The driver for my practice is the sixth great extinction ushering in the Anthroprocene Era crystalised by Gustav Metzger’s 2015 Worldwide Call for Action to Remember Nature. You can see research paper submitted for my Masters here: Phil Barton’s Submitted Research Paper which explored the development of eco art which is interactive with nature and place on the one hand and the public and communities on the other.
Based in Rusholme, Manchester, jointly with, and inspired by, my life partner Helena Kettleborough, and academic at MMU School of Management, I have established the Centre for Connected Practice and initiated Creative Rusholme.
My practice as an Eco Artist is rooted in a lifelong commitment to working with the natural and built environment by bringing together communities and organisations from all walks of life to take practical action. Often working in particular places and incorporating material from those places in my work, I use print, lens-based media, installation, scientific evidence and appropriate techniques to foreground the assault both on our natural life support systems – trees, climate, ecosystems – and on the other-than-human who share this precious planet with us.
I build my creative practice on a 35 year career as a social entrepreneur in local environmental regeneration during which I established and built a number of not for profit organisations including Keep Britain Tidy, Groundwork, the Mersey Basin Trust as part of the 25 year regional Mersey Basin Campaign, the National Centre for Business and Ecology and the Community Technical Aid Centre in Manchester.
Read Phil’s Remember Nature Manifesto. He has proclaimed it at Launceston Town Square, Cornwall (4th November 2021), The Street, Central Saint Martins (4th November 2019) and Islington Mill, Salford (4th November 2017).
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