Performance without walls

_{^{Above: Tom Bailey performing Crap at Animals.}}

Summary

This edition’s Arts in the Spotlight feature focuses on Without Walls, the largest network of outdoor arts festivals in England. In 2024, the organisation addressed climate change through its support of environmentally conscious projects and promotion of sustainable practices at festivals. The piece highlights artist Tom Bailey, who undertook an 800km journey from the Outer Hebrides to Helsingør for his show Crap at Animals, travelling only by boat or on foot. 

Reading time

Two minutes

A network of outdoor arts organisations across England is helping artists and festivals to meet their environmental and creative goals.

In 2024, the UK experienced one of its wettest summers on record and all of us felt the impact on our plans for weekends and holidays. But spare a thought for artist Tom Bailey, who spent July undertaking an 800km journey from the Outer Hebrides in Scotland to Helsingør in Denmark, travelling only by boat or on foot.

Tom’s epic voyage was undertaken as part of the international tour of his new show Crap at Animals, commissioned by Passage Festival in Helsingør and Without Walls in the UK. Without Walls, a network of 40 outdoor arts organisations from across England, chose to support Tom’s work as part of its all-embracing commitment to addressing the climate crisis.

Crap at Animals fuses elements of live art, physical theatre and clowning to drive home the impact of mass extinction. The show succeeds in being funny, engaging, thought-provoking and moving, all at the same time.

Journey of performance

Many artists grapple with the challenge of how to tour their work in a manner that is in keeping with their environmental goals. In Tom’s case, this involved turning the journey into a performance in and of itself. Tom followed the lines of boreal forests through Scotland and Scandinavia carrying a scroll listing 44,000 endangered and extinct species. Tom will use his documentation of the trip as the starting point for new works highlighting the importance of biodiversity.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival, where Crap at Animals premiered, has taken a proactive role in leading this kind of work. This has included working with Norwich City Council to install mains electricity in parks, eliminating the need for diesel generators. It has also introduced meat-free catering and plastic-free compost toilets, and promotes active travel and public transport options to its audiences.

As the largest network of outdoor arts festivals in England, Without Walls was able to share its expertise across partners and through industry networks such as Vision 2025 and the Theatre Green Book initiative.

For Without Walls, climate change isn’t just of academic importance. The kind of wet summer that we have just experienced poses a genuine threat to the festivals that it represents.

That’s why Without Walls works with artists like Tom: to highlight the urgency of the crisis and promote the belief that all of us have our part to play in building a sustainable society.

David Morgan FRSA, is Head of Programme for Without Walls.

This article was first published in RSA Journal Issue 3 2024.