Press Contact: Megan Stone
25 July 2024
On Friday 12 July, we celebrated our Artists for Change, Natasha Pavey and Bee Jarvis, at a commemorative event held at Plymouth Arts Cinema.
Artist for Change for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Bee Jarvis, and Artist for Change for the Climate Emergency, Natasha Pavey, have been in their roles, funded by Jerwood Foundation, at Theatre Royal Plymouth for the past 12 months and have been challenging conventional thinking around diversity and inclusion and environmental issues, and developing creative solutions for the theatre and audiences that make effective change.
The evening consisted of a panel discussion and short documentary about TRP’s engagement with the artists, a live performance by Bee, and the premiere of It’s An Emergency – a film about Natasha’s original dance piece, created by Earth Minutes, which you can watch below:
Natasha and Bee have both been influential in supporting the organisation to change over the last 12 months, and it was a joy to celebrate their successes amongst colleagues, family and friends, local artists and practitioners who collaborated with Natasha and Bee.
The short film shown at Plymouth Arts Cinema was produced by Earth Minutes, a youth-led collective of researchers and creatives, specialising in environmental communications. They are on a mission to reconnect more people to the planet by driving the future of environmental thinking and learning.
Emily Askew, Founder of Earth Minutes said: “We feel very strongly about re-connecting more people to the planet and in order to do that, we realise that you’ve got to use different art forms and mediums. It’s been such a pleasure to get involved and work with the team – we’re very excited to empower further and wider action.”
Although the Artists for Change positions have come to an end, we at TRP realise there is a lot more to be done in relation to our commitment to the Climate Emergency and issues of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. However, over the course of the last 12 months, we have made significant progress thanks to Natasha and Bee.
Sara Rhodes, Associate Director at TRP, said: “Conversations about the Climate Emergency are now filtering into our programming, and we are looking to embed them more into our theatre making practice. We understand the role we have as a civic partner in the city and our responsibility within the industry to put the climate emergency at the heart of what we do.”
On her time at TRP, Natasha said: “I’ve had a brilliant time over the past 12 months as Artist for Change. It’s been brilliant working with Theatre Royal Plymouth for the past year on what the Climate Emergency means to them.
“I’m really excited to see them continue to champion these values and continue to make work around this and make strides forward as part of a wider industry ambition to take action on the Climate Emergency.”
Watch a documentary about the impact the Artists for Change have had on TRP: