Green Expectations

Green Expectations was a three year program aimed at allowing the community of Latrobe the opportunity to examine, explore and discuss the issue of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The project had three themes: firstly an exploration of the history of the Latrobe Valley and how coal was created in the area; secondly, a navigation of the current situation in regards to greenhouse gases and climate change and, lastly, an opportunity to play with ideas for our future relative to energy generation and use.

Green Expectations was a unique project, as it gave the community of Latrobe Valley, as well as those living outside the region an opportunity to express often complex feelings about power generation and climate change in a creative and engaging manner. As the centre for power generation for Victoria, the Latrobe Valley has a strong reliance on coal mining for employment and economic security. It is also the centre for greenhouse emissions for the State of Victoria who residents are the consumers of the energy.

Green Expectations was a part of ‘Generations’, a national arts initiative setup by the Cultural Development Network in Melbourne. Generations involved five local councils around Australia, each of which chose a theme that addresses concerns most relevant to their community. The Generations project focussed on demonstrating how the arts can be successful in tackling complex community concerns; the aim for local government was to engage with the arts in a holistic manner through incorporation into and collaboration across council departments. Latrobe City chose to focus on the issue of climate change and greenhouse emissions, and for the program to be a joint endeavour between the Arts team and the Sustainability and Environment team .

Projects

The Grid

The Grid was the final exciting element of Latrobe City's Green Expectations project with activities throughout 2009.

The Grid project explored the role that the Latrobe Valley plays as the heart of energy generation in Victoria and how that may play out in a "carbon neutral" future. The electricity grid and power generation is changing as the energy market is impacted by carbon trading, the increase in renewable energy generation, and changing community attitudes. The project gave the people of Latrobe City the opportunity to express their unique relationship to the electricity grid and their aspirations for a positive future. By acknowledging Latrobe Valley as the geographical centre of the electricity grid, the project also aimed to raise the awareness of those living outside the region of their connection to electricity generation through the electricity grid, and therefore their contribution to the climate change phenomena.

Community groups, schools and local artists in Latrobe City were invited to participate in workshops designed to encourage conversations about what climate change means to them. The whole of Victoria will also be invited to participate in a conversation about energy generation: where do they get their power from and how do they make the connection? Arts projects will include an Australia-wide short film competition, schools art projects, digital storytelling/short film making, a community weaving project, song writing, a website, an on-line climate change survey, short stories, origami butterflies, puppets and flags..

The community weaving element was a part of the creation of Pylon Tree, a sculptural work combining an electricity pylon and a tree to represent the electricity grid infrastructure, and the idea of a carbon constrained future that may potentially rely on the role of vegetation to help reduce the impacts of climate change.

The project involved a community event in August that showcased the community's arts projects, followed in November by a street parade featuring the puppets and flags made by Latrobe City school children, the Pylon Tree, musical performances, and a community dance.

The Grid Street Parade and Twilight Market
The Grid Street Parade was held in Morwell on the 21 November, 2009.  The parade included a range of street puppets and other artworks made by local school children and the community.  The Parade culminated in a party and twilight market around the Pylon Tree and included live music, dancing and a range of other performers.

The Grid Origami Project
Many people living in the Latrobe Valley and around Victoria are thinking about climate change and how it will impact us in the future.  We invited school children across Victoria to participate in our project by making an origami butterfly and writing either their hopes and fears about climate change, and their vision for the future.  The butterfly symbolises our ability to transform, which we will need to do in order to reduce our greenhouse emissions.  We received over 1000 butterflies from across Victoria and they were sent to the United Nations Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change.

Click here to go visit The Grid website

Angela Griffiths: Vanishing Point

In conjunction with the Green Expectations project at Latrobe City Council, Latrobe Regional Gallery is featuring a 'green' installation by Tasmanian artist Angela Griffiths. Vanishing Point consists of more than 1,600 hand-made porcelain cones that are lit internally by LED lights. This installation highlights the plight of global warming and more specifically pays tribute to the changing coastline of Antarctica. Vanishing Point featured at Latrobe Regional Gallery on 23 May and continued until 26 July 2009.

