Background and History

Created by artist David Buckland in 2001, Cape Farewell has led five expeditions to the High Arctic; the frontline of climate change. Artists that have joined the expeditions include visual artists Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey, Gary Hume, Brian Jungen, Amy Balkin and Shiro Takitani, choreographer Siobhan Davies, writers Ian McEwan and Vikram Seth, comedian Marcus Brigstocke and musician Liam Frost.  In September 2007, Cape Farewell launched their first youth expedition, taking twelve young people from the UK, Germany & Canada to Svalbard. 

From these expeditions has sprung an extraordinary body of artwork, educational projects and collaborations. Between 2005 and 2007, Cape Farewell artwork was exhibited across London (Natural History Museum, Whitechapel Gallery, Southbank Centre), the UK (Oxford, Liverpool, Newcastle, Folkestone and Cornwall), in Europe (Oslo, Brussels, Hamburg, Monaco and Munich), and in North America (Colorado, Chicago and New York City). The major exhibition The Art of Climate Change (exhibited in London, Liverpool and Germany) is touring internationally with the Barbican Art Gallery.  Between February - April 2008 it was exhibited in Madrid and is currently being prepared for exhibition in Tokyo, Japan (July – August 2008).

We produced our first film in 2005 (co-produced with the BBC) - Art from a Changing Arctic – which has now been seen internationally by a worldwide audience of over 12 million, broadcasting on BBC 2 & 4 (UK), BBC World (international) and Sundance TV Channel (USA) & screened at film festivals across the world.

Cape Farewell has a major book, Burning Ice, including essays by Sir David King, Prof Diana Liverman and Robert MacFarlane, a CD, Arctic, by Max Eastley featuring sounds recorded in the High Arctic and performed live at the Planetarium, Hamburg & Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago, educational resources for GCSE Geography and Science, and a UN award-winning website.

In 2007 Cape Farewell was invited by Jude Kelly, artistic director of Southbank Centre, to be artists in residence for three years, and operate as a cultural eco-hub at the heart of the Centre’s creative climate change initiatives. In Winter 2007, Cape Farewell also began a long-term partnership with the Eden Project in Cornwall.

Cape Farewell operates a small hub at the center of a large amount of activity. The time line below gives you some idea about our work and achievements since the organisation was founded. 

What we did, when

• 1999 - David Buckland meets a weather man who tells him all about mapping the ocean currents and how climate change is affecting the oceans.
• 2000/2002- David begins to link, art, climate change and the Arctic in his mind and the mind of our funders.
• 2002 - Cape Farewell are given registered charity status in the UK.
• May 2003 - The first expedition heads to Tromso with images and blogs sent back daily from the Arctic.
• May 2003 - Suba and Colin join the expedition and hatch a plan to lead a youth expedition to the Arctic one day.
• March 2004 - Our Geography GCSE module, The High Arctic, is released for UK schools.
• Sept 2004 -  The second expedition heads to Spitsbergen,
• Feb 2005 - Official minutes from the board of trustees meeting note 'cashflow is currently precarious, but we are making it work'. 
  
• March 2005 - The third expedition heads to Tempelfjorden. Obviously the cash flow worked out.
  
• March 2005 - Vicky Long joins as project manager
• Dec 2005 - Outdoor exhibition at the Bodlein Library, Oxford.  Brilliant, but cold.
• June 2006 - Major exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum, last minute adjustments lead to a seamless opening.
• June 2006 - The film, Art from the Arctic premiers on British TV (BBC2 and BBC4)
• June 2006 - The first major book title, Burning Ice, is released to coincide with the opening of the exhibition.
• Sept 2006 - Exhibition tours to Liverpool and Newcastle. People seem to like it.
• Dec 2006 - By the end of 2006 we realise that the exhibition has been seen by over 250,000 people in the UK.
• Dec 2006 - Hannah Bird joins the team as project coordinator.  We start to outgrow the current office space (David's studio).
• Jan 2007 - Invited by Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, Jude Kelly to become artist in residence.
• March 2007 - Dancing on Thin Ice is performed at Villier's School in London.  
• March 2007 - Cape Farewell Art & Climate Change opens at the Kampnagel Centre, Hamburg, excellent food at the exhibition opening (thank you British Council, Germany).
• March 2007 - First screening of Art from the Arctic on Sundance TV Channel.
• March 2007 - Release ARCTIC CD, Max Eastley's 10 track album exclusively on our website.
• April 2007 - The GCSE science module Life in the Water is free to download online via the website.
• May 2007 - Late Night at the Whitechapel event sells out.
• June 2007 - First screening of Art from the Arctic on BBC World. We estimate the film has been seen by over 12 million people.
• July 2007 - Move the office from David's home to the Southbank Centre, lots of room, great neighbours (poet Lemn Sissay and beatboxer Shlomo) and a fantastic view of the river. Telephones/internet take longer than expected to install (we discover live communication from London can sometimes be tricky).
• Aug 2007 - Install photovoltaic cells to produce renewable energy to offset some of our electricity use.
• Sept 2007 - Cape Farewell's first ever youth expedition is launched from the Southbank Centre and after a week long series of workshop, they head off to Svalbard (we discover live communication with the Arctic can sometimes be tricky!).
• Sept 2007 - Art/science expedition sails from Longyearbyen to Iceland via west Greenland.  Epic sail with higher levels of gale force winds/sea sickness than anticipated.
• Sept 2007 - Marcus Brigstocke writes daily blog for the Telegraph from the boat. Day 3 transcript consists of "There will be no day three blog from Marcus as he is a little "under the weather".  In his exact words "Shit off you bloody bastards". 
• Oct 2007 - Max Eastley and David Buckland exhibit work at the Folkestone Literary Festival.
• Nov 2007 - Outdoor installation ARCTIC opens at the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park. Max Eastley plays live on stage. It's very cold.
• Dec 2007 - Long-term collaboration with the Eden Project begins including work in their core building and ice rink. Again, it's very cold.
• Dec 2007 - We rest for Christmas.  It's been a busy year.
• Jan 2008 - We sign up to two expeditions heading to East Greenland in September 2008. Then we panic.
• Feb 2008 - The exhibition Cape Farewell Art & Climate Change begins its international tour with the Barbican Art Gallery, opening at the Fundacion Canal, Madrid.
• March 2008 - Natural World Museum exhibition tours to the Field Museum, Chicago.
  
• May 2008 - Website relaunched with a new content management system - Hannah and Kathy finally get to talk about something other than divs, breadcrumbs and paragraph tags (we can only hope).