SWISP goes to Bohemia!
SWISP Lab represented by Yvette Walker, Anna Farago, Sarah Healy (in-person), Kathryn Coleman (virtually)
Image Caption: Sarah Healy, Yvette Walker, Anna Farago (in-person), Kathryn Coleman (virtually)
In the middle of the year a highlight for SWSIP Lab was heading to the InSEA World Congress in Olomouc, Czech Republic. SWISP Lab was busy presenting individual work and came together to use SWISP Lab’s hacking as method – this time we were hacking the 2018 InSEA manifesto. One of the things that has stuck with us from the event is the question of how a manifesto can manifest in a range of responsive and situated ways so that pluriversality and difference with/in a collective effort can be recognised. To begin the process, a full room of participants gathered in the beautiful textiles studio (not ceramics!) with an intergenerational mix of art educators from around the world. Below you see our fabulous #showyourstripes post card, advertising the event. This is followed by our account of the event with photos and critical reflections woven in. Read on and let us know if you want to become part of crafting a manifesto for climate education through art community of online practice (CoOP).
Image Caption: SWISP Lab goes to Bohemia! InSEA World Congress (Olomouc, Czech Republic, July 2025) #showyourstripes
Yvette, Anna, Sarah, and virtual Kate ran a SWISP Lab workshop crafting a living manifesto for climate education through art at the InSEA World Congress in Olomouc. At the heart of our workshop was a shared belief: that art education is critical for navigating the overwhelming complexities of life in the Anthropocene. Beginning with personal tipping point stories, we invited participants to locate themselves within global crises and collaborate through creative, critical making. One key lingering affect for me (Anna) was a tipping point from a participant talking about the moment when she realised her students were bringing questions about climate change into the classroom, and that as an arts educator it was important to integrate opportunities to grapple with climate and the Anthropocene more broadly into her teaching.
These collective tipping points became inputs for the workshop, along with the 2018 InSEA manifesto and the 2025 HAK.io manifesto. Then inspired by historical artist collectives such as Dada, Bauhaus, and Fluxus, the workshop used a cut-up method to remix lines from previous manifestos with participants’ own words and reflections, generating a collective suggestions responsive to our times.
How can a manifesto manifest in a range of responsive and situated ways so that pluriversality and difference with/in a collective effort can be recognised?
Participants reassembled fragments into bold declarations of what art education can make possible: ecological justice, care, storytelling, imagination, the more than human and urgent action.
The session culminated in a shared reading of the new manifesto lines and a discussion on how these statements could shape practice, policy, and solidarity across borders. Listen to Ludmila’s beautiful manifesto poem and reflect on what you might include in your version of a manifesto for climate education through art.
Inspired by classroom practices and studio pedagogies, the session built momentum toward new, actionable commitments. With contributions shared as personal manifestos, these collectively identified a new responsive vision. The manifesto will return to future InSEA gatherings, an evolving, living declaration.
If not now, then when?
If not us, then who?
