The Writing Is On The Wall
This is an unpaid opportunity for Bristol artists to design and make posters, images or other public art highlighting Bristol’s toxic air issues. A panel of artists will choose the best artwork to be used in an Our Air, Our City campaign demanding action to clean up our air. The campaign will include social media and local press stories, and an exhibition of the best artwork to be held in HOURS gallery in central Bristol during April. If the pandemic regulations allow, we will use the best art to make posters which we will display around the city.
The Bristol Council and Mayoral elections will be held on 6th May, so now is the time to show our politicians that the people that they rely on for votes demand that they act to clean up our air.
If you have any questions about this campaign please come to a zoom meeting on 19th January, 7.30 p.m. click here for details, or email ourairourcity@protonmail.com
What is Our Air, Our City?
Our Air, Our City brings together many community and activist groups to push for healthy air for Bristol. Our campaign has been developed by community and environmental groups, representing many of the communities most impacted by air pollution. Our objectives are:
- For Bristol to meet World Health Organization recommended air quality guidelines by May 2022.
- For its implementation to be just – The worst air pollution levels are often seen in low income or ethnically diverse neighborhoods who are often least responsible for causing the pollution. Clean air solutions must take into account the needs of these communities, for example supporting them to avoid creating pollution while maintaining their income.
- For Bristol Council and other institutions to educate the people of Bristol on the severity of the issues.
- For Bristol Council and Mayoral, and West of England Combined Authority (WECA) Mayoral election candidates to tell us their plans for achieving the above.
You can read more about Our Air, Our City here,
What is The Writing Is On The Wall campaign about?
The people of Bristol have suffered from illegal air for twenty years but there is shockingly little knowledge of the issue in the general population. We will highlight:
- Toxic air is causing 300 extra deaths per year in Bristol [i].
- Air pollution increases COVID-19 deaths by 15% and contributes to asthma, impaired lung function, premature heart disease, cancer, low birth weight, premature birth and stunted lung growth [ii].
- Bristol’s air pollution has been above the EU legal limit for many years and in 2017 the Council was ordered by central government to clean it up in the shortest possible time, but despite many surveys and public consultations they have taken no effective action [iii].
- You can see an animated video describing the Bristol air pollution issues here
This campaign will raise the profile of the issues by covering the city in art during the lead up to the elections in May 2021. We ask artists create art works that highlight the issues and we can help you to display your work.
How you can take part
For the campaign to be successful Bristol politicians must hear the voices of people from every part of the city demanding action. We invite you to raise your voice through creating posters, images or public art. Please email ourairourcity@protonmail.com images of your art and of you with your art – for example holding up your poster or standing next your artwork. We will use the best of these images for our social media and press releases, and we will turn artwork into posters which, if the pandemic restrictions allow, we will print and paste up around the city. We will hold an exhibition in HOURS gallery in central Bristol (www.hours-space.com) in April 2021 or as soon as possible if the pandemic will not allow a public exhibition then.
The timescale for this campaign is limited by the local elections on 6th May. The closing date for submitting images for posters and social media is 28th February and for art work for the exhibition is 31st March.
We welcome art work made by children.
We will make a poster which children can color in and stick up in their window, and deliver a large number of these to homes across the city.
We also welcome other forms of public art such as graffiti or murals. All we ask is that the art is free to experience and is presented somewhere members of the public can see it.
We encourage you to follow the branding and messaging guidelines below.
If you don’t have the time or artistic inclination to create original art there will be pre-made posters and flags that you can display outside your home or business to show support. To request these, please contact: ourairourcity@protonmail.com.
You are invited to come to a zoom meeting to discuss this campaign on either 19th January – 7.30, or 16th February – 7.30 – click here for details.
Branding and Messaging Guidelines
We are happy for you to add your name to your artwork and feature it on your website, or social media. Here are our guidelines, please use them where you can as it strengthens our collective voice.
The feel of the campaign is positive. We envisage a positive future of clean air, while acknowledging the severity of the issue. The facts are scary, so we aren’t warning artists away from using some fearful imagery if they are so inclined, but we ask that the overall tone of artworks is hopeful. Air pollution is a fight we can win if we act together, so artwork should leave the viewer empowered by a positive vision of the future that they can help bring about.
Art should be child friendly. Children are one of the demographics worst impacted by air pollution and it’s important that the project doesn’t exclude them.
You’re welcome to use whatever palette suits your piece, but the official colours of the campaign are blues and whites.
