Transition Network Resources
Download our guide to 'Putting on an Annual Celebration' here: https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/putting-annual-celebration-guide/
It is also very useful to have an understanding of the Action Learning Cycle, you can find our guide on this here: http://transitionnetwork.org/resources/action-reflection-cycle-inner-transition-guide/
My point is that we need more things in our life that we care about. Personally speaking, I care more about a Totnes £21 note than I care about a £20 note. The things Transition does, whether urban gardening, new food markets, Transition Streets groups, are all about creating things that people care about.
The remarkable 'Transition Town Anywhere' activity Lucy and others facilitated at the Transition Network conference in 2009, where 350 people built a living, working High Street economy from string and cardboard left me caring far more deeply about my own High Street than I had before. And art and design have a vital role to play in that.
Every revolution needs its icons, its tokens, which embody much more than appears at first glance. But it's about more than art and design. It's about what those things can act as a gateway to. I always loved Jean DuBuffet's quote:
"Art does not lie down on the bed
that is made for it; it runs away as
soon as one says its name; it loves
to go incognito. Its best moments
are when it forgets what it
is called".
For me, the moments when Transition most touches and inspires me are the moments when it "forgets what it is called", when it comes up with unexpected and delightful approaches. A £10 note with David Bowie on is a perfect example of that. So is "a shop with nothing for sale but lots on offer".
So is a project to plant fruit trees that is also an art project with oral histories, tours, poetry, maps and storytelling. So weave creativity through your Transition project, allow it to be beautiful, challenging, inclusive. And share the stories of what you do with the wider movement.
Transition Kensal to Kilburn in London harvest local fruits and then run workshops
on preserve-making, adorning the final product with these beautiful labels.
Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.
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