Absolutely Cultured/ Humber Street Gallery in partnership with University of Hull and the Energy and Environment Institute (EEI) are seeking artistic proposals for a commission that addresses the challenges of living and working on the Yorkshire coastline at the interface between land and sea. This would include themes exploring coastal erosion and uncertainty, climate change, community resourcefulness, loss and hope. In doing so, we wish to blend artistic creativity with academic inquiry and community engagement to foster a deeper understanding of coastal communities across the Humber region. 

Absolutely Cultured / Humber Street Gallery

Located in Hull’s historic fruit market district, we are a value based contemporary visual art gallery with a programme that aims to create change and opportunity with, by and for our communities and beyond. We curate an innovative contemporary visual arts programme from our home at Humber Street Gallery and at satellite locations around Hull. To view our previous programme click here.

The University of Hull and the Energy and Environment Institute

The University of Hull is a leading international research institution, committed to academic excellence, community engagement and research innovation. Through its pioneering Energy and Environment Institute (EEI), the University leads cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on renewable energy, climate change, and environmental sustainability. This includes research priority areas which focus on water, coastal communities and the green/blue humanities, exemplified by a range of recent research projects and initiatives which explore society’s relationship to water and flooding e.g. Risky Cities, Noah to Now, the Leverhulme Centre for Water Cultures as well as the new Coast-R Network for resilient coastal communities and seas, of which the University of Hull is lead.

Proposal

This callout forms part of Absolutely Cultured’s ongoing collaboration and partnership with the University of Hull and the Energy and Environment Institute, addressing their commitment to exploring environmental and coastal challenges across the Humber and North Sea region.   

This proposal sits within a context where coastal regions around the world are experiencing significant changes due to natural and human-induced factors. Erosion, rising sea levels, and climate change are reshaping coastlines, impacting ecosystems and human settlements. Yorkshire and the Humber are at the forefront of this transition, with the North Sea Coastline being the fastest eroding coastline in Europe (at up to 4m/yr), with large numbers of properties at risk from more frequent severe flooding and loss from erosion. In East Yorkshire alone, 51 properties have been demolished since 2009 with expectations of c.4000 homes, static homes and businesses lost by 2123 with additional risks faced from increasing estuarine and coastal flooding. As these changes continue to unfold, there is a pressing need to understand and listen to communities and understand how we can work together to build resourcefulness and resilience in precarious coastal places.  

We invite artists to creatively respond to these challenges as part of an Exhibition running from the 23rd of January to mid-March 2025 at the Humber Street Gallery in Hull. The commission would involve collaborating with the Energy and Environment at the University of Hull and community groups along Yorkshire’s East Coast, in an effort to blend artistic creativity with academic research, community stories and perspectives. Thematically we would like the work to engage with some of the themes we highlight above, from: coastal uncertainty and erosion, living at the interface, loss and hope, water risk/resilience, and how we can build community resourcefulness/solidarity.  

As part of the University’s research to empower communities facing environmental adversity, we would like to encourage perspectives which do not emphasise overly apocalyptic narratives, which we have found to disempower and disengage communities from engaging with challenging issues. Similarly, we would also encourage work that reflect Absolutely Cultured’s upcoming theme for 2025 – 2026 –  ‘Tactics of Togetherness’ and how bringing people and landscapes together can generate solidarity and resourcefulness.  

Climate Public Response 2024/25 is sponsored by: