Episode #49: Becky Burchell on Inspiring Imagination and Change Through the Arts
In this episode, I chat with Becky Burchell, a talented and inspiring Arts Producer and Curator who specializes in “Hopeism” - the idea that sharing stories of hope through the arts can help us to imagine and create a better future. Becky is the founder of CHANGE Festival, a new arts festival in the UK which she created as a platform for inspirational performance, music, discussion, and workshops that invited audiences to consider their own role in manifesting positive change.
Becky has previously curated big-name festivals as an Arts Producer (like the UK’s Bestival and Camp Bestival), creating areas and experiences across artforms from circus to carnival parades to spoken word. Becky has also worked with folk artist Sam Lee to produce the renowned Singing With Nightingale conservation event series, where musicians perform duets with wild nightingales in the woods.
The World We Made premiered at CHANGE Festival 2019 and was a groundbreaking new play that Becky envisaged and produced, set in 2050, and inspired by pioneering environmentalist Jonathon Porritt's book of the same name. Becky is also a Fellow of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, an internationally renowned research centre at the University of Surrey. Fellows explore what prosperity can mean in a world of environmental, social, and economic limits. we talk about how the arts can play a vital role in supporting all of us to be innovative, courageous, and caring in the ways we create change both within our own lives and collectively.
CHANGE Festival 2021 will take place at Warwick Arts Centre in the UK from November 5-7 and is offering a hybrid online offering. As part of this Betsy will be leading two online workshops - ‘Resilience Bootcamp: training for the future’ on November 6th and ‘Leadership Bootcamp: throw out the rulebook’ on November 7. Both are welcome to all and accessible from anywhere in the world (as long as you have an internet connection). They’re donation-based, so come along and if you can pay for a place for someone else too!
Key Points Discussed:
The journey that led her to creating and launching the CHANGE festival (05:42)
Taking a completely different approach to activism and how to balance out the doomism all around us (14:30)
How people have changed in what they want from entertainment (18:48)
Inspiring change through festivals and the arts in general (21:10)
Employing playful activism to bring about a better future (28:20)
Rise Up: Why the upcoming CHANGE festival will be based on this theme (36:01)
Highlighting the story of Rachel Carson, the unlikely activist (40:03)
Having productive disagreements while still working together to make the world a better place (43:14)
Connect with Becky Burchell:
CHANGE Festival’s ‘Resilience bootcamp: training for the future’ with Betsy on November 6th
CHANGE Festival’s ‘Rise up and lead: throw out the rulebook’ with Betsy on November 7th
Connect with Betsy:
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