Art & Sustainability Month (May 2021)

May is the Art and Sustainability Month! The Green Office Groningen, the Hanze and different study associations are preparing numerous events and activities at the intersection between art and sustainability. The list will be updated weekly, so be sure to keep an eye on it!

• From 17 until 22 May it’s also Plastic-Free Week!
• During the Art & Sustainability Month we’re making a collaborative poem with University Poet Olivier van Eijk. Join us, by sharing your image of/view on sustainability by submitting to our project page or by sending a mail it to greenoffice rug.nl. Your entry can be in any form - text, a picture, a drawing, a song - or language you like. We’re very excited to see your submissions!

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Activity: Sustainable 33

• Monday 10 May - Sunday 16 May
• By Green Office Embassy - Medical Faculty

The sustainability ambassador of the Medical Faculty presents to you the amazingly awesome Sustainable 33! Starting on the 10th of May until the 16th of May, we challenge you to do 33 tasks related with sustainability and also art ! How does it work? Simply sign up via the form, participate on your own or with a group of friends and get started - the team who did most challenges wins! We are looking forward to having you!

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Workshop: Make your Tote Bag

• Monday 10 May at 7 p.m., Material costs: €3, Sign-up: board svcommotie.nl
• By Study Association Commotie

Unleash your inner tote bag artist! On the 10th of May at 19:30, the ActiviCee is organizing a very fun and sustainable evening where you can decorate your own tote bag. If you need it, Commotie can supply you with the bag, paint, markers and other fun decorations to make your new favorite bag to use for grocery shopping. Ditch those plastic bags and unleash your inner artist by signing up (in duos). On the day of the activity you can pick up the supplies that you need at one of their houses in the city of Groningen, and they will organize a livestream where everybody can share processes and creations. Participation is free for Commotie members and €3 for non-members. Members can sign up via the website and non-members can send an email to board svcommotie.nl . Hope to see you there!

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Lecture: Art & Sustainabiity

• Tuesday 11 May, 5 p.m.
• By the Green Office & Hanze UAS

The Art & Sustainability Month will start with a lecture by Josefine Geiger (RUG) and Gabriela Milyanova (Hanze). Environmental psychologist Josefine Geiger collaborated with designers and artists to better understand the extent to which, how and why design and art can promote pro-environmental actions. Following a novel interdisciplinary approach, integrating insights from design, art and environmental psychology, they designed packages and an art installation aiming to stimulate pro-environmental actions. In her presentation, she will talk about the interdisciplinary process, the results and implications of these projects for tackling climate change.

Gabriela Milyanova is an artist and educator that works in the field of climate adaptation. Gabriela has a background in art and design, creating awareness on the impactcreativitycan have to address and tackle bigsocietal issuessuch as climate change. She has created and taught courses forart and design studentswithin Academie Minerva on sustainability and is coordinating an innovation lab on the topic. She will give a talk about her experience as an interrelational artist addressing climate change & sustainability.

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Workshop: Kleurconstructies - schrijf poëzie

• Friday 14 May, 7.30 p.m.
• By the University House Poet , Olivier van Eijk
• The workshop will be in Dutch, but you can write in any language you'd like

In deze workshop zal Olivier van Eijk je helpen om te dichten over en voor de wereld. In de Art en Sustainability-maand krijg je middels deze workshop de kans om poëtisch je stem te verheffen. We beginnen met wat theorie, waarin Olivier je langs verschillende stromingen en dichters leidt. Daarna gaan we zelf aan de slag! Door middel van oefeningen word je geholpen om je eigen gedichten te schrijven. De gedichten die je tijdens deze workshop schrijft kunnen onderdeel vormen van het gezamenlijke gedicht voor de Art and Sustainability-maand.

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Turn Waste into Art

• Friday 21 May, 6-9 p.m.
• By GLV Idun

Idun’s Idiomotor and Ecolution collaborated to create an activity for which you will need the sustainable and creative parts of yourself! For this event, you will keep your own waste, of which you can make beautiful art pieces in small groups.

