Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice
Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice is an assemblage of imaginative community-led projects and peer learning adventures.
The task of turning imaginative ideas into lived realities invariably involves assemblies that combine multiple things into a useful form rather than just extrapolation from a single idea… what changes the world in the end is the generative ideas, not the detailed blueprints.
~ Geoff Mulgan (2022), Another World is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
These projects and a range of peer learning experiments have been quietly tested out and taken shape over the last few years. Some have sprouted in the corner of community gardens in Brierley Hill. Others have flowed from explorations between the benches and takeaways, along the alleyways and in the church yards of Dudley High Street.
They have contributed to the crafting of Dudley Creates, and continue to generate learning for cultural strategy in action, through which local people are coming together in everyday and unexpected places to creatively explore questions that might help us imagine many possible futures into being.
Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice is a kind of unschool, which means that learners create their own learning journeys and determine for themselves what they want to achieve. Doing this in groups helps this, activating and cultivating peer learning practices. For example co-operating to meet needs, by taking on various roles at different times. Everyone has experience, knowledge and presence that they can share, and that will be valuable to others. Learning in Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice is project-based and experiential, it involves active exploration of real world challenges and issues to acquire deeper knowledge and produce new interventions or responses.
The School ‘curriculum’ is therefore ever-emerging and gradually developing. Each season there will be opportunities to shape the curriculum by convening or joining groups of learners, to take part in one off ‘classes’ or multi-session ‘courses’, or to visit School exhibitions and showcases. You can sign up to the School Newsletter for updates, or simply check out the Dudley Creates Calendar.
Mother Tree projects
Did you know that forests have Mother Trees which connect and communicate with the other trees and plants in the forest, sharing nutrients and information?
We see three projects in the Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice assemblage as Mother Trees, generating all kinds of offerings and resources which people across Dudley borough connecting with the rest of the natural world and taking climate action might choose to make use of.
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Getting into Hot Water
Getting into Hot Water is a long term social art project exploring water and climate in Dudley with aim to question the habitual ways by which we know water, stimulate dialogue regarding our relationship with water, engender a sense of curiosity and wonder, and create a change in ourselves.
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Stories of Place
Stories of Place draws on collage, photos, stories, poetry, sounds, maps, research from the past, present and imagined futures of Dudley High Street. Inspired by these stories, we prototype experiments together to bring us closer to futures where we can flourish as part of our planet.
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Reclaiming Our Roots
This project weaves connections between art, community and nature. Each session will be an invitation to meet a chosen plant ally and learn about their virtues. Deeper connection will be guided through activities like tea tasting, crafting folk medicine, sharing our personal plant stories and collaborative creativity.
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Exploring the Edges
Nature connection and exploration of edges. Collaborations with local groups led by and supporting people who may be marginalised as a result of discrimination. In 2024 collaborations are pla ned with: The Bicycle Adventure Club, Fringe Dwellers and Mom’s Mindful Hub.
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Tending Place, People and Planet
Tending Place, People and Planet is a learning, doing and creating journey taking place in the Ekho Wellbeing Garden. The project is based around permaculture principles and growing in a regenerative way. (Illustration credit: KT Shepherd)
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Climate Changemakers
There is a role for everyone in the climate movement. Each year we’re inviting local people to join us as Climate Changemakers and convene groups who will shape their own learning journeys, connect with nature and support each other to take collaborative action.