January Substack | still resting
Reflections, events and opportunities for our community
Hello everyone,
Our first letter of 2026. A reminder that we are still in deep winter. If you’re feeling soft, slow and introspective, and can’t quite muster the frantic, motivational, self-improvement headspace that a ‘new year’ demands, that’s okay.
We’re hearing lots of people talk about this being the year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese Zodiac, trying to conjure the energy and passion that this sign represents. But in the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the new year doesn’t begin until late February. In the ancient Celtic wheel of the year, new beginnings aren’t celebrated until Imbolc in early February. All this to say, the modern pressure to start January with a bang can feel incongruous with the sleepy softness of our bodies and the cycles of nature. Aligning with older calendars reminds us to rest in the depths of winter a little longer.
So, with gentleness, here are some updates from our community and opportunities to connect with us creatively. Take only what you can from this letter - don’t hurriedly over commit yourself. Listen to your body. Here’s wise words from Dee Woods, visionary food and farming actionist, someone I have long admired and had the joy of working with over the years: “As I embark on sacred pause I declare rest as my birthright! I stand in the power of my sovereignty to reframe my refusal to participate anymore in the Gregorian rhythms of the capitalist clock, and the eurocentric dualisms of labour and leisure, as a withdrawal into my power and liberation.”
And whilst we’re talking rest, let us gently nudge you toward this wonderful conversation on ‘rest as resistance’ on the Shado Lite podcast: key takeaway, rest is only resistance when decoupled from capitalist consumerism.
Love, Tesni
(CDE Communications & Events Coordinator)
Events
#MutualDefiance Online Creative Hour - Monday 19 January 9am
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” - Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963
On January 19th - Martin Luther King day - In Place Of War call on creatives to take an hour and create whatever you can - music, artwork, poetry, sounds of nature, photography - and share it with the hashtag #MutualDefiance.
“Why? Three days into 2026, the US launched military strikes on Venezuela and captured its president. The stated reason: drugs. The real reason: oil. More than 100 people were killed in the operation. The US is now threatening to annex Greenland for minerals. In Yemen, Syria, Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and elsewhere, bombings are intensifying. In Palestine, occupation continues. New year, same imperialism. Same patterns of extractivism. Treating nature, people, and culture as resources to mine.
In the face of this violence, we create. Not because creation stops bombs. It doesn’t. But because culture is how we refuse to let violence have the final word.”
Read the full call and sign the letter to say you’re taking part.
If you’d like a dedicated hour to respond to this call, in community, CDE is hosting an online creative hour from 10 - 11am on Monday 19th January. We'll work independently, in silence, with an opportunity to share ideas/work if we like.
Open Space - Thursday 29 January - 9am
We’re back with our regular monthly gatherings, starting with an Open Space on 29 January. This is an opportunity to:
Introduce yourself, your organisation, your project or your practice
Ground ourselves in our collective Declaration
Bring a question or an offer (e.g. something that you need advice for, a request to collaborate, a question about the movement, etc)
Respond to a creative prompt together
New declarers very welcome! We’re a movement of artists, culture and heritage workers, designers, community organisers, researchers and practitioners.
Activism, advocacy & allyship
Bring the National Emergency Briefing to the people!
Last month we shared a summary of the National Briefing that was held in November 2025, in which the UK’s leading experts delivered an official-style emergency briefing on the climate and nature crisis to MPs and national leaders in Westminster. It set a new baseline for understanding - but it reached only a fraction of those who need to hear it.
The team behind the National Briefing are now crowdfunding to change that. They are turning the briefing into a powerful public information film, designed to travel from Westminster to every constituency, so that MPs and communities can see the same evidence, together. By screening the film in communities up and down the UK, they aim to create a moment of shared awareness, cutting through misinformation to understand the threat - and the solutions. If you are able to, please support the crowdfunder and share it with your networks.
Hodge cultural funding review: no mention of unethical sponsorships
From Bridget McKenzie on LinkedIn:
"The review of cultural funding led by Baroness Hodge for Arts Council England seems to have been roundly welcomed. But there is a significant problematic element in the section about tackling the funding crisis.
