This presentation is a synopis of a study, in which I examined international art and sustainability policies for county Carlow, where I live. The study quickly grew to scope arts and sustainability policy for all of Ireland.

1. Raising ‘the Shining, Reflective Shield’
the urgent need for cultural policy
to engage Irish civil society
toward eco-social well-being and
sustainability
Cathy Fitzgerald Ph.D Visual Culture:
eco-social art practitioner | researcher
50th Conference of Irish Geographer’s Art & Geography Panel
The Earth as Home, 10 May 2018

2. This paper is a synopis of a study, that I wrote
last year, where I examined art and
sustainability policies for county Carlow,
where I live.
However, having thought about these issues for the last
decade - I have a background in research science,
contemporary eco-social art practice & research at doctoral
level, with some environmental policy development
experience, the report quickly grew to scope arts and
sustainability policy for all of Ireland.

3. ¤ report

4. Specifically, my main aim in this paper, is to argue that the
Irish arts sector, in particular our national art agencies,
have a critical societal leadership role to develop policy
and programmes to engage civil society toward eco-
social well-being and sustainability.
Presently, sustainability is under-acknowledged in the sector itself
‘Art and sustainability’ is not just another topic for the art sector: it is,
and will continue in the coming decades, to be a key issue to reflect &
envision our communities’ sustainability across Ireland.
I will argue from recent research & international cultural policy that
creative practices have a critical role to humanise, localise and make
relevant, sustainability directives and poilicies that rely too heavily on
facts and figures.

6. We are living in a time of great planetary peril.
It is a time of great dying: an Anthropocene extinction-level event is
underway, the planet is burning, glaciers are melting and the
oceans are poisoned and souring. All because our industrial
globalised culture is so alienated from the Earth.
Inconceivable as it may be, the philosopher Holmes Rolston calls
this decade a “hinge point” (Dean Moore, 2012); what we do, or fail
to do as a culture in the immediate future, will have serious
consequences for many species survival, including our own.
Thus, we need to utterly and urgently change the way
we live on our precious Earth, our only home.

8. And the ‘way we live in this world’, is
through culture…
that continously evolves through our arts, traditions, faiths,
even sport.
Today, my arguments are directed to the Irish art sector, but
please keep in mind that these other cultural activities are
important in changing society too.

9. What is culture?
Its ‘the way we live in this world’

10. However, in my review, I found an absence that
‘culture’ has a key role to engage Irish civil society
toward sustainability.
It has been largely overlooked in our new Irish state strategies:
in the National Adaptation Framework for climate change (2017)
and in the
National Implementation Plan for the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable
Development Goals (2018) (SDG’s),published only a couple of
weeks ago.
(the only time ‘culture’ appears in these documents is in the word
‘agriculture’!)

12. Similiarly, when last year’s laudable first Irish Citizen’s
Assembly for Climate Change concluded that
climate change, must be central to all policy areas,
culture again was largely overlooked
and I did submit my study J to the assembly
There are reasons for this oversight though, which I will discuss.

13. Recommendations:
i. 97% of the Members
sought to seek that
climate change is at
the centre of policy-
making in Ireland, as a
matter of urgency…p.5

14. If we accept that extraordinary societal change on
a scale never undertaken before, is in front of us…
we need to realise as moral philosopher Kathleen Dean
Moore and others argue, that the predicament we face is not
just a political problem, or a technological problem or an
economic problem.
Of course it is all of these, but fundamentally, the root of the
crisis we face is a moral crisis of Western, globalised industrial
culture that has catastrophically failed to perceive its place in
living well with the Earth (Dean Moore, 2013)

15. What does the Earth ask of Us?
The predicament we face is not just a
political problem, or a technological
problem or an economic problem.
The root of crisis we face is a moral crisis of
Western, globalised industrial culture that
has catastrophically failed to perceive its
place in living well with the Earth
Kathleen Dean Moore, 2013

16. And if we wish our modern culture to thrive, to
become more aware, compassionate and just,
this will require a radical expansion of ideas and
values to encompass Earthly well-being
We must all become part of a massive cultural shift toward
enacting ecological understanding (witness the calls for
international laws against ecocide, Rights of Nature laws)…
to remember that our individual, societal, and economic
thriving is always a subset and connected to our
environments’ well-being.

