Sparks 25 Culture Declares
Sparks Bristol was created by these three organisations as a direct response to the Climate Emergency and these are our joint intentions:
Truth Telling
We will audit our assets and create a plan to reduce our carbon emissions (whilst considering the limitations of meanwhile use space.) and consider improvements that could be implemented by April 2025.
We will continue to use arts, storytelling, dialogue and heritage to explore climate impacts and solutions and encourage the involvement of our visitors to express their own truths.
We will increase the amount of free skills and training offered at Sparks to empower people with skills such as mending and repairing to 120 people per year.
Caretaking
We will advocate for responsible development that has community, creativity and sustainability at its heart by participating in City Centre Development discussions .
We will deliver a public event at Sparks Bristol for World Environment Day on 5th June, enabling honest dialogue and possible action plans in response to environmental collapse, looking at direct impacts this will have on food, water and energy security, infrastructure risk, biodiversity, and human health and how we can create fairer distributive systems.
In all our strategic planning we will consider our handprint, how we can innovate, care and creatively work with community champions, amplify diverse voices and strategically underrepresented groups to create healing not just reduce harm. We will host weekly Gather Flourish sessions to reduce isolation, an International Culture Festival in June 2025 and a talk from visiting indigenous dance artists.
Change Making
Sparks Bristol is a site of activation and imagination for a regenerative future. Sparks Bristol is rooted in working with the Sustainable Development Goals and international frameworks for rights and justice. Sparks co directors Global Goals Centre will lead on educating schools, businesses and visitors on how we can meet these goals and The Invisible Circus will use the power of performance and storytelling to help us achieve these aims.
Sparks Bristol will provide space and place where people can come together to envision a greener, fairer future for all, with a circular economy at its heart.
Through the Retail offer at Sparks we promote Reuse Recycle and Repair through the Repairium, Rethrindle in addition to sustainable retail. We will continue to add more workshops and work with our traders to work ever more sustainably.
Through our Residency Programme and support for the work of our Community Champions, we will continue to provide spaces for activation of local change.