Design. Fashion. Crafts.
This two-day event aims to build on the experience of Crafting the Future and take the programme one step further, focusing on building interconnections and stronger ties between stakeholders in the fashion, design and crafts industries with a view to creating a more sustainable and ethical ecosystem.
While last year’s event laid the groundwork for understanding what sustainability means for different actors across the wider field of fashion and crafts, this year’s event will use circularity as a tool to interlink the strengths of each stakeholder group, create a future with enhanced circular design, and explore how circular design can be applied to fashion, design and new businesses, as well as to consumer behaviour.
We aim to explore sustainable design, innovation and new materials, looking at new directions for natural, synthetic and mixed materials; consider how archival material can help us visualise the future by looking closely at the past; devise new models for creative industry, production and manufacture; examine the social and business environment; and lastly identify the changes that lie ahead for people – designers, businesses, educators, users and policymakers – as we move into more circular design contexts.
On the first day of our Circular Cultures programme, we will have the opportunity to examine current state-of-the-art circular design practices through a series of keynote talks, panel discussions and showcases of innovative materials and practices, while on day two, hands-on training through workshops will provide valuable know-how to emerging and established designers, policy makers and businesses in the design and fashion industries.
Keynote speakers
- Rebecca Earley, Chair of Sustainable Fashion Textile Design and Co-founder of the Centre for Circular Design (CCD), University of the Arts London
- Dr Kate Goldsworthy, Reader in Circular Textile Design and Co-founder of the Centre for Circular Design (CCD), University of the Arts London
- Professor Carole Collet, Professor in Design for Sustainable Futures at Central Saint Martins
- Seetal Solanki, Founder and Director of Ma-tt-er
- Edwina Ehrman, Curator of Textiles and Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)
- Joe Iles, Circular Design Programme Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
- Hannah Carter, Campaign Manager for #LoveNotLandfill at the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB)
- Nick Gant, Founder of the design agency Community21, Principal Lecturer in Design at the University of Brighton
- Marco Rendina, Managing Director of the European Fashion Heritage Association, Chair of the Europeana Aggregators Forum
- Parvinder Marwaha, Programme Manager for Architecture Design Fashion at the British Council
- Vicky Moudilou, Fashion Designer, Artist and Financial Analyst, Co-owner of the brand Eating the Goober
- Zoe Angelakopoulou, Architect and Designer, Founder of Topodom
- Valisia Gkotsi, Designer and Co-founder of 2WO+1NE=2
Participation in the conference is free following online registration.
Workshops
The second day of the event will offer three workshops which will allow participants to explore some of the ideas presented at the conference in more immersive sessions.
- Your Materials Portrait
Seetal Solanki, Founder and Director of Ma-tt-er - Love Not Landfill
Communications and Campaigns Officer at the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) - Re-making Meaning in Virtuous Circular Cultures
Nick Gant, Founder of the design agency Community21, Principal Lecturer in Design at the University of Brighton
Participation in the workshops is free following online registration.
Workshop applications will be reviewed and participants will be selected based on the relevance of their responses to the subject matter of the workshop. Successful applicants will be notified by 21 February 2020.
Workshops will be conducted in English.
Video Art Exhibition
As part of Circular Cultures we are presenting the Earth Chronicles exhibition, a series of videos from the Polyeco Contemporary Art Initiative (PCAI) collection, curated by Kika Kyriakakou, Artistic Director, PCAI Residency.
About Circular Cultures
Circular Cultures is a new British Council sustainable design and creative economies programme in EU Europe, which aims to promote greater awareness around sustainable design, circularity and making cultures. It aims to embed a more critical dialogue around design and circularity, develop skills and knowledge of making leaders, and create new EU networks around sustainability and circularity.
The Circular Cultures programme, hosted by Onassis Stegi, is an integral part of the broader collaboration between the British Council with the Onassis Foundation aiming at the development of an ongoing and action-oriented public space for ethical crafts, circular design and fashion sustainability. Onassis Culture, the global arts and culture programme of the Onassis Foundation, positions climate change at the core of its mission. This is expressed in the Onassis Foundation’s landmark Past Forward programme that explores the question of key global challenges and the revolutionary thinking they require and entail.
Information
For further information, please contact us:
| Maria Papaioannou | Maria.Papaioannou@britishcouncil.gr | 210 369 2336 |
| Katerina Galani | Katerina.Galani@britishcouncil.gr | 210 369 2386 |
Circular Cultures is co-produced with Onassis Culture, hosted at the Onassis Stegi and curated in collaboration with Professor Rebecca Earley, Chair of Sustainable Fashion Textile Design and Co-founder of the Centre for Circular Design, University of the Arts London.
