Environment Agency reports on Regulated Exhibition.

As an artist working consciously towards social change, measuring impact is important but can be difficult. This is often due to the time-limited nature of projects. Once my work has been done, I leave the situation. But often the ‘real’ work, the work one hopes will effect social transformation, is only just beginning.

Working with the Environment Agency on Regulated Exhibition for Backlit Gallery in Nottingham between 2018 and 2021, we were all hoping that the work we were making would effect some change in the way that people understood the ‘plastics problem’ and more than that, the carbon footprint associated with the creation and exhibition of art more generally. I am therefore delighted to read the Environment Agency article in Cambridge Prisms: Plastics which outlines how the exhibition impacted the local community, the setting up of a new art eco-group for the sharing of resources, and the way in which it offers Environment Agency new possibilities for connecting with the people they want to reach.

“Understanding the framework of this project’s success will enable other areas within the Environment Agency to replicate this method when wanting to communicate complex messages to their local communities.”

• More details about Regulated Exhibition can be found here.
• Read about my residency with Environment Agency here and here.
• Download the full article, Powers, H., Renner, K. and Prowse, V. (2024) ‘Plastic pollution and environmental education through artwork’, Cambridge Prisms: Plastics, 2, p. e9. doi:10.1017/plc.2024.7 here.