The Visual Arts and Sustainable Agriculture in Britain

Dear Colleagues,

Over 70% of the land area of the United Kingdom is used for agriculture, yet the realities of food production and farming life in Britain are often obscured or inflected by deeply embedded cultural myths and representations, of gendered, virtuous work, a sanitised existence of natural and social harmony, and/or symbolic links with nation itself. In addition, debates around sustainability have intensified in British agriculture, while it faces specific environmental problems and responsibilities. The European Union’s recent The Next Frontier for Climate Change Science report identified agriculture as an area with urgent “knowledge gaps and priorities for research” (European Commission 2024). The arts are invaluable for propositioning, contextualising and communicating change and investigating its potential and paradoxes. This Special Issue thus examines how the visual arts (art, photography, film) can not only interrogate and challenge assumptions but also explore transition in British agriculture and food production in relation to interlaced issues of identity, migration, colonial or post-colonial legacies, human and non-human equity, democratic access, localism, and community provision. As such, this Issue welcomes papers examining visual arts projects, both contemporary and historic, that address sustainability (environmental, social, cultural) in farming and food production, with the aim of building a community to explore innovative avenues of creative and conceptual enquiry.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors or to the Arts Editorial Office (arts@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring their proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Reference

European Commission (2024) The Next Frontier for Climate Change Science: Insights from the authors of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report on knowledge gaps and priorities for research. Brussels: European Union.

Dr. Rupert Ashmore
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• environmental arts
• farming
• food production
• communities
• rural economies
• arts research
• film and photography