Sustainability

There were mixed responses to the question of whether the Board is a good system for running an organisation.

Delegates also discussed the loneliness of being a leader. As a leader you sometimes have to make difficult decisions, especially at a time when funding for arts organisation has become harder. Therefore, developing resilience is important. Having a support network and more learning and development opportunities can help with this. Self-care, taking time away from the work, and having a good work-life balance is also critical. The EJN has been a space for people to share their issues as leaders, a supportive space with others that alleviates some of the loneliness of being a leader.

SUSTAINABILITY & Ecology of the Music Ecosystem

With: Matthew Herbert with a video “provocation” (artist, UK), Karolina Juzwa (International Jazz Platform/Footprints, PL) & Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey (visual arts, art fairs & arts residencies organiser, IT) Moderator: Margaux Demeersseman (Centre National de la Musique, FR)

Moderator Margaux Demeersseman began the discussion by highlighting that carbon footprint is an important priority, but we need to think of reducing our overall footprint more generally in the music industry, for example the impact on the environment in our merchandising, equipment, buildings and energy consumption. One delegate commented that we treat climate change as a headache, but we should treat it as a heart attack to relay the urgency of the situation, especially as the energy crisis has highlighted the need not to be dependent on energy from undemocratic societies. Another delegate pointed out that this is the right time to implement sustainability measures as the music industry is just coming out of Covid and many things have to be started again.

A video by Matthew Herbert was shown to delegates. In the video, Matthew provided two main provocations for discussion: firstly, the sustainability of infrastructure. He stated that we can no longer tour like we used to and need to understand the carbon footprint of everything we’re doing. Second, the sustainability of the creative ecology of what we do. As making a living from music becomes more unstable, Matthew believes that music has become more conservative and is leaving the status quo untouched. The question we need to ask ourselves is, do our actions both creatively and in terms of carbon footprint, leave the world the same, or have they affected some kind of change, big or small? This is a fundamentally artistic question that is impossible to separate from more structural issues. Matthew ended the video by stating that we need to be more radical than we are.

In the ensuing discussion, some delegates disagreed with Matthew’s focus on individual musicians and the need to decrease touring. Some said that a musician’s footprint is the smallest and least problematic of all in the music ecosystem, and that artists have a powerful platform they can use to spread a message, rather than staying at home. Others argued that this focus on artists rather than infrastructure is typical of a neoliberal rhetoric that ignores the wider