Springboard!
A group by the Eddleston Water learning about the restoration work there.
On Sunday 21 people joined us for the third Springboard Local Assembly in the Borders as part of Connecting Threads Tweed River Festival in Peebles. Organised with Culture for Climate Scotland as part of their national programme of local assemblies, this years' theme was 'Upstream, Downstream' focusing on the role of rivers as climate indicators and climate regulators.
During the morning participants could choose between two workshops. Some of our group embarked on a site visit to Eddleston Water, an award winning river restoration project, upstream from Peebles. The project has successfully reduced the amount of water arriving into Peebles town during heavy rainfall by as much as 5%; a significant mitigation for a place that suffers from an increasing risk of flooding as a result of climate change. Meanwhile, others remained in Peebles and took part in a movement workshop with dance artist Penny Chivas. Penny led the group through pedestrian movement practises, including a ‘sweep’ where participants walked together in a line to establish a shared movement. . This gave participants the experience of being as one in a changing environment.
Participants hear about the work to restore the Eddleston Water during a site visit.
In the afternoon, participants came together to talk about community action over coffee and cake. We made new connections, shared how people are involved in climate action already, learned about opportunities to continue our work through funding (including the launch of Act for Change), inspiration and advice, one attendee said ‘it was so nice to meet people working on different elements of the kaleidoscope of climate action!’ Culture for Climate Scotland shared some case studies of how artists have supported climate action, particularly around rivers or our coasts. Examples included HighWaterLine by artist Eve Mosher, the Burnie Journey with artist Simon Gall and Buoyancy in unprecedented times by Jenny Pope. We finished off bout volunteering opportunities locally with Guardians of the River, a Tweed Foundation citizen science programme delivered in the Borders. It was fantastic to come together and see how community action could support healthy rivers- and build climate resilience at the same time!
SPRINGBOARD local assemblies are local networks of people and organisations working on culture and climate change. Since November 2022, Culture for Climate Scotland have supported 26 local assemblies in 14 local authorities across Scotland.
The first SPRINGBOARD local assembly took place in the Scottish Borders in October 2023 with Connecting Threads and CABN. SBCAN joined the collaborative team and in October 2024, we followed up with an assembly focused on active travel. This involved a creative workshop and a riverside walk with Connecting Threads (un)trodden Paths Artists’ in residence, Robbie Coleman and Jo Hodges.