Lloyd Goodman: Carbon Obscura

A large sculptural installation has been installed in the Courtyard at Latrobe Regional Gallery. The installation, created by the celebrated artist Lloyd Godman, is based on a camera obscura and is a physical representation in light of a combination of a cooling tower and a coal mine into which people can enter. The piecehas been created by a skeleton of pipework covered in black plastic with a myriad of tiny holes pushed through it in a stunning design. Viewed from the inside, the piece creates adramatic effect as the light penetrates and is captured by smoke that is generated inside the work. The work is a play on shape and light, and offers a sensory experience that people do not normally have the opportunity to enjoy.  The work has been commissioned as part of 'The Grid - Epicentre', a Green Expectations Project that aims to raise awareness and discussion about climate change and was open to the public from Monday 5 January 2009 to Friday 27 February 2009.

Tree Planting Trailer

On Saturday the 22nd September a tree planting trailer painted by Gippsland artist Helen McInnes was launched by Councillor Doug Caulfield. The tree planting trailer depicts local animals who rely on indigenous habitat for their survival and is a vehicle that can assist in the absorption of carbon from the atmosphere.   Click here for further information on the tree planting trailer

Regenerators Street Theatre Troupe

A group of local performers have been mentored by Melbourne based street theatre group Born in a Taxi to develop a street theatre performance based on the issue of climate change. The group of six have been working since August 2007 on the performance and it was launched at the Cinecology Film Festival in February 2008 to the public.   The performance is available for local and Australia wide events to raise community awareness and community discussion in relation to climate change.   The performers will be performing at the Gippsland Sustainability Festival and also at the Generations conference.   For bookings call Dan Clancey on 0417 142 606

Mega Watt

Green Expectations supported a touring exhibition from Scienceworks titled Megawatt which was held at the Binishell at Monash University in Churchill.   The interactive exhibition explored the role of electricity in everyday life and included fully interactive activities and information regarding many different forms of energy.  

Cinecology Film Festival

In February a film festival was held at Powerworks which screened films related to climate change.   Films included The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived the Oil Crisis; The End of Suburbia; How to Save the World, One Man, One Cow, One Planet; Who Killed the Electric Car and a selection of short films from a Norwegian climate change themed film festival.   A highlight of the festival was the film Born to Die which was a film made by the SEC in the 1970's about the demolition of the town of Yallourn.   Many of the towns original residents attended the screening and saw footage of old friends and family during this difficult time.   For many people new to the area, the film highlighted the impact that coal mining has had on the local community.     Catering for the festival used the 100 mile principal which meant that none of the food served at the event travelled for more than 100 miles.   All of the films have been donated to the Latrobe Regional Library and are now available to borrow.

Gippsland Sustainability Festival

The Gippsland Sustainability Festival was held at Kernot Hall on the 9th and 10th of May.   Information on the festival can be found at www.sustainablegippsland.org.au.   The festival was a Gippsland wide event that showcased a range of sustainable technologies and ideas.   Stalls included solar and wind power, solar hot water systems, geothermal heating, green cleaning products, bio-diesel production for cars, turbo diesel cars, indigenous plants, organic food, local environmental groups, green banking and eco-friendly home loans.    It is hoped that this festival will the first of many to come that will be held in different locations each year.   This year Latrobe City Council was host to the festival and other Gippsland Council's will be approached in the coming months for their interest in hosting future events. Sustainable Gippsland Website  The Sustainable Gippsland Website was launched as part of the Gippsland Sustainability Festival and will become a focus for information related to Sustainability in Gippsland.   The website can be found at www.sustainablegippsland.org.au.   A Sustainable Gippsland logo has also been developed to support the website.

Generations IV Conference

Councils participating in the Generations Project will be attended a three day conference at Latrobe City from the 13-15^th May.   The conference was designed to create a space where participants could update each other on the progress of each of the projects and also share ideas related to project management and creative development.   A community event was held on the 14^th May to celebrate the achievements to date and the contribution to the project by the wider community.   The evening included several artworks created as part of the Green Expectations project and an opportunity to share a drink with the artists and community representatives participating in the project.  

Contacts:

• Cultural Liveability Officer - Amanda Owen 03 5128 5639
  amandaow@latrobe.vic.gov.au

Generations: Green Expectations had a component of Regional Arts Funding from the Department of Communications, Information, Technology and the Arts, which the Australia Council for the Arts manages on behalf of the Department.

Generations: Green Expectations was supported by the Victorian Government through the provision of a Victorian Community Support Grant from the Community Support Fund.