18. We have such a short window of time in which to act !
I will argue briefly from several perspectives in the following slides
why this is a critical issue for the Irish art sector - now and in the
coming decades.
I then review & discuss the current absence of, and challeges
involved, in adopting an eco-social focus in our national Irish Art
strategies.
Then I offer that, there are developed national art & sustainability
programs supported by other national Art Councils, such as in
Scotland (and England), that are making a real difference to
improve the ecoliteracy, and thus art sector engagement with what
is the biggest existential threat of our time.

20. How we frame the planetary predicament is key –
First, cognitive linguist George Lakoff confirms new evidence from
neuroscience that changing societal behaviour, to do something
differently, always involves thinking and feelings.
So when we recognise environmental problems are very much a
cultural problem, we then realise both facts and creative responses,
that touch our emotions are urgently needed (Lakoff, 2013).
In this way, Lakoff (2013), Dean-Moore (2013), Bill McKibben (2005)
and others highlight that the great cultural shifts against slavery, for
civil rights, for womens rights, for Aids patients rights, even for early
environmental awareness, all employed creative cultural activity
alongside new understandings, as a relatively rapid means to
engage society toward new values to live by.

21. we realise both facts and creative responses
are urgently needed so we can learn to do
things diffently (Lakoff, 2013)
If we instead frame the environmental emergencies
as a cultural crisis

22. Second, moral philosophy also supports the importance of
cultural activity: philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore explains
moral reasoning for action, that supports a living, thriving, just world,
requires facts to guide us, but knowing why, how and when to act,
is a process of developing corresponding values.
“In knowing what we have to do, we have to do the science, but
we have been making a mistake in thinking that’s enough.
We equally… have to decide on what we most deeply value, we
have to talk about the ideals that move us, we have to figure out
what we hope for our children, we have to decide in what we
believe in, and what we don’t believe in…
AND THIS IS THE WORK OF ART,..POETRY, LITERATURE, & RELIGION &
PHILOSOPHY – ITS THE WORK OF CIVIC COMMUNITY – IT IS STORY-
TELLING IN ALL ITS FORMS...” (Dean Moore, 2013)

23. “AND THIS IS THE WORK OF ART... POETRY,
LITERATURE, & RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY – IT’S THE
WORK OF CIVIC COMMUNITY – IT IS STORY-
TELLING IN ALL ITS FORMS...”
Kathleen Dean Moore, 2013, What Does the Earth Ask of Us?
“We equally… have to decide on what we most deeply value…”

24. Three, sustainability is now central in new international
culture policy too.
In China, UNESCO adopted the Hangzhou Declaration: Placing Culture at
the Heart of Sustainable Development Policies (UNESCO, 2013).
Culture is now confirmed as the overlooked 4th pillar
of sustainability, for community eco-social well-
being!
Next, an example from the Irish Carlow Drummin Bog Project, in which I and
other artists, ecologists and community workers are developing an eco-
social art project in South Carlow – the cultural side of this creative project
has already engaged broad interest from the community about why
safeguarding our local bog landscapes is interconnected to community
well-being and global eco-social concerns of biodiversity loss, land integrity,
& climate change.

25. UNESCO 2013 - culture is confirmed as the overlooked
4th pillar of sustainability, for communities’ eco-social
well-being!
Carlow Drummin Bog Project :
an eco-social art project for an important
south east raised bog and its nearby community

26. Likewise, these ideas that culture now has a central
role for sustainability, are now spreading and being
applied, for e.g. by the United Cities and Local
Governments (UCLG) organisation
In 2015, UCLG renewed its commitments to highlight the
interdependent relationship between citizenship, culture, and
sustainable development to enact the UN 17 SDG’s.
Interestingly, Galway was chosen for a pilot city study in 2016 to
look at its broad understanding of sustainability, that includes
environmental sustainability. Just briefly, for environmental
concerns, it was noted that much more needs to be done to
raise awareness in Galway on climate change and
environmental sustainability.

28. Similarly, Culture Action Europe, the political
organisation for 80, 000 creative practitioners
across Europe, also lobbies the EU to seek sector
funding to support cultural programmes to evolve
the arts for community sustainability and well-
being
This is ongoing work. In 2018 Culture Action Europe is
lobbying the EU commission for funding to enable cultural
workers to enact that ‘culture is a pillar for sustainable
societies’

29. Culture Action Europe – umbrella
lobby group for 80,000 creative
practitioners in 2018 is lobbying EU
for funding to enable cultural
workers to enact that ‘culture is a
pillar for sustainable societies’
Visual Artists Ireland – is a board member

30. However, in reviewing our first ever draft Irish
cultural policy Culture 2025- Éire Ildánach (2016),
the Framework for Collaboration: An Agreement between the Arts
Council and the County and City Management Association (2016)
strategy, & the remits of Creative Ireland (2017-2022), while there
is recognition that the arts help foster community and national
well-being, tourism and local economies, and are a means to
position ourselves on the international stage for creativity (and
evidently, more tourism),
there is a lack of priority, detail, and thus
programmes, that would support the Irish art
sector toward enacting a key leadership role in
fostering environmetal sustainabillity for our
diverse urban and rural regions!

