
Thoughts on a draft manifesto, created as part of the first Festivals of the Future retreat at Cove Park, Scotland…
We believe in the work and what it says
We believe in women, female leadership and female groups / a femme or female centred approach / feminist approaches
We believe in utopias
We believe in co-existence
We believe in including a diversity of voices
We believe in being authentic complex-integrity
We believe in the potential for art to transform societies
We believe in festival as ever evolving community
We believe in the ability of democracy to survive
We believe in emerging future art forms
We believe in care for intelligences, desires and sensibilities
We want to foreground complexity
We want to create space for the invention of what we don’t know yet
We want to create a space where everything can emerge
We want to create the best conditions for artists; their work holds the key to our futures
We want to create free spaces for dialogue and collaboration
We want to keep spark and excitement alive
We want to keep our utopia a utopian place
We want to make things in a solidary way
We want to advocate for the value of art
We want time and space to care for our physical and mental organisms and organisations
We want to inform and inspire others
We want to build a legacy/have ripple effects/reach beyond for a different kind of future
We want our work valued and recognised for both what we do and how we do it (a feminist approach)
We know there is strength in numbers
We know we can imagine our own futures
We know we can dedicate our knowledge, capacity and vision to shareable outcomes
We know we need to take care of what is brilliant about us
We know we hold power that we can share with others / We know we are awesome and powerful
We know we are more than us / there are other and more possible allies out there
We know we (invention can) exist in a challenging environment / we are overstretched and under-resourced
We know our way of working can generate new realities
We know we have more potential than we are able to act upon