The Great Imagining Newspaper: # 01

Aim

This is a newspaper platforming ideas for a greener fairer wiser future. Buy a copy, a subscription or a stack for your chosen institution.

I was reading the newspaper on the tube back to the studio. Good Job! It’s the first thing I’ve seen for a while that made me think ‘It must be exciting to be a young person right now’.  Brian Eno

See below for further details about rewards for higher pledges.

What is The Great Imagining? 

The Great Imagining is just what it sounds like: an invitation and call to action for communities and young people everywhere to imagine a Greener, Fairer, Wiser future. We are connecting the movements that are transforming our world at the pace needed to address the multiple jeopardies facing us if we don't act now. 

What is The Great Imagining Newspaper - #01?

This is the first edition of a quarterly publication that will be engaging and empowering a movement of people in the UK and beyond towards a greener, fairer, wiser future. 

The  64 pages in our Spring issue of our 2023 newspaper contains over 400 articles, reviews, illustrations, book and podcast recommendations, cool organisations, thought experiments and exciting new ideas.

We are going to be distributing this newspaper to secondary school students, universities and households throughout the UK and beyond.

This crowdfunder will enable us to distribute the publication to yourself as well as disadvantaged schools and low-income institutions at no cost to them.

We aim to raise £50,000 which will enable us to distribute 10,000 copies of the newspaper as well as build a searchable, responsive,  playful website to put all articles online for free. 

Here are some sample pages

Chapter 2. Our ‘Activation’ Events...

Over 300 creatives, learners and activists from the local community were involved in producing our November Activation pilot in East London, with a further 500 people attending the event.

We brought school children, artists and industry experts together to make and share work for the 5-day programme which included exhibitions, workshops, classes, film screenings, wellness sessions and lots more.

After the success of our November pilot, we have now activated a further 5 communities in Bristol, Bath, Exeter, Rochdale and Kampala (Uganda) to run their own events. See more details on our Earthday pilots here.

On the Earthday weekend of April 22nd, The Great Imagining burst into life in each of these locations. We were working with brilliant people to bring these communities together to imagine a Greener, Fairer, Wiser future. 

A portion of the money we raise will fund the next set of activations in July. We are planning another 10 activations, developing new relationships with communities across the UK as well as strengthening our existing networks.

Why do we need The Great Imagining?

There are countless, interconnected and massively complex crises unfolding in the UK and across the world; just thinking about where to begin to try and solve them can be overwhelming.

We believe in the uncanny ability of humans to convert imagination into reality...

...and so the journey towards a Greener, Fairer, Wiser Future starts with knowledge sharing, critical thinking and imagination everywhere. 

Like natures mycelium, our small team of people here at The Great Imagining are dedicated to connecting all the brilliant work out there and enabling this to happen.

How are we doing this?

To build grass roots momentum towards the global transformations that will ensure a safe and thriving future, we are bringing young people, communities, experts and creatives together to imagine a better future. 

We are building networks of experts and organisations that will support communities and foster fostering productive communication and collaboration, empowering them to turn these imaginings into a reality.

The TGI newspaper and our 'activation' events are just two of the ways we are making this happen...

3. Long-term ambition...

We are planning a national campaign of activations, ideas and imagination which links local activations with an international media campaign. 

So we are going to be launching The Great Imagining in November this year ready for COP28 in a cultural mycelium of possibility and positive stories at a crucial time for humanity. Meanwhile we are prototyping and piloting the ideas with communities and networks throughout the UK and beyond.

Thinklopedia platform of future thinking. 

This will cover a huge range of topics and will take a systems approach to subjects in very accessible, highly illustrated and animated resources.

Thinklopedia Topics

These will be covering a range of subject areas (all of which are connected of course!) including Agriculture, Food, Textiles, Products, The Built Environment, Energy & Power, Transport, Leisure, Education, Culture, The Economy, Organisations, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Politics, Justice, Climate, Water, Waste, Soil, Biodiversity, Ecosystems

Foundation Topics

Who are We? How Do We Think? Systems Thinking; Design Thinking; Carbon Literacy; Futures Literacy; Skills for the Future; Health & Wellbeing.

Find out more here

Illustrations by Jim Hollingworth and Rohan Eason

Rewards for higher pledges

Featured artworks by Gavin Turk, Paula Rego, Sir Peter Blake, Sir Michael Craig Martin, Harland Miller, Mat Collishaw, Jeremy Deller & Alan Kane, Georgie Hopton, Damien Hirst, Dame Rachel Whiteread, Andrew Rae, Fiona Banner & Yinka Shonibare CBE. As well as the above, other artists artworks also offered depending on level of pledge and availability.

Artworks

The House of Fairy Tales has several portfolios of art prints made in collaboration with our network of creative supporters. We can offer artworks of values according availability and level of the pledges. Please contact us for more details [email protected]

Supper Clubs

The United Council of the Future is the growing circle of funders who are enabling The Great Imagining to grow. The United Council team will be organising a series of Supper Clubs over the next few months to support the work. 

These gatherings will each cover different topics of interest and will be a mixture of learning, networking and exchanging of ideas all accompanied by great food, music and experiences curated and prepared by one of our brilliant partners. 

Depending on your level of pledge you will be invited to come to one of these suppers or for a higher pledge we will help curate one with you in a venue of your choice.

This project successfully funded on 13th June 2023