When cultural organisations talk about sustainability, what do we mean? What do we want to sustain, and for whom ? Our annual conference will go beyond the catch-all keyword to highlight specific intersections between culture, ecology, digital practices and care.

Many pathways to low-carbon futures have been articulated, but most fail to engage communities in imagining themselves as being part of those futures and involved in the transition. Cultural centres play an important role in building imaginaries and providing inspiration to navigate future horizons. How can they become key actors of the necessary environmental, social and digital transition?

Post-fossil societies would look very different to the ones we inhabit today in Europe. Landscapes, transport systems, buildings, communities and indeed most social relations would be transformed. For this meeting, our guests will be practitioners, multidisciplinary researchers, artists and policymakers working on low-carbon futures, who will share the concrete questions they are working on and the practices they are building to help citizens appropriate the future and feel that they are able to create it. Special guests from our partner network in Latin America will bring another perspective.

Leaving petroculture behind will not happen just through mitigation of fossil fuel use. It will also require systemic and cultural change. In-depth workshops will look at how cultural organisations can

• switch to a more ethical and sustainable use of digital
• care for their human resources
• improve their environmental impact
• use art as a transformational practice

A key concern will be moving away from extractive logics – which exhaust natural resources, human resources, and data – towards collective practices for care, creation and flourishing.

Who should attend ?

• Coordinators and staff of cultural and community centres and cultural networks
• cultural managers and policy experts
• professionals involved in mental health and well-being, digital and cultural rights, sustainability and climate justice
• artists, activists, educators, social workers and policymakers from the local, national and international levels.

This event is organised in collaboration with the Ibero-American Foundation for Cultural and Creative Industries and the Municipality of Orihuela. It is endorsed and promoted by the New European Bauhaus.