Innovation: Creativity as a Renewable Resource for the Eco-City

Abstract

Cities need new strategies for conservation and climate change resilience that engage global narrators, unite diverse perspectives and mobilise an increasingly despondent public. This chapter examines community arts as a potential resource for the eco-city, including how incorporating creative perspectives into sustainability communication can open up new ways of thinking about how cities are reimagined for an ecological paradigm. Community arts can provide a unique platform for empowering communities across natural, constructed, economic and cultural systems, thereby contributing to the public's knowledge and care of their local environment. Using a participatory design and theatre-making project as a case study (The Bower Stage, Armidale, Australia, 2016), the chapter demonstrates how incorporating both creative and ecological perspectives can enrich environmental citizenship and connection for the eco-city.