DEEP ADAPTATION: rethinking our relationships to each other and the planet

Deep Adaptation at The NewBridge Project is "an ongoing programme of commissions, talks, screenings, workshops and events exploring how current social, political, civic and economic issues can be understood in relation to climate change.

In thinking about climate futures, The NewBridge Project has been engaging with the work of Jem Bendell who has begun to explore the need for Deep Adaptation.

The Deep Adaptation approach involves the following:

Relinquishment – people and communities letting go of certain assets, behaviors and beliefs where retaining them could make matters worse

Resilience – people and communities better coping with disruptions

Restoration – rediscovering forgotten attitudes and approaches to life, such as increased community-level productivity and support

The NewBridge Project is embarking on a process of collective learning to deepen understanding through conversation, action and creativity.

Artists and activists based at The NewBridge Project are keen to move these ideas forward, and are asking questions about necessary changes that are required on an individual and local, as well as a national and global, level. The group are aware that it isn’t only about what obligations we have, but also our capacities to act – in this programme, responsibility is rethought as “response-ability”.

Alongside a programme of events, Deep Adaptation presents work by artists Rhona Foster, Alex Lockwood, Chad McCail and Lucien Anderson and David Lisser who are working in collaborative ways to explore these ideas within Newcastle and Gateshead. 

The intention is that the exhibition acts as a public space for people to respond to, and reflect on ideas of deep adaptation, producing a collaborative response to issues surrounding climate change."

Exhibition: Saturday 14 April – Saturday 26 May
Events: Wednesday 11 April – Saturday 19 May

For more information please visit

https://thenewbridgeproject.com/events/deep-adaptation/