This month AlanJames Burns has been invited to do a Content Takeover for Disability Arts Online. The takeover will explore the intersections of disability, climate change and the arts.

The first piece of content is a very exciting one, a podcast for ‘Disability Add…’. Alan spoke with Professor Julia Watts Belser who is a professor of Jewish Studies and Disability Studies at Georgetown University and coordinator of the Disability and Climate Change Public Archive. They discuss thier experiences as creative practitioners, members of the disability community, and concerned climate activists.

The podcast will be followed by pieces for the DAO magazine and a week-long takeover of DAO’s Instagram account this February.

AlanJames Burns talks to RTÉ’s Lyric FM Culture File about their upcoming collaborative project ‘The Waking Walls’. 

The Waking Walls is a new collaborative, theatrical artwork that reawakens and equips us with age-old methods of coping with loss. The Waking Walls is an invitation to reframe environmental grief – not as a state of disconnection and isolation, but as a unifying experience to collectively process climate disruption.

The Waking Walls has been developed by Cavan-born environmental artist AlanJames Burns in collaboration with writer Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, NYAH (Cross Border Collective of Traditional Arts Musicians), Cavan Arts Office, Irish Hospice Foundation and Cavan Adventure Centre.

Gormfhlaith Ní Shíocháin, Ní Bheoláin talks to RTÉ’s Tús Áite about ‘The Waking Walls’. 

Caoineadh don ghéarchéim aeráide agus an scrios éiceolaíochta atá i cur i láthair amharclannaíochta a dhéanfar ag Caisleán suite ar oileán bídeach i loch i gCo. an Chabháin ag an deireadh seachtaine. Bhí Gormfhlaith Ní Shíocháin, Ní Bheoláin atá bainteach leis an saothar seo ar an gclár chun tuilleadh a insint dúinn faoi.

The Waking Walls is a new collaborative, theatrical artwork that reawakens and equips us with age-old methods of coping with loss. The Waking Walls is an invitation to reframe environmental grief – not as a state of disconnection and isolation, but as a unifying experience to collectively process climate disruption.

The Waking Walls has been developed by Cavan-born environmental artist AlanJames Burns in collaboration with writer Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, NYAH (Cross Border Collective of Traditional Arts Musicians), Cavan Arts Office, Irish Hospice Foundation and Cavan Adventure Centre.

AlanJames Burns is delighted to have been selected as one of the 2023/24 Clore Fellows.

The highly valued Clore Fellowships are awarded to dynamic change-makers from across the arts and culture sector who demonstrate vision, strategy and an appetite or collaboration in leading the arts, culture and creativity for a positive impact on society.

This nineteenth cohort of Clore Fellows (#Clore19) includes 23 leaders from the breadth of the arts and cultural sector, covering at least ten cultural disciplines, and include independent practitioners, those working in small and medium scale arts venues, as well as representatives from our largest cultural institutions.    

Collectively, they reflect the vibrant and diverse nature of the arts and cultural sector, coming from eight regions across the UK, from Falmouth to the Isle of Mull, as well as Ireland, Brazil and Hong Kong.

In summer 2023 (July/August) AlanJames Burns headed not for sun and sand, but did hit the high seas. As the 2023 iCRAG artist in residence on the RV Celtic Explorer, Alan was able to experience a marine expedition first hand. 

Over a month on board the research vessel, they learned about everything from climate proxies and identifying foram species, to ice dynamics, carbon fluxes, arctic amplification, ocean acidification and much, much more.

Alan expressed, “What struck me during the cruise was the acknowledgement that nothing exists in a bubble, everything is connected; we are connected to all organisms large and small, to all corners of the planet, to our past and future.”

AlanJames Burns will present on ‘Festival Making as a creative act’ as part of the Arts Council of Ireland Festival Makers Conference, 11 & 12 May 2023, Galway.

A group discussion with delegates exploring the curatorial practice in festivals, the role of the citizen artist and the practice of festival making. Following the 2020 Change Makers festival conference, the Arts Council revised its Festival Policy to recognise “the complex and special nature of ‘festival-making’ as a creative act and its curatorial role in the development of artistic programming”.