Please display as part of your art, our QR code or web link.
a) download QR code here
b) web link https://bit.ly/3aF0pDX
Messaging
If you wish to incorporate words and facts into your art, here are some issues that you might like to highlight:
- Toxic air causes 300 extra deaths per year in our city. Bristol demands action now.
- Bristol has suffered from toxic air for twenty years. Clean air can’t wait.
- Toxic air causes asthma in children and harms their growth. Let’s fight for their future.
- Bristol’s air pollution is illegal. Clean air right now.
- Toxic air leads to 15% more Covid deaths. Clean air for a healthier Bristol.
- Clean air for healthier children, communities, and planet.
- 81% of people want action on air pollution [iv]. Raise your voice for clean air.
The financial benefit of acting on Bristol air pollution is estimated at £80 million a year in health costs savings, by increasing productivity and reducing the number of sick days we need to take [v]. Clean air is everyone’s business.
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[i] 300 extra deaths per year are attributed to toxic air in Bristol, see Bristol City Council’s report Air Quality in Our Area, (September 2017) https://www.bristol.gov.uk/documents/20182/32675/Bristol+City+Council+2018+Air+Quality+Annual+Status+Report+ASR/3d5c287b-f379-e484-7924-2aa02fc8bb0a
[ii] Air pollution increases COVID-19 deaths by 15% worldwide – https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/study-estimates-exposure-to-air-pollution-increases-covid-19-deaths-by-15-world
[iii] How Bristol council has delayed taking action.
In 2017, Bristol City Council was directed by the government (Defra and DfT) to produce a Clean Air Plan setting out how they will achieve the required air quality improvements (compliance with the EU Limit Value for annual mean NO2) in the shortest possible time.
In January 2019, the council published its Clean Air Plan ( Air Quality Modelling Report ) which included consideration of a clean air zone. Since this was not a final plan DEFRA wrote back to Bristol City Council to say “. . .I am alarmed to hear that Bristol City Council have stated they will not provide your final plan, in the form of an Outline Business Case, until summer 2019, …. This means you have unlawfully failed to comply with the Direction, and I am absolutely astonished at your delay in improving air quality for the people of Bristol as quickly as possible”.
In July 2019,Bristol City Council announced the dates when their clean air proposals would get Bristol’s toxic air within the legal maximum levels of pollution – not until 2028 or 2029. They also began a consultation on two options for a Traffic Clean Air Zone.
In September 2019, Bristol City Council was expected to announce its Clean Air Plan (CAP) by the end of September to meet a government deadline but negotiated a five-week deadline extension. Plans for a Diesel Vehicle Ban and Clean Air Zone in Bristol were published in November 2019 to be implemented in 2021 but the air would not be clean until 2025. ( https://www.cleanairforbristol.org/ ). However in early 2020 the Council dropped plans for a Diesel Vehicle Ban and now plans to drop the idea of a Clean Air Zone (see latest position below)
In April 2020, following the Extinction Rebellion Bristol actions on the roof of the Council House, the Council stated that they may be able to bring forward the compliance date from 2025 to 2023. In June 2020, the Council announced street changes to give more space to pedestrians and cyclists. They announced that by closing Bristol Bridge to private vehicles, the air pollution on Baldwin Street will be improved. Similarly air pollution will be improved by removing a lane for motor traffic on Lewins Mead/Haymarket and Park Row/Upper Maudlin Street/Marlborough Street. In August 2020 these changes were made on a trial basis.
The latest position – In August 2020, the Council stated that it hoped to avoid a Clean Air Zone by showing that air pollution would come within legal thresholds as a result of the street changes, – see https://news.bristol.gov.uk/news/new-options-to-clean-up-bristols-air-without-charging. The Council’s air quality monitoring has shown that these changes not reduce air pollution The Council’s deadline to provide a new draft plan to address air pollution is now February 2021.
[iv] 81% of people want action on air pollution. A YouGov poll of residents in five UK cities reveals overwhelming support for measures to protect health by tackling air pollution emissions from cars. Four in five residents (81%) in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow are in favor of measures to reduce car emissions and use, with fewer than 1 in 10 (8%) rejecting action. https://www.transportenvironment.org/press/4-5-city-residents-want-cars-give-way-bikes-buses-and-walking-tackle-urban-air-pollution
[v] Toxic air costs Bristol £80 million a year – Bristol City Health and Economic Impact Assessment study by Environmental Research Group, School of Analytical, Environmental and Forensic Sciences , King’s College London. http://erg.ic.ac.uk/research/home/projects/Bristol.html