There’s no mention of how unethical and manipulative sponsorships cause harm to the cultural sector (including its audiences, communities, and the stressed planet we depend upon). There is only the emphasis on the point that refusing or boycotting sponsors can cause more harm. This is ill-evidenced, sweeping, and goes against current majority opinion by cultural workers & audiences.
The suggestion that ACE should be an arbiter of ‘acceptable behaviour’ raises questions. [...] It surely doesn’t refer to ACE leading on setting parameters for acceptable actions by corporate & individual sponsors in their own sectors, such as plundering the planet or financing genocide. However, they do have some agency to make a difference. They can provide moral and practical clarity on appropriate terms of sponsorship deals, for example, not allowing sponsors too much influence and allowing artists to speak out without censure.”
Declarer Updates
‘Resilient Practices’: emergent definition by Neelambari Phalkey
We talk about resilience a lot. But what does resilience - and resilient practices - actually mean? Of course there are many ways of thinking this through. Declarer and CDE West Midlands coordinator Neelambari Phalkey has written two essays for the Environmental Humanities Glossary, exploring the multi-dimensional nature of resilience. The glossary, hosted by University of Copenhagen, seeks to redefine how we navigate the challenges of our changing world and includes contributions from artists and thinkers like Olafur Eliasson. Here are a few excerpts from the full definition:
“As a scholar in the environmental humanities and an artist exploring the intersection of climate change, culture, and adaptation, I find that resilience is not just a theoretical concept but a guiding principle in how we, as individuals and communities, engage with the world around us. Resilience – at its core – represents a powerful force that allows us to adapt to environmental stressors, reimagine our relationships with the natural world, and find pathways to collective survival.
As someone who has studied marginalised communities in areas like the Sundarbans and explored urban resilience through art, I have come to see resilience as more than just recovery. In my work, resilience must also encompass transformation – a reshaping of systems to ensure that communities not only survive but thrive amid future uncertainties.
Cultural traditions and artistic practices are central to how communities worldwide navigate environmental stress. In my study of communities in the Sundarbans […] I have seen firsthand how resilience is not just a scientific or ecological concept but something deeply ingrained in the ways people understand their relationship with the natural world.”
See also Neelambari’s definition of Mangrove Resilience.
Listening & reading
Ellen Ormesher for DeSmog: How a big oil PR firm helped top UK cultural institutions defend their fossil fuel sponsorships
Zoe Rasbash for Research & Degrowth: What makes cities thrive? From ‘Creative Cities’ to Cultural Municipalism
The Dark Mountain Project and Josh Appignanesi: One Colossal Wrecks, a film journey into the concrete heart of COP28
For the Wild podcast: Illuminating Worldviews - On the art that reclaims us
Call-outs & Opportunities
Would you like to be involved behind the scenes at Culture Declares Emergency? We’re keen to bring new people into our voluntary coordination team. We’re currently trying to secure funding for our work and need everybody on board! Contribute as much time as you’re able to, join our lovely coordinator drop-ins and meetings, and share your ideas/skills/knowledge with us. Email Tesni or Karine if you want to get involved: culturedeclares@gmail.com
Submit your work to the Creative Climate Awards, an annual global competition and festival run by Human Impacts Institute. If selected, you will be invited to a month long exhibit in NYC, participate in special events, and have your work seen by their mentors. Submit by 2 February.
Wild Rumpus have opened applications for their Artist Retreat programme. Each year they welcome artists, makers and performers into their woodland creation space, providing time to connect with nature while developing their creative practice. Apply by 8 February.
Call for papers - SAVA Conference - Solidarity with Nature: Envisioning the Ecological Heritage of World Socialism. The conference, taking place on 21-22 May at the Sainsbury Art Centre, focuses on how socialist art history could be unlocked as a repository of the ecological heritage of socialism and explores the role of art practitioners in environmental movements. They welcome 30-minute paper proposals from across and beyond environmental art history, ecocritical theory, and contemporary art practice. Submit by 11 February.
That’s all for now folks, x