Fourteen creative climate action projects from around the country will benefit from a €2 million fund.
The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, in collaboration with the has announced the successful applicants under the Creative Climate Action fund.
This Creative Ireland initiative supports creative, cultural and artistic projects that build awareness around climate change and empowers citizens to make meaningful behavioural changes.
Launched on March 31, this year, by Ministers Catherine Martin and Eamon Ryan, it is believed to be the first fund of its kind in Ireland and the EU.
The fund encouraged collaborative proposals from across the arts, cultural and creative industries, climate change and environmental NGOs, education, science and civil society sectors to offer creative, interdisciplinary solutions.
14 projects from around the country were selected from 166 applications.
Successful projects
One of the successful projects is ‘Field Exchange’, a series of farm-based creative events that will support farmers to implement agricultural practices that combat climate change both in and above the soil in Co. Tipperary.
The project partners involved are Ailbhe Gerrard, Brookfield Farm; artists John Gerrard and Deirdre O’Mahony; National Organic Training Skillnet; Loy Association of Ireland; and Tipperary Food Producers Network.
Meanwhile, the ‘Corca Dhuibhne Inbhuanaithe 2030’ project will involve an artist working with traditional farmers in west Kerry and the Dingle Creativity Hub to highlight why diversification from current farming practices is necessary.
Project partners are Dingle Creativity and Innovation Hub; Green Arts Initiative in Ireland; and the MaREI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine in University College Cork (UCC).
As part of the ‘Worker’s Villages’ project, the Irish Architecture Foundation will work with residents of three Bord na Móna villages in the midlands on the cultural legacy and changing futures of the villages, to reimagine a more sustainable future for their communities.
In Co. Waterford, a county-wide project will work with five communities to promote energy saving, wildlife diversification, increased use of public transport, the development of carbon sinks and challenge current consumption habits.
All projects will begin immediately and will conclude in December 2022.
Urgency of climate change
Minister Catherine Martin said she believes that the creative community has “a vital role to play in bringing the urgency of climate change to the forefront”.
“This is why we are the first EU country to launch such a creative climate fund,” the minister added.
“These projects confirm that creative approaches to community engagement, backed up by academic science, have the imagination and impact to demonstrate that a sustainable future is possible.”
Minister Eamon Ryan said addressing climate change is “a transformational cultural challenge”.
“Our culture shapes how we interact with our environment – through our habits of consumption, ideas about nature, what we value as meaningful, and what we think is possible and impossible,” he said.
“Our recent Climate Conversations with communities and individuals while preparing the Climate Action Plan have told us that people want to be supported and inspired to make changes.
“I believe projects like these will help spark imaginations and to make tangible what ‘carbon footprints’ and ‘climate action’ really mean for individuals and communities.”