Earth Talk — new course, group and book

I’m really excited to announce something I’ve been building for quite a while…

Earth Talk is a course, a community of practice and a book that offers a rich set of tools to hold effective conversations and creative activities about the Earth Crisis.

I invite you to join the Earth Talk community on Hylo to access the following benefits:

• A network of like-minded others to share your practice and challenges, and find collaborators
• A book in ten parts: see part one here which outlines all the contents
• Seven annual online workshops for training and discussion, and additional networking events
• At least 126 activities and delivery resources — including diagrams, posters, card sets and question sets, workshop plans, mini-essays and slide decks.

I have developed or adapted these activities mainly through Climate Museum UK. I founded CMUK in 2019 to focus my practice on engaging people creatively with climate and nature, and to create opportunities for fellow practitioners to develop their public engagement skills. I also co-founded Culture Declares Emergency, a movement of individuals and organisations in arts, design and heritage declaring a climate and ecological emergency. My background is working in cultural learning, for example, as Education manager at Tate, as Head of Learning at the British Library, and as director of Flow Associates since 2006.

I’m based in Norwich where I run ‘face-to-place’ activities for Climate Museum UK, in a programme called Possitopia Norwich. I will be running an Earth Talk group for in-person meet-ups in Norwich.

See an overview of my work here https://bridgetmckenzie.uk and you can read my thinkpiece on the Roles of Culture in Response to the Earth Crisis.

My motivation to share all this is to rapidly spread the skills to activate the people we connect with in our work or daily lives, to help them understand the Earth Crisis, to tackle its causes, and to care for others as its impact worsens.

Who is Earth Talk for and how do you join?

You might simply want to have better chats with friends or family or use more creative ways to explore environmental issues for yourself. Or you might want to run workshops in your community, campaign group, workplace or school that can help people understand, connect and take action.

Anyone can join using this short form https://forms.gle/tzg9vb8Jaebo6A3W9

Once people have filled it in and paid the joining fee they will receive an email invitation to join the private group on Hylo and access to the resources.

There are no restrictions on where people come from to take part, although there are limitations in that we will use the English language. As the facilitator, I will need to meet in the UK daytime.

There are also no selective restrictions on joining — albeit with the hope that participants will be interested in practising conversations and creative activities with their colleagues, learning groups, local communities and so on.

To learn more in video form you can watch the recording of the session ‘Find Out About Earth Talk’.

There are three pricing levels

Explorer level — £75 one-off cost to join the Earth Talk shared learning group, with access to: The Earth Talk book in 10 parts with 126 activity resources; An introductory workshop; And, invitations to join any workshop separately for £30 each, including the Delivery Resources relevant to that session. (If you join all the 7 workshops separately you’d pay £75 + £180 = £255.)

Deep Dive level — £200 one-off cost to join the Earth Talk group, with access to: The book; all seven workshops; and, all the Delivery Resources. You can upgrade to this level from Explorer by paying an extra £125.

Champion level — £300 one-off cost for all of the Deep Dive benefits plus: a one-to-one mentoring session (90 minutes); and being acknowledged as a champion in various ways.

Additional support: If you’d like to discuss a higher level of support, for further benefits, please get in touch on climatemuseumuk@gmail.com

In-person: If you’re in or near Norwich you can join an in-person monthly meet-up.

PEOPLE SIGNED UP AT THE CHAMPION LEVEL SO FAR ARE MARTIN FISHER, DEBORAH CURTIS, JEAN MCEWAN AND LORNA PRESCOTT. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

What is the Hylo group?

Hylo is a prosocial community platform for purpose-driven groups. It is free, open-source, and not-for-profit. All the other groups on Hylo are dedicated to regenerative values, and it is stewarded by the Terran Collective dedicated to a regenerative future. Earth Talk is a group I’ve set up for this course. After paying your chosen fee, I will send you an invitation link. You will need to set up your profile, and then you can also join other open groups and create your own.

A few more practical points

Will there be homework on the course? Tasks will be set after each workshop for you to try out one of the activities using the Delivery Resources. There will be no penalties and no certificates.

When will the training workshops be? The first introductory session will be on September 18th 1.00–2.00 pm UK time. The subsequent six workshops will be fortnightly from Tuesday 1st October at either 12.30–2.30 or 4.00–6.00 pm UK time. Each series of seven sessions (including the intro) will be repeated from December, and can be on a different weekday so you can make all of them as your schedule allows. As the membership is a one-off cost you can keep taking courses, as long as Earth Talk is a thing.

