Galleries and museums across the UK join the fight against global warming

Artists, galleries and museums across the country are joining forces to take part in the first nation-wide arts campaign to address environmental issues. Organised by the RSA Arts & Ecology Centre in association with BASH, the Respond! campaign will run throughout June and will include a series of exhibitions, events and debates around the country.

Coinciding with World Environment Day on 5 June, Respond! will promote events at the Barbican Centre, Tate Britain, the Natural History Museum and the Baltic centre for Contemporary Art.

Michaela Crimmin, the Head of the RSA Arts & Ecology Centre said:

“Artists, like all of us have a responsibility to rise to the challenge of climate change. While lots of artists are already engaged, the RSA’s Arts & Ecology Centre aims to promote and expand this engagement. Respond! will showcase what is already going on and we hope encourage broader public debate on these issues. We are used to seeing the facts and figures of climate change and depleted natural resources. Here are new ways of not just seeing the environment and our place in it, but energetic and active ideas for doing things differently.”

The RSA's Arts & Ecology Centre is an RSA initiative that supports and encourages artists who are making work that responds to the unprecedented environmental challenges of our era. View full list of Respond! participants on the Respond! microsite. Highlights include:

• . Radical Nature draws on ideas that have emerged out of Land Art, environmental activism, experimental architecture and utopianism. It is the first exhibition to bring together key figures across different generations who have created utopian works and inspiring solutions for our ever-changing planet.

• Tate Britain: Richard Long (from 3 June). This major exhibition at Tate Britain is a unique opportunity to understand afresh the artist’s radical rethinking of the relationship between art and landscape.

• Natural History Museum: After Darwin: Contemporary Expressions (from 25 June). The Natural History Museum explores the cultural and emotional relationships between humans and other animals. The exhibition includes work by Jeremy Deller, Ruth Padel and writer Mark Haddon

• Salisbury Festival and Cape Farewell contribute to the Festival with art works, film screenings and panel discussion (22 May – 5 June 09).

• Arcola Theatre, London (from 7 June) is running Green Sundays – providing the ecologically curious with the opportunity to explore environmental issues through music, film, spoken word, games and discussions.

• Artsadmin: Two Degrees (16-21 June). Six days of events and interventions taking place in and around Toynbee Studios, London. With as many events taking place on the streets around Toynbee Studios as in the theatre, Artsadmin are asking people to join artists in sharing an organic picnic, exploring London’s forgotten waterways, sampling an airline meal or foraging for food in the City of London.

• Bash Sustainable Arts Awards (June 2009): Artists are invited to submit their work for a two week exhibition in a central London gallery. A panel of industry experts and artists will select the pieces to be shown. Winners will be invited to the awards night opening the exhibition in June covered by the national press and media.

• RSA Archive Display (1 – 30 June 09): A display of material at the RSA demonstrating the organisation’s historical commitment to tackling environment issues through a range of projects, competitions and initiatives.

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