Wellbeing for people and planet sits at the heart of the company.
Open Road has been active in the area of culture and climate change for ten years. During this time our thinking and planning has shifted from ways we can reduce our carbon footprint, to the role of culture in transformational change.
We focus on the role of storytelling in creating a narrative for a better future for people and planet.
Our company track records includes:
- Community engagement to tell stories of the past, present and possible futures, alongside a programme of environmental workshops and transition games.
- Building an artistic programme to communicate and tell the story of climate change, as well as creating environmental action plans.
- Researching ways to incorporate culture into place planning to help build community wellbeing and resilience.
- Active membership of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.
Company Director and Co-founder Lesley Anne Rose has specific experience which includes:
- Creative Lead for Scotland for a national conference at the National Theatre in London between all three national theatres (National Theatre of Scotland, National Theatre of Wales and National Theatre UK) exploring ways to place creativity at the heart of responding to the challenges of attending to the climate crisis. Resources from the conference can be found on the Theatre Greenbook website.
- Story Weaver for Scottish Communities Climate Action Network tasked with telling the story of community-led action and promoting the power of story.
- Embedded Artist with Cultural Adaptations a Creative Europe project, led by Culture for Climate Scotland with partners in four EU countries. This project focused on culture’s role in society’s adaptation to climate, and the adaptation issues that cultural organisations need to think about. It sought to find creative, innovative and place-based responses to climate change impacts, equipping cultural organisations and cities with the knowledge and skills they need. Through this project Lesley Anne worked as an Embedded Artist with Climate Ready Clyde an initiative to create a shared vision, strategy and action plan for an adapting Glasgow City Region. The Cultural Adaptations website is filled with information and resources including a tool kit on Adapting Our Culture.
- Read Lesley Anne’s blog for the 4th European Climate Change Adaptation conference held in Lisbon in 2019 on why a new approach to climate adaptation strategic development involving artists is needed here. And her Let Me Tell You a Strategy: telling the story of change blog here.
- Watch Adaptation Scotland’s webinar on Creativity and Climate Change which covers creative approaches to facilitating engagement, visuals for climate change communication and embedded artist experiences, and features Gemma Lawrence Culture/SHIFT Manager at Creative Carbon Scotland and Lesley Anne.
- Read Lesley Anne’s foresight report, Climate Ready Clyde – The Value of Partnership. The report forms part of the Connected Clusters project, providing Sustainable Scotland Network members and partners valuable insight into Climate Innovation Clusters in the U.K.