12 Hopeful Acts

Critical thinking without hope is cynicism, but hope without critical thinking is naïvete.

Solnit, R (2015) Hope in the Dark

Following the 2018 UN IPCC report which warns of just 12 years to avert climate catastrophe,  Search Party plan to make some space for critical hope. Despairing at a turbulent landscape of division, exasperated by increasing social inequality and perplexed by political inaction on global warming, Search Party want to practice hope as a radical act of everyday activism.

Starting in 2019 Search Party invite you to join us as we undertake 12 hopeful acts; contemporary rituals that create space within our everyday lives for critical hope. The 12 acts will shift in scale, be created during the year and will include group conversations, walks, performative rituals and actions, which will be documented on our website. We think making space for critical hope is a radical act. Aware of the increasing importance of art as a way of experiencing and understanding the world differently, we ask how might we (collectively) practice ART, KINDNESS, ACTIVISM and HOPE as radical, everyday acts in difficult times?

12 Hopeful Acts follows Search Party’s interest in artist-led activities that exist outside of institutional structures and traditional funding mechanisms. 12 Hopeful Acts is inspired by our experiences of artist-led groups including Residence and F.A.N. that foreground alternative notions of value and community.

#12hopefulacts

12 Hopeful Acts Manifesto