How do the workshops fit together? The workshops are stand-alone so you can do any or all of them. However, they will be scheduled to correspond to the Narrative Framework that is the skeleton of the Earth Talk book.

Will there be other presenters or trainers? I don’t yet have a budget to pay others. As the community grows, this will be more possible. Participants will be invited to present and share their practice, and sessions will be very interactive.

Will the training be recorded? The workshops will be divided into presentations, which I will record, and interactive discussions. We will make confidentiality agreements in order to share challenging experiences so no discussions will be recorded.

Do I have to renew my membership? No. It is a one-off cost. You can leave the group voluntarily, but you won’t be ejected. If you have joined at Deep Dive or Champion level, you can repeat the same training if you want!

How are access and safeguarding needs met? For safeguarding reasons, the course is suited to adults (aged 18 and above). The online training will be in Google Meet using its transcription tool. I record the events in Fathom, so that there is a video and transcription available afterwards. In the book, images (especially diagrams) are described. All learning will be in English. If you would like to ask any questions or share access needs please get in touch.

What happens to the money? I have been working voluntarily developing Climate Museum UK, writing these materials and paying various expenses since 2018, so I will recoup some of my costs. I have carried out comparative research, and have set fees at a lower level than other similar courses. I will put aside some money to pay for guest speakers. If the revenue grows beyond expectations, I will channel funds into Climate Museum UK CIC to help support Emerging Practitioners.

More about the Earth Talk book

It is an illustrated book written for the Earth Talk course and is not otherwise published or printed. The ten parts are:

• PART ONE: WHAT, WHO AND WHY? Sets out where these ideas come from, the book contents in detail, and why Earth Talk is so important.
• PART TWO: DEEP DIVE INTO THE EARTH CRISIS Introduces key concepts of the Earth Crisis to prepare you to engage people with its wider systemic factors.
• PART THREE: GLOSSARY FOR THE EARTH CRISIS Offers mini-essays and diagrams to explain 41 key concepts, in alphabetical order.
• PART FOUR: DESIGNING GOOD EXPERIENCES Explores some principles of designing conversations and experiences. It helps you prepare, to raise your game and reflect on your practice. It introduces the Narrative Framework for the Earth Crisis.
• PART FIVE: SENSING AND FRAMING Offers 11 activity templates for people to express their feelings and ways of framing the Earth crisis and its issues.
• PART SIX: SENSE-MAKING Offers 11 activities to explore the causes, systems and histories of the Earth crisis in more depth.
• PART SEVEN: MEANING-MAKING Offers 7 activities to dig deeper into impacts on lives and what matters.
• PART EIGHT: IMAGINING AND DECIDING Offers 9 activities for imagining the future and creatively exploring potential tactics for change.
• PART NINE: ACTIVATING Offers 13 activities for getting people activated — relevant to their places, their needs and interests.
• PART TEN: RESOURCES AND INSPIRATIONS Signposts some reading material and additional resources. A large bank of high-res images and slide sets are available to Earth Talk course participants and CMUK members, via password-protected Google Drive links.

More about my training

I have been delivering training to teachers, artists and museum staff for 32 years. In the past 10 years, most of this training has focused on how to engage the public and young people with critical issues such as environmental injustice. Through Climate Museum UK, I have delivered training, workshops and talks on: Grasping the Earth Crisis, An Eco Lens on Things; Culture Takes Action; and Being Possitopian.

“Our enormous thanks for your inspiring, motivating and energising presentation last night. It truly felt like a timely ‘call to arms’. The discussion that followed and potential future activity catalysed by your presentation feels very rich and urgent, so a big thank you again…Placing love and emotion at the heart of climate activism feels like the only truly sustainable way forward.” Sara Dudman, Somerset Art Works

“That was fabulous! You are indeed doing what you say…talking about the problem and engaging with both public and peers. I am inspired.” Alison Smith, following workshop at MuseumNext

“Many thanks for your excellent workshop on Friday — you really managed to get everyone talking and thinking about what might be achievable and I hope that we’ll have a good starting point from which things may be taken forward.” Yvette Shepherd, Museum Development Officer for Organisational Health, after a workshop on ‘What can museums & archives do about climate change?’

“The most impressive content from Theme days that ended yesterday was Bridget McKenzie’s keynote speech.”; “It got me thinking about sustainable development in my own work, how we could improve this in everyday work in community section”; “Your performance was the most believable and relatable of them all.” About a keynote at Museum Theme Days in Helsinki