A DEVON UN/LEARNING JOURNEY…
CALLING ALL DEVON CHANGEMAKERS
29th September - 1st December 2024
In Dartington, Torquay, Plymouth, Dartmoor and online
Applications close 20th September
MORE INFORMATION
Who is the Devon Un/Learning Journey for?
People involved in social, environmental, psychological and cultural change in South Devon; facilitators, consultants, community practitioners, artists, writers, activists, policy makers…
We imagine some participants will also work nationally and internationally as well as locally.
It aims to offer you:
a new / deeper understanding of Devon’s historical and current entanglement with colonial, racial, class and environmental issues including how these patterns may exist subtly in your own practice.
Inspiration from stories of Devon’s history of positive change and each others’ practice
a sense of connection and mutuality with your cohort, tapping in to the power of collective imagination and acting as an ongoing resource and support for your future work.
a space to imagine together through multiple ways of knowing, co-sensing and listening, what another way of engaging with and as the world might be.
the opportunity to play with (and therefore challenge and imagine) personal and collective notions of identity as Devon based change agents.
Maybe you’re…
…looking to deepen your sense of global solidarity in your work ?
…looking for a peer group to develop your ideas and practice?
…looking to embed more in place while you navigate uncertain global futures?
…seeking to face into your own entanglement with systemic harm?
…wanting to lean into the intelligence of the other than human to guide you?
The Practicals:
Dates
29th September - 1st December
TIMETABLE
Sunday 29th Sept, 4-7pm - Zoom 1
Sunday 6th October, 10am-6pm - In Person - Plymouth
Sunday 20th October, 4-7pm - Zoom 2
Sunday 3rd November, 10am-6pm - In Person - Torquay
Sunday 17th November, 4-7pm - Zoom 3
Friday 29th November, 4pm - Sunday 1st Dec, 5pm - In person residential on Dartmoor with day trip to Dartington
Learning process and commitment
2 day outings
Zoom sessions
Peer learning community with option for buddies in between gatherings
Small tasks and experiments for between sessions
Residential weekend
The journey will involve a wide range of reflective, embodied and creative tasks designed to catalyse an un/learning process that welcomes the intelligence and inclusion of our often exiled capacities. For example: elements from The Work That Reconnects and, Hospicing Modernity, eco-somatic and other nature based practice indoors and outside, guided visualisations, play and participatory arts practice
Applications close on Sunday 15th September 2024.
The Team
Ruth Ben-tovim and Toni Spencer have collaborated on designing and delivering projects, events, and workshops together for 15 years.
See our special guests on the next page ~ link below
RUTH BEN-TOVIM
Ruth is a cross-disciplinary artist, educator, process designer and community facilitator. She specialises in participation and ‘The Art of Invitation’. She began work in London as Artistic Director of Louder than Words theatre combining new writing and live art. From 2004 - 2020 based in Sheffield and now Totnes, Devon, she was the Creative Director of Encounters Arts midwifing over 80 social and ecologically driven creative projects and public interventions across the UK, that brought people together across different backgrounds, sectors, ages and cultures to look to the past, acknowledge the present and vision for the future. Recent work includes facilitating creative peoples assemblies for Climate Justice Just Transition Donor collaborative and the Climate Heritage Network as part of the UNFCCC climate talks. Ruth held local and national roles in the early stages of Extinction Rebellion and was one of the founders of the Culture Declares Emergency movement. Currently Ruth facilitates Town Anywhere a large scale community visioning process initially designed for the International Transition Network, co-delivers The Art of Invitation training course initially designed for Schumacher College and is one of the co directors of Walking Forest a ten year international project combining women, trees and activism.
https://encountersarts.wixsite.com/legacy
TONI SPENCER
Toni is an artist, consultant, mentor and facilitator working across multiple disciplines. London born and Devon based, she has been working at the intersection of social, ecological and culture change for 25 years. She creates spaces where grit, grief, messiness, and laughter are welcome and where new kinds of wisdom and power can emerge.
Some of Toni’s recent work includes: Radical Ecological Pedagogies (From the Roots Up) with ULEX and facilitating for Mycelium Group. She is a curator at The Emergence Network, leading on Vulture: Courting the Otherwise in a Time of Breakdown and is a tutor and mentor on Call of the Wild and professional trainings with WildWise.
Independent works include [the pause… in practice], poddd, Living Deep Adaptation (online), Kissing The Void; Deep Adaptation and the Creative Spirit and ‘The Feral Kitchen’. Toni has taught on the faculty of Schumacher College (Educational Practice, Ecological Facilitation as Leadership, Embodied Eco-literacy, Sacred Activism, Ethical Entrepreneurship) and at Goldsmiths, University of London (EcoDesign).
With a BA in Fine Art and an MSC in Responsibility and Business Practice, she has trained in a diverse range of practices from The Work That Reconnects to trauma informed leadership, alongside many years of ‘living life as inquiry’.
Previous professional work has been with organisations including Encounters Arts; the Transition Town Network and St Ethelburgas.
With Special Guests
& more to be announced soon
Johara Bellali
Johara Bellali was born in Casablanca, of a Moroccan father and a German mother. She spent most of her adult life living in Guatemala, Niger, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kenya working in international cooperation and humanitarian aid. She observed many forms of neo-colonialism in her years working for the UN and International NGOs globally and locally and when she moved back to Europe working for an award winning think tank in Berlin, she was faced with the pervasive ignorance and condescension towards non-western knowledge systems. Johara then embarked on a PhD journey and in parallel worked as a senior socio-ecological advisor and lecturer to help deconstruct, decolonise and advocate for the voices of the Global South to be acknowledged. Johara is a queer Black feminist community activist and researcher, a doula and a lecturer on climate risks, disaster management and ecofeminism. Johara is mother of two young adults and lives in Devon.
Anairda
Anairda is a Latin American artist and activist resident in the UK who believes in art as an agent of social change and healing. She's been involved in the climate and feminist movement for over 10 years through groups such as Art Not Oil, the Climate Camp, the Plymouth Women's Network, the Plymouth Hub for Climate Justice and her own project Feminist Fusion. She has organised community and art events, participated in environmental protests, given talks and workshops on Climate Justice, Ecofeminism, Art & Social Change and performs her music regularly.
Anairda is a vegan and follows the indigenous spiritual traditions of the Americas.
COST
We have 3 fee options to try to enable a wide range of people to take part and invite you to be part of this process by considering your own financial circumstances and that of others who might take part. The journey is for 20 people.
We are seeking:
Four people who can pay £750
Ten people who can pay £550
Six people who can pay £350
So far we have had almost all applications requesting the £350 fee. Times are hard!! We don’t quite know how to navigate this but letting you know as a way of unravelling cultural norms around money. Please do read our solidarity guide to get a fuller picture of who we’re hoping the £350 option can support.
If money is tight, we encourage you to reach out to community, employers, colleagues, local philanthropists to help cover your fee.
"For decolonial thinking decolonization is less the end of colonialism wherever it has occurred and more the project of undoing and unlearning the coloniality of power, knowledge, and being and of creating a new sense of humanity and forms of interrelationality."
– Nelson Maldonado-Torres
Would you like to join Toni, Ruth and guests for A Devon Un/Learning Journey?
Please follow “Apply Now” to complete the application form. If you have any problems completing the form, please do let us know. Once your form is submitted, we will reach out to follow up with you within ten working days.
Applications close on Sunday 15th September 2024.
Complete our application form to apply:
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