Art Gene Design Café Events for 2011

Wednesday 9th March 2011 at Art Gene, Nan Tait Centre, Abbey Rd from 6.15 for 7pm start.

The second serving in a new series of Art Gene Design Café Events for 2011...

Join in for a Public Discussion and Debate with expert panelists!

Barrow has a rich tradition of allotment gardening and self-build vernacular architecture. Can Permaculture and the Transition Towns movement help to create a better, more sustainable future for Barrow?

Panelists;

Jennifer Lauruaol (Founder of Transition City Lancaster)

Edward Acland (Small holder and Permaculturist)

Steve Robson (Neighbourhood Manager, Barrow Borough Council)

Stuart Bastik (Artist / Founder, Art Gene)

Can we build upon and expand our thriving allotment culture in an attempt to move towards sustainability?
Can we empower our communities to take a more proactive role in defining the future of our town and future lifestyles?

Have you ever wanted to...
Have your own allotment?
Grow your own food?
Generate your own power?
Build an eco friendly house?

Starting an organic allotment or planting an apple tree are tremendously empowering acts, and positive steps towards creating healthy self-reliant communities.

Permaculture
"Creating abundant and sustainable human habitats by following nature’s patterns". Primarily permaculture is a design system- a way of making links and connections ... to maximise their efficiency in creating a self sustaining, low input/high output, non-exploiting whole.

"You haven't got an excess of slugs, you’ve got a duck deficiency…" Bill Mollison

At its essence, permaculture is about making real that other 'green truism', 'Think Globally Act Locally'. For cliché or not, that is where the future lies if we are to have one. Graham Burne


What exactly is a Transition Town?
A Transition Initiative (which could be a town, village, university or island etc) is a community-led response to the pressures of climate change, fossil fuel depletion and increasingly, economic contraction. There are thousands of initiatives around the world starting their journey to answer this crucial question:

Transition Towns (also known as Transition network or Transition Movement) is a brand for environmental and social movements “founded (in part) upon the principles of permaculture”, based originally on Bill Mollison’s seminal 'Permaculture, a Designers Manual' published in 1988. Following its start in Kinsale, Ireland it then spread to Totnes, England. The aim of this community project is to equip communities for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil. The Transition Towns movement is an example of socioeconomic localisation.

Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitiontowns
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/