e159 jane marsland - it’s all about balance

conscient podcast

• It's all about balance and moving away from perpetual growth mode. It's about understanding that if you're a tightrope walker, you can't stand still, because the minute you stand still, you fall off. So you have to move forwards, or backwards. There’s no qualitative judgment about whether it's better to move forward or backward. It doesn't matter. You can grow or you can shrink : it's all about balance. If you stay balanced, you'll survive.

A colleague recommended that I invite arts administrator and consultant Jane Marsland to a conscient podcast conversation.

I went to Jane’s website and read about her interest in developing ‘new approaches and methods of working to emphasize agile and adaptive organizational responses that are informed by knowledge of constant environmental changes’. Art and constant environmental changes sounded just right for this podcast.

Janes utilizes a process of working with arts organizations that she has learned through eighteen years of being affiliated with Arts Action Research in New York. Jane believes that each organization has a unique vision, point of view and way of working. The challenge is to learn how to discover, understand and reveal these unique qualities and processes.

I asked Jane about art and ecology and how she advises arts organizations on adaptation to complex issues like climate change. I also asked her about the end of the world (as we know it). I think you’ll be enchanted by her responses.

When I asked what she reading or seeing these days she recommended 6 items:

• Climate Change and Other Small Talk, a series of short videos by Sunny Drake
• Combining by Nora Bateman
• Dancing at the Edge:Competence, Culture and Organization in the 21st Century by Maureen O’Hara and Graham Leicester
• Three Horizons: The Patterning of Hope - 2nd Ed by Bill Sharpe
• Transformative Innovation: A Guide to Practice and Policy for System Transition by Graham Leicester
• Who Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality | Claiming Leadership | Restoring Sanity by Margaret Wheatley
• Ten Things to do in a Conceptual Emergency by Maureen O’Hara and Graham Leicester

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END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It’s my way to give back and be present.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays about collapse acceptance, adaptation, response and art’. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.

Also, please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.

Your feedback is always welcome at [e-mail] and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin.

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible.

Claude Schryer

Latest update on July 20, 2024