You can sign up in groups of two or three people. You can also sign up by yourself and then we will place you in a group. The event will take place on May 21st from 18.00-21.00. Idun members can sign-up through the website. If you’re not from Idun, please send us an e-mail to either cultuur idun.nl or sustainability idun.nl to sign up.

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Plastastic Art: Litterpicking & Art-exchange

• Saturday 22 May, noon - 4 p.m.
• Noorderplantsoen
• By the GO BSS Embassy

Join us to clean up the Noorderplantsoen (and parts of the city center) and create art out of the collected plastic trash! Tools will be provided.

After the pickup you will have a week to make something that is inspired by the trash collected. To be corona safe, the trash that will be used for art should be from your own home. Then we will have an art swap with each other with the pieces created. Everyone who creates a piece of art will get a piece in return!

You can pop by any time between 12 and 4 p.m.! If you can't find us, shoot us a message via the FB event.

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Lecture: Creative Solutions for the Plastic Problem

• Wednesday 19 May at 4 p.m.
• By Green Office Groningen

Everyone knows there is an issue with plastic waste: face masks littered in the streets, plastic bottles at the beach and micro plastic ending up in our food. What can we do about it? In this lecture, Precious Plastic Maastricht and ComposTerra will present innovative solutions to one of humanity’s biggest challenges. Precious Plastic Maastricht educates people in its community about recycling by providing them with the necessary tools to turn their plastic waste into valuable objects. Hence, the name pointing out the inherent value of our plastic waste. ComposTerra builds upon the fact that plastic recycling alone falls short of solving our plastic crisis. Therefore, the young startup develops sustainable alternatives to single use plastic products made out of organic waste materials. This allows for a circular and compostable replacement for everyday objects like to-go coffee cups, cutlery and take-away packaging.

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Lecture+Q&A: Ben Smith on Environmental Literature and Doggerland

• Tuesday 25 May at 8 p.m.
• By Literair Dispuut Flanor

Ben Smith will be giving a lecture on environmental literature! Smith is the author of the novel Doggerland, a dystopian, ecocritical book that takes place on ‘Doggerland’ , the piece of land between the UK and the Netherlands. Moreover, he is also professor at the University of Plymouth, where he specialized in environmental literature. The online lecture will take place on the 25th of May, at 8PM. It’s free and open to everyone! If you want to join, you can sign up on the Flanor website. If you’ve signed up, you’ll receive an email with a link to the lecture on the day itself!

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Avond van de duurzame poëzie

• Friday 28 May, 8 p.m.
• By the University House Poet, Olivier van Eijk
• The event will be in Dutch

Ben Smith will be giving a lecture on environmental literature! Smith is the author of the novel Doggerland , a dystopian, ecocritical book that takes place on ‘Doggerland’ , the piece of land between the UK and the Netherlands. Moreover, he is also professor at the University of Plymouth, where he specialized in environmental literature. The online lecture will take place on the 25th of May, at 8PM. It’s free and open to everyone! If you want to join, you can sign up on the Flanor website . If you’ve signed up, you’ll receive an email with a link to the lecture on the day itself!

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Avond van de duurzame poëzie

• Friday 28 May, 8 p.m.
• By the University House Poet, Olivier van Eijk
• The event will be in Dutch

Poëzie helpt je de wereld vanuit een ander gezichtspunt te zien. Dat lukt nog beter wanneer je allerlei dichters bij elkaar zet, zoals tijdens onze Avond van de duurzame poëzie! Met beeld en klank zullen de dichters zich inzetten voor kunst en duurzaamheid. Dichters vanuit verschillende streken van het land zullen tijdens deze dichtavond voordragen. Met presentatie van Olivier van Eijk.

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Art & Sustainable Month is organised in collaboration with the Hanze University of Applied Science, Commotie, Precious Plastic Maastricht, ComposTerrra, Flanor, UG House Poet Olivier van Eijk and several Green Office Embassies.