 15 bookings.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge that this cohort of training has been funded by South Oxfordshire District Council Councillor Community Grant Scheme, awarded by Cllr Axel Macdonald, Cllr Denise Macdonald and Cllr Mocky Khan of Didcot South.

The development of this course was supported by Oxford City Council's Community Impact Fund, as well as Fusion Arts, Tandem Collective, Oxford Friends of the Earth, CAG Oxfordshire and anonymous donors.

Each Wednesday at 1.10 pm during term time we host an informal lunchtime recital which ends before 14:00. There is no need to pre-book tickets; just turn up at the door. Admission is free with a retiring collection, and you’re welcome to come and go between pieces. For disabled access please speak to the Porters Lodge (01865 279120).

Join us to enjoy the sparkling sound of one of the UK’s finest organs, bathed in the glorious architecture and acoustic of the Baroque chapel.

Passing Open Windows – A Symphonic Tribute to Queen

The Thames Valley Festival Orchestra comes to Dorchester Abbey on April 20th 2024 to perform ‘Passing Open Windows - a Symphonic Tribute to Queen’, arranged by Dee Palmer. The 65 piece symphony orchestra will fill the Abbey with the sound of many superbly rich arrangements of the music of Queen. Perennial favourites such as Bicycle Race, Somebody to Love, Killer Queen, Innuendo and We are the Champions will feature and lots more.

Conductor: Stephen Ellery
Leader: Guy Haskell

Tickets:
via Eventbrite -
TVFOQueenDorchester.eventbrite.co.uk
via the Orchestra -
thamesvalleyfestivalorchestra@gmail.com

Programme:

Bizet, L'Arlesienne: Suite No. 1
William Grant Still, Afro-American Symphony
Dvorak, New World Symphony No. 9

Conducted by Dwight Pile-Gray

Come and join us for an exciting journey into music inspired by the American experience featuring late 19th-century romantic composer Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No 9 “from the New World” and 20th-century African American composer William Grant Still'sSymphony No 1 “Afro-American”. Composed some 40 years apart by composers from very different backgrounds, the symphonies are bound together by the unique influence of Negro Spirituals.

The programme also includes Bizet’s popular “L’Arlesienne: Suite No. 1” whose melodies are rooted in Provençal traditional folk music.

The work was composed for a Neapolitan confraternity, the Cavalieri della Vergine dei Dolori di San Luigi al Palazzo, which had also commissioned a Stabat Mater from Alessandro Scarlatti. Pergolesi composed it during his final illness from tuberculosis in a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli, along with a Salve Regina setting, and, as it is said, finished it right before he died.

To be performed by Shannon Miller, Annabel Williams and Nicholas Prozzillo.

Steve Ashley has long been regarded as one of British folk's finest singer-songwriters. His reputation for writing contemporary songs inspired by the English Tradition was established in 1974 with his innovative debut album, Stroll On. Since then, his songs have been recorded by many leading folk artists including Fairport Convention, Anne Briggs, Ralph McTell, Wizz Jones, Show of Hands, O'Hooley & Tidow, Dave Pegg, PJ Wright, The Arizona Smoke Review, Martin and Jessica Simpson, Grace Notes, Phil Beer, Maggie Boyle, The Bushwackers, The Owl Service, Sproatly Smith and Hannah Sanders and Liz Simmons.

He has also played a significant role in the development of British folk-rock, performing as a lead singer with the first Albion Country Band, then with his own Ragged Robin and various line-ups of The Steve Ashley Band. He has also performed occasionally with members of Fairport Convention.

http://www.steveashley.co.uk/

The Mass in B Minor represents the culmination of Bach’s career as a composer of sacred music. Completion of this project was one of his last and largest projects, but within he adapted music that he had written decades earlier. Bach draws together a dazzling array of older and newer styles, from superlative displays of rich counterpoint to modern dance-influenced movements. The texts of the Mass provided him with opportunities for this rich variety and for dramatic juxtapositions of styles and characters.

This concert continues the acclaimed collaboration between the Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford and the world famous Academy of Ancient Music, a combination of the finest choral singing and an orchestra with a worldwide reputation for excellence in baroque and classical music.

Choir and orchestra are conducted by Owen Rees, Director of Music at The Queen's College, whose interpretations of choral music have been hailed as ‘revelatory and even visionary' (BBC Music Magazine).

Julia Doyle soprano

Esther Lay mezzo-soprano

Guy Cutting tenor

Ashley Riches bass-baritone

Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford

Academy of Ancient Music

Owen Rees director

An open mic style night where the audience brings their favourite tracks to share on the theme of Social Change, as part of Marmalade Festival.

What is it?

We love discovering new music, and the best way to discover is to share.

Listening Parties are a space to share the music you’re passionate about. You’ll hear it on a great sound system, discover something new, and meet other music enthusiasts. This edition takes place in partnership with Marmalade Festival.

How does it work?

Like an open mic, let us know when you arrive if you’ve brought something to share. We’ll have inputs for LP, CD and for minijack, and a computer, so you can bring a track on vinyl, CD, on your phone, or as a name in your head.

We’ll have two sessions of music with a short break in between, and ask you to attentively enjoy every offering as you would at a live gig. We’ll limit contributions to 4 minutes each so that we can fit in lots of contributions. If you’d like to introduce your track, we’d like to hear what you love about it.

We’ll also have an open Spotify playlist setup that you can add to during the event, if what you hear inspires you - we’ll play the night’s bespoke playlist during the break and after the formal sharing part of the evening is over.

Food and drink will be on sale from the Old Fire Station Cafe.

Edition 13: Music of Social Change

This time we’re inspired by Marmalade Festival's theme of Social Change. This could be music of protest, a track which inspires hope or collective action, or something that brings people together around a common cause.

Here's a track to get you started:

WAKE (for Grenfell) by seed. https://open.spotify.com/track/5nm0P99dC...

We wish to provide an open forum for people to share music that is meaningful to them without censorship, including sensitive topics and explicit language. The Listening Party aims to be an open and welcoming space - as such we ask everyone to respect each other as well as the diverse music we are likely to listen to.

We are very excited to announce the continuation of our cushion concert series for the 23/24 season. Led by Becca Marriott (opera singer), our monthly cushion concerts will introduce different styles of music and different instruments to children and their families. Come along to all eight concerts or just drop in for a few!

Remember to bring your cushions to sit on and your best singing voice, dancing feet and clapping hands!

https://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/events/fa...