32. In the Culture 2025 draft policy
document, there is only the briefest
mention of landscape heritage, nature
reserves, our farming culture.
And these practices, how we live with the land, our
waters, all need to be re-examined with a critical
culture eye that fully understands that we will need
to radically change how we farm, how we forest,
how we fish, how we consume, how we travel etc.
There is one line in the Culture Policy 2025
document, which also appears in the Creative
Ireland document, that states ‘The value of culture
as a means of fostering a more sustainable future
for Ireland, including through economic and social
policy’, that’s basically all the detail at the
moment!

33. Would you know our way
of life is facing any
existential threat from
these priorities?

34. So, I’m suggesting, that Ireland’s art sector’s potential for
sustainability is NOT discussed in any way
commensurate with the urgency and the scale of
existential threats that are unfolding.
As seen in the next slide, Ireland is not responding in kind, to its gross
unsustainability.
I argue, it is creative responses that will humanise, localise and inspire the
sustainability policy directives we want enacted. Academic researchers
like Petra Hroch (2013), confirm that sustainability is an emergent, site-
specific endeavour and not a fixed, one-size fits all policy.

35. John Gibbons 26 July 17 In 2014, Ireland is using equivalent of 2.8 Earths
and our biocapacity continues to decline!!!
Global Footprint Network National Footprint Accounts,
2018 Edition Downloaded
[8 May http://data.footprintnetwork.org.

36. However, I realise this absence of focus on eco-social
sustainability in our cultural policies is due to widespread
eco-illiteracy, not just in the arts but across Irish society
For eg. there is very poor understanding of how Western culture has
historically thought the non-human world is superior to, and an inexhautible
resource for humans to exploit. Not questioning erroneous ideas of human
supremacy fuels the exponentially accelerating Anthropocene, with its
ecocidal violence and injustice against other peoples and species that we
are presently witnessing.
It is a complex topic with a complex history but sustainable futures will only
develop if we move to an ecologically-based society. Sustainability
researcher Glenn Albrecht describes how we must urgently ‘exit the
Anthropocene to move toward the Symbiocene’, where all species thriving
is prioritised. Albrecht also recognises that cultural actors will spread memes
for the Symbiocene (Albrecht, 2015).
I am unusual, perhaps, in realising this oversight more keenly, as I haved
worked across science research and art sectors. My own creative practice
and doctoral research has evolved my ecoliteracy.

37. The absence of sustainability understanding
is due to widespread eco-illiteracy, not just in the arts
but across Irish society
Dominant, largely unquestioned Western
worldview of human supremacy
that permits unsustainable ecocide
will need to urgently embrace
Sumbiocracy where all species
thriving is prioritised

38. Here, in the next slide, I must point out there are
valuable pioneering Irish creative practitioners,
curators, theatre companies, art educators, that are
responding in Irleand.
But it is all piecemeal, poorly co-ordinated, unevenly supported
and thus poorly recognised for its social power.

39. Devious Theatre
Kilkenny
& in Dublin 2014
2012-13 Art & Ecology
Summer Schools
Curated by Denise Reddy
Sean O’Sullivan
Dublin City Arts Office
Art & ecology exhibitions
& seminars 2016, 2018
Curator Denise Reddy
Artists: Monica de Bath,
Lisa Fingleton,
Gareth Kennedy

40. But if ecoliteracy is so poor in the Irish arts sector
generally and time is critical, how do we enable the
Irish art sector to act swiftly and effectively to help
creatives foster new life-sustaining values for their
audiences?
Today, I will discuss the Creative Carbon Scotland* (CCS) art and
sustainability agency and programmes, funded by the Scottish Arts
Council
CCS has been developed for a nation of similar size and character
to Ireland.
______________
I became aware of presentations from our near neighbours, like the
English art and sustainability organisation Julie’s Bicycle, that is a partner
to Arts Council England and met with those who were forming creative
Carbon Scotland from attending the Culture|Futures summit during the
UN 2009 Copenhagen Climate summit

42. CCS has evolved to enable the Scottish culture sector
to perfom a critical role in its national discourse about a
more sustainable Scottish Future
It has developed 3 main strategies, that I believe could
be readily incorporated into Ireland’s cultural agencies’
policies

43. 1 CCS works to educate interested creatives and
organisations about why and how eco-social concerns may be
addressed in their creative practices and work, whether they
work on their own or with or for larger organisations.
2 CCS provides Scottish art institutions with very practical
training in carbon measurement, reporting and reduction.
3 CCS is the go-to place for cultural sustainability policy
development. They know that ‘Individuals’ and organisations’
actions to increase environmental sustainability are
accelerated by policy and strategic frameworks which support
them.’

45. At the moment 6 full-time staff are employed at CCS –
this is how seriously the topic is bieng addressed in
Scotland. It does help though, that Scotland has
clearly publicised Carbon sector targets, that Ireland
still lacks.
CCS receives targeted funding from Creative Scotland (the
Scottish Arts Council) and from the City of Edinburgh Council
CCS has partners throughout the art sector and with science
and sustainability organisations, community groups and
environmental NGOs.

46. www.CreativeCarbonScotland.com

47. Importantly, for the public money that is spent on the
arts, Creative Carbon Scotland strategies are enabling
the sector to reduce its running costs and carbon
emissions.
In the next slide, the latest Scottish regularly funding arts
organisations (RFO) summary graphic from 2015-2016 shows the
scale of increasing engagement from the cultural sector toward
sustainability and tonnes of CO2 saved.
And like England, since 2012, CCS works with Creative Scotland,
the Scottish Arts Council, to assist Regularly Funded Art
Organisations (RFO’s) with mandatory carbon reporting to reduce
their carbon footprints.

49. Conclusion:
Importantly, if national art and sustainabillity policy is
developed for Ireland, it could help direct funding to
establish such an agency and support creatives &
organisations who wish to engage in this area.
This would improve Ireland’s Art sector’s potential to engage us all for
Ireland’s future; it would begin to evolve necessary ecoliteracy for the
sector and give much needed recognition and context for those in
the arts we should be supporting with all our hearts.
We have so successfully supported community creativity to reflect
and celebrate our national citizenship in recent years, but its more-
than-than urgent we begin to reflect and celebrate our precious
earthly citizenship.

50. Summary
Kathleen Dean Moore, as well as been a philosopher, is an lyrical
polemicist, her term for writers who are striving to engage us with the
urgency of the Earth’s fate. A few weeks ago, she was interviewed and
spoke of how industrial society could be likened to the monstrous
Medusa in Greek Mythology.
She argues “And isn’t this the danger, that when
people look straight into the face of the desperate
truths of our time, they are turned to stone? Their
hearts are hardened. They are unable to act. Joyless,
inhumane, immobilized, they freeze into business-as-
usual, as if they had no choice…”

51. Summary
Dean Moore asks us all to consider:
“What is this reflective shield that can show us the
danger without turning us to stone? What can replace
paralyzing fear with a new vision of what is beautiful
and possible? What can break the bonds of lies and
denial?
The answer, of course, is Art, this magic reflective
shield. “ (Dean Moore, 2018)
So I’m asking today, can we raise the arts in Ireland today, like Perseus’
shield, to reflect the hideous faces of these global crises and transform
them so that people can bear to look and respond.

52. “Raising the Shining Reflective Shield for Ireland”
“What is this reflective
shield that can show us
the danger without
turning us to stone? What
can replace paralyzing
fear with a new vision of
what is beautiful and
possible? What can
break the bonds of lies
and denial?
The answer, of course, is
Art, this magic reflective
shield. “
Kathleen Dean Moore,
2018

53. End-Note
On a personal note :
Some of you might know that my creative practice, that
looks at the ecocidal violence of monoculture forestry, has
transmuted my grief, my keening for the Earth, into political
action for a different type of forestry; non-clearfell, Close-to-
Nature continuous cover forestry!

54. Endnote:
my eco-social art
practice has
transmuted my
grief, my keening
for the Earth, into
action for a new-
to-Ireland
sustainable
forestry.
Artwork by Kelly Louise Judd

55. ‘the little wood that could...’
Hollywood forest, South Carlow
>> Drafted continuous cover forest
policy, adopted Green Party, 2012

56. Toko-Pa Turner in her award winning book