In May, Fossil Free Culture NL gave a two-day workshop for the students of the Performing Public Space master’s programme at Fontys Academy of the Arts in Tilburg.
The participants were already artists with their own practices. So the focus was not on making art, but on how to incorporate strategic activism in their work: how to turn creative ideas into a campaign that can create concreate change in society. Over two full days, the group went from personal frustrations to concrete public interventions, carried out in the streets of Tilburg.
Why this workshop
Fossil Free Culture NL has used art and performance since 2017 to challenge the fossil fuel industry’s presence in cultural institutions, with campaigns such as #DropShell at the Van Gogh Museum and #FossilFreeMuseumplein. In this workshop we share the method behind that work: how we choose a goal, define objectives, select tactics and turn ideas into actions that are creative, safe and effective.
Day one: from anger to strategy
Introduction and FFC NL presentation
We started with a round of names, pronouns, practices and motivations, followed by a presentation of Fossil Free Culture NL’s campaigns and ways of working, and an open Q&A.
Finding common ground
After an overview of the current systemic crises, each participant wrote down three issues that affect them directly and that make them angry. Sharing these issues revealed shared concerns, and the participants formed groups around them.
Setting a goal
Each group identified the core problem behind their issues and asked: what big shift in society would solve this? They were invited to be utopian, to connect the goal to their values, and to formulate it in a single sentence. For reference: the goal of Fossil Free Culture is to erode the fossil fuel industry’s social acceptability.
SMART objectives
To move from a utopian goal to concrete steps, each group defined three SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound), and gave their campaign an inspiring name.
Tactics and points of intervention
We presented a range of tactics and explained points of intervention, using examples from FFCNL’s own campaigns.
Free brainstorm
Then came the most liberating part: imagining the wildest possible public art performance on their issue, as if there were unlimited people, money and logistics. The rule was “yes, and”, never “no” or “but”.
Every step ended with group presentations and feedback from everyone, so the groups could learn from and sharpen each other’s ideas.
Day two: making it real
Downsizing the dream
The groups took their boldest ideas and made them realistic enough to carry out that same day, with clear agreements: no destruction of property and no one put at risk. They chose their tactics and message and decided which elements to develop further.
Into public space
After a round of feedback, the groups went out into Tilburg to carry out their interventions, documenting the process. At the end of the day, each group presented their action, explaining their target, goal and tactics, and received feedback from the others.
Remembering the absent students
One group created an intervention for the students from Gaza who were accepted to universities in the Netherlands but could not take their places because they were denied permission to leave Gaza. In a park in Tilburg, they set up a classroom of empty chairs facing a whiteboard that read:
“At this moment, 42 students are obstructed from crossing the Gaza border to reach their earned places in higher education in the Netherlands.”
The work made the students’ absence visible in public space, giving a presence to those who were prevented from being there.
