Possitopia, Norwich, November

bridgetmck
4 min readOct 29, 2023

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Since moving (back home) to Norwich last summer I’ve been busy forming a lot of friendships and partnerships. I founded Climate Museum UK four years ago, as a distributed museum with activations happening where there are practitioners. Since I moved, I’ve been developing some projects in Norwich, Norfolk, which is one of the most vulnerable counties in the country to climate impacts.

Possitopia is our unique principle in Climate Museum UK. It is better than Utopia because it’s a possible place we can really make, if we can imagine it, and it responds to the real challenges facing our planet. It’s also better than a Dystopia because it can be healthy, green, caring and safe.

In the run-up to the COP28 climate conference, I decided to hold a local festival of discussion and imagination. The Possitopia Festival is coming in November, supported by Norwich Eco Hub. There are 33 events or creative activities to imagine and build the future you want to see for Norwich and the planet, in several venues across the City throughout November.

There are launches, tours, climate cafes, film screenings, creative workshops and much more. This post is just to highlight the events I’m running, but you can find the full list here.

Please forward this post to someone you think might be interested, or write about the Festival using the press release. Or you can follow us on our new Possitopia Norwich Instagram profile, or in the Facebook event.

Read on for my (free) events that I’d love you to come to:

Walking in the Shoes: role play walkshops

Join Bridget McKenzie in one or both of these ‘role play’ walkshops where each walker is given a briefing to walk in the shoes of a character from the past of the City. These characters have been summoned to the present day to see how life is in 2023, meeting a character who has travelled from the climate-changed future to ask for their help. You don’t need to act or dress up, simply to tap into some of the character’s ideas or ways of seeing. Two different routes, one in the historic city centre and riverside, the other on the wooded ridge starting at Rosary Cemetery and ending at Kett’s Heights.

On Sunday afternoons, 19th and 26th November, 3.00–4.30pm

Book here for the 19th November, and here for the 26th November walk. Free of charge.

Emergency Playdates: board games on climate & nature

Join Climate Museum UK on a game table at Slice and Dice, the vegan boardgames cafe. We’ll test out games that help us imagine greener futures for the planet, or that help us learn about climate and nature. Come to one, two or all three:
Tuesday 14th November, 5.30–8.30 pm Book here
Wednesday 22nd November, 6.00–9.00 pm Book here
Tuesday 28th November, 5.30–8.30 pm Book here

Free, (table paid for, £4.50 per person) but the cafe likes people to buy food and drink. This might become a regular green games meet-up.

People Take Action: imagine your future making change

Do you feel concerned about changes to the environment locally and globally? Do you feel confused about what to do, with all the mixed messages about the environment, and so many pressures on our time?

T he People Take Action approach offers 8 pathways for action you can take, stepping out from your comfort zone as much as you are able to. In this workshop, we will explore what is possible for us to do in response to these environmental risks and challenges, and will create collages to imagine our own journeys of action.

Led by Bridget McKenzie and Sean Irving is a researcher into future sustainable economies and the idea of Norwich as a Sharing City, based at the UEA.

Monday 27th November, 5.00–7.30 pm, at MileXchange, 185 Drayton Road

Free of charge, book here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/people-take-action-imagine-your-future-making-change-happen-tickets-734593207057

Awaiting more details: Planting ceremony & panel talk

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. Planting ceremony for 7 oak trees from Beuys’ Acorns, by Ackroyd & Harvey. Followed by a discussion between Heather Ackroyd, Dan Harvey, Asher Minns and Bridget McKenzie.

Thursday 30th November. 1.00–5.00 pm. Booking link & Festival affiliation TBC.

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bridgetmck

Director of Flow & Climate Museum UK. Co-founder Culture Declares. Cultural researcher, artist-curator, educator. http://bridgetmckenzie.uk/