Green Sundays |

Arcola Green Sundays provide an informal and friendly meeting place for people to explore environmental issues through film, music, theatre, poetry and discussion – a chance to celebrate, question and propose different ways of viewing the world and exploring new visions of the future. Join us at our next Green Sunday to relax, learn something new, eat sustainable food, meet interesting people and enjoy live music and films.

The next Green Sunday will take place in September as part of the Open House London Weekend. Check back for further information.

In June why not visit the London Green Fair - the largest free green festival reflecting the green aspirations and achievements of London.

For flyers of previous events – see bottom of page

25 March 2012 – Arcola LEAF Green Sunday: Calling all Energy Angels

Download the flyer and programme HERE

The last Arcola Green Sunday was part of the LEAF funded Dalston Energy Angels project. We celebrated the energy angels achievements alongside Hackney Co-operative Developments who also received LEAF funding.

The afternoon included a work in progress performance of GreenandPleasantLand by theatre group Fanshen; an energy generation workshop with Magnificent Revolution; a campaigning workshop about energy providers from Hackney and Tower Hamlets Friends of the Earth; a curated conversation with John Thackara; a drawing robot, designed by Matt Venn which uses energy data to create an artwork; performance from Pete the Temp , and making draught excluders with Transition Town Hackney

December Green Sunday: From Durban to Dalston; a Christmas without Waste.

Our last Green Sunday was a very successful event, which hopefully inspired our guests about a sustainable Christmas and encouraged some critical reflections on climate change and what’s been happening to battle it.

Everything went to plan, around 100 people
arrived for the Give or Take and there were many items exchanged: from books to furniture, there was something interesting for everybody.

The afternoon carried on in a very relaxed way in the café bar: alongside music from members of “Green Kite Midnight” and the Christmas tastes of homemade mince pies & mulled wine, our guests engaged in crafting Christmas decorations and gifts with Transition Town Hackney. Upcycling empty Tetrapaks into attractive wallets was very popular as was creating pompons from colourful wool.

Meanwhile, we had a very exciting life skype talk, a dialogue between our Green Sunday
guests at Arcola and UKYCC members in Durban, South Africa. The most important thing we learnt from the discussion was that people who attended the UN climate change negotiations are still hopeful that there will be progress.

A highlight of the afternoon was the very moving poetry from Dennis before the screening of “Just Do It”. The panel discussion afterwards chaired by Duncan Clark between Emily James – director of Just Do It, Caroline Allen and Tim Gee, author of Counterpower was fantastic. The discussion went far beyond the question of “direct action or political conventions – which is most effective for creating environmental change?” and moved into discussing what our democracy means and how credible it is.

Thanks to everyone for attending our event, a special thank you to everybody that helped with organizing and creating the event!

September Green Sunday – Energising the Liveable City part of Open House London weekend

Open House London, which Arcola participated in, is a city-wide celebration of the buildings, places and neighbouroods where we live work and play. The theme this year is “The Liveable City”. Green Sunday explored what powers our liveable city – focusing on renewable energy generation in Dalston. The afternoon included a walking tour of local sites of renewable energy generation, organised with Super/Collider - taking in the solar panels at the Dalston Roof Park, and quietrevolution’s wind turbine installation at the Kinetica building on Ramsgate Street. The tour finished with a look round Arcola and a discussion of managing the theatre’s future energy needs.

With a DIY-namo workshop building bike lights from drinks cans, and a performance from Helen Arney – with songs about science with ukelele, it was a great day.

June Green Sunday – Cycle Sunday (with Artsadmin)

With a theme of cycling and all things bike, Green Sunday saw artistic interventions on the streets of East London, along with workshops, talks, craft and lots more. Cycle Sunday was the first event in Artsadmin’s Two Degrees Festival.

A packed programme of events took place at Arcola Theatre on Ashwin Street, Artsadmin at Toynbee Studios on Commercial Street and Dalston Eastern Curve Garden on Dalston Lane. Particular highlights included – the House of Hot Breath’s Bike Bingo, a mass game of Capture the Flag, crafting bracelets from inner tubes, and a rollapaluza head to head fuelled by tasty food from the People’s Kitchen

April Green Sunday – Beyond Economics

At the start of the financial year, we explored the interaction between economics and the environment. What would the world look like if money didn’t rule things? What possibilities could open up for different systems of exchange? What would we value?

The day included games which got people to question values and transactions, a in-depth conversation about developing local currency and a screening of ‘The Economics of Happiness’ – A new film that argues that the policies being implemented to deal with today’s economic turmoil will only temporarily shore up a global system that is fundamentally unstable and incapable of meeting the needs of people and the planet.

Unfortunately, due to technical issues, we were not able to watch Life after Growth. To take a look at this brilliant exploration of growth and economics, click HERE

Arcola’s 10:10:10 Success!

10 October 2010 was Arcola’s biggest Green Sunday yet, with over 400 people participating, and what a wonderful day it was to host it! The event was in celebration of the 10:10 campaign A Global Day of Doing and we had plenty of food, free workshops, performances, and people. Workshops varied from planting seeds in newspaper pots, creating crafty draught excluders, learning how to be sustainable at home, a free bike maintenance check, and swapping items of furniture, books, and electronic goods. These workshops served as a great example of the big picture of reduce, reuse, and recycle in its practicality. We got our message across well with an enthused crowd after our film screening of “No Impact Man” and other performances by various artists throughout the evening at Colourworks. Thank you to all of those who attended and we hope you were inspired by the whole event and continue to show your future support and live sustainably.