ABOUT

VALUES

PRINCIPLES

WHO WE ARE

ABOUT

SCALE is a network of artists, cultural practitioners, and arts organisations committed to addressing the climate emergency and environmental injustice. We coordinate and facilitate the mobilisation of art and culture in Turtle Island to create a just and regenerative world.

The future is collective and collaborative. SCALE develops tactics and aligns actions to build the power and capacity of the arts to drive transformational change.

Values

 

CREATIVITY

Our contribution is rooted in our capacity for creative engagement.

COLLABORATION

We advance the collaborative capacity of artists and cultural practitioners as agents of transformation.

URGENCY

We act at the scale and speed necessary in the climate crisis. 

HUMILITY

We move with care, generosity, and joy. We work for collective power.

JUSTICE

We ground our work in anti-oppression and a commitment to redressing environmental racism and promoting climate justice.

RECIPROCITY

We build relationships grounded in radical care, generosity and humility; mindful of the intricate connections that bind all human and non-human kin.

PRINCIPLES

 

We see just and sustainable futures—and ways to get there.

 We unite in a shared vision of a livable planet for all forms of life: now and in the future.

We have an expansive vision of arts and climate engagement. The arts can impact climate action through many paths.

We embrace multiple worldviews and ways of knowing.

We are guided by principles of Truth and Reconciliation.

SCALE is a settler-led organism working to mobilise a settler-dominated arts and culture sector. We honour Indigenous knowledge without placing the burden of labour on Indigenous peoples.

We ground our work in climate justice.

We know that those who have contributed the least to the climate emergency suffer the most from its impacts, including our non-human kin.

All the crises are connected.

We know that colonialism, capitalism, and anthropocentrism are inextricably linked systems of oppression. This emergency is over 500 years old. The problems are deeply rooted. So are the solutions.

The arts are implicated.

We work inside an oppressive system which upholds white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, ableism, income inequality, and other forms of injustice. The arts are not magic. The arts have work to do.

We don’t see one theory of change; we see many.

Profound change requires multiple tactics working in concert at different levels: from infinite small changes coalescing through a process of emergence, to advocacy and leverage at key pressure points where power and capital are held.

We empower through knowledge-sharing and relationship-building.

We avoid duplication by promoting, aggregating and amplifying existing resources whenever possible.

We work to catalyse a revolution in social values.

We collaborate with others to propel a shift from consumerism and extractivism to stewardship and regeneration.

We promote cultures of belonging.

We cultivate safe, accessible, and compassionate spaces for the exchange of ideas, learning and collaboration. We move at the speed of empathy.

SCALE models system change by example.

We are engaging in the ongoing experiment in creating an organisational model and governance framework that replaces hierarchical structures with fluid and dynamic ways of thinking and working.

We measure our success in terms of empowerment.

We embrace models that let communities work together and make collaborative decisions. We work for collective power.

WHO WE ARE

MISSION CIRCLE

The Mission Circle is SCALE’s ethical engine. The Circle sets SCALE’s mission, vision, and long-term objectives, and addresses broader governance issues, including evolving roles, policies and processes.

Our thanks goes out to past mission circle members, who have been instrumental in bringing SCALE to this point: Anjali Appadurai, Kendra Fanconi, Sanita Fejzic, Andre Forsythe, Tracey Friesen, Anthony Garoufalis-Auger, Dennis D. Gupa, Mark Haslam, David Maggs, Nadine Medawar, Judi Pearl, Kimberly Skye Richards, Claude Schryer, Robin Sokoloski,  Benjamin Von Wong. 

THE ASSEMBLY

We call the community that participates in SCALE activities The Assembly: a network of artists, cultural practitioners, and cultural organisations compelled to take action in response to the climate emergency.

 

The Assembly is SCALE.

SCALE TEAM

The SCALE Team collaborates to advance SCALE’s mission and to implement tactical decisions. Their roles complement one another and model SCALE’s mission by sharing responsibility and making decisions in an integrated way, guided by an ethics of care.

  • Annette Hegel
    Organizational Development and Network Lead
  • Tanya Kalmanovitch
    Mission Circle Lead
  • Julia Matamoros
    Communications Lead

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

SCALE’s Board of Directors carries the fiduciary and legal responsibility for the organization, and oversees human resources, bylaws and policies. The board takes its ethical and operating direction from the Mission Circle, in adherence with the core values and foundational principles of SCALE.

  • Liz Barron, Chair (Director of Operations, Indigenous Curatorial Collective) 
  • Mhiran Faraday, Treasurer (ED, Ottawa Chamberfest)
  • Howard Jang, Director-at-Large (ED and AD, ArtSpring)

To follow the evolution of the organism that is SCALE right from the beginning check out the SCALEwiki.

 

OUR SUPPORTERS

We are grateful of the support for the the start-up of SCALE by the Stratford Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Bard on the Beach, Young People’s Theatre, Orchestras Canada, Theatre Alberta, and the Climate Emergency Unit.

We thank the National Arts Centre and the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of SCALE’s incubation phase.