Leading figures in the arts and environment have given their support to a campaign by The Resurgence Trust to set up a new centre for education, the environment and the arts – and secure a home for Resurgence & Ecologist and our charity’s other work in the fields of peace and social justice.
Our crowdfunding campaign, seeks to raise substantial funds towards the cost of moving the Trust to the buildings of The Small School in Hartland, Devon, renovation work, and creating a new globally significant centre for green ideas and innovation.
The online campaign has already attracted support from artists and writers offering work that can be purchased by supporters.
For the past 35 years, this magazine has been produced from a tiny barn conversion near Hartland, in the garden of Satish Kumar, our editor emeritus. As the Trust has grown since its inception a decade ago, so have the charity’s activities and the number of staff. Simply, we have outgrown the space we currently rent, so we need to create a new home where we can safeguard the future of The Resurgence Trust and extend our educational activities and outreach.
Support for the new centre has grown since the Trust’s plans were first reported in our September/October issue (No. 304). Tony Juniper, president of The Wildlife Trusts and a former Resurgence trustee, said: “Resurgence is the spiritual and philosophical heart of the ecological movement. It has been the home of wonderful ideas and I hope that there will be widespread support for Resurgence as it seeks to secure a new home for itself at The Small School.”
Author and dramatist Michael Morpurgo said in a message sent to the launch of our campaign: “It is time Resurgence had a home of its own! No publication has done more to raise awareness of the dangers to the environment of our throwaway society. Now we need to make it secure for the next 50 years.”
The Small School, a pioneering educational project set up by Satish and others in the early 1980s, closed its doors earlier this year, and the buildings, which are centred around a beautiful 19th-century chapel, are in need of regeneration. As well as converting the buildings into a new home for The Resurgence Trust, our magazine and websites, we will be developing a range of educational and community projects. We already organise an annual summer camp and the Resurgence Festival of Wellbeing, in addition to regular talks held in London and elsewhere. A new home will enable us to grow these activities.
Our centre for education, environment and the arts will enable us to do the following:
• Create a permanent home for the Trust, with a vibrant editorial office.
• Bring the production of the Ecologist website to Hartland and integrate our publishing platforms.
• Run courses and events that reflect the themes at the heart of the Trust: protecting the environment, promoting ecological awareness and addressing social injustice.
• Use the garden to teach organic gardening and Nature conservation.
• Provide an outdoor teaching space for Forest School sessions.
• Showcase new green technologies as we redevelop the site on ecological building principles, using local craftspeople and materials wherever possible.
• Connect and engage people with the arts.
• Establish a sculpture garden for everyone to enjoy.
• Create jobs and benefit the local economy in Hartland and beyond.
For details of the project and how you can support it, please go to www.resurgence.org/resurgencefuture
Alternatively you may send a cheque payable to The Resurgence Trust to Ford House, Hartland, Bideford, Devon EX39 6EE
“I think Resurgence has been a tremendous force for good, championing views that were once considered alternative and many of which are now being seen to be based in real wisdom and rooted in science. On top of this, Resurgence’s very existence has been a beacon to like-minded individuals and groups who through its pages and connections have joined forces and created the bones of a movement. It is absolutely vital that it is properly protected to thrive for another 50 years. I urge everybody to make a contribution as an act of solidarity and commitment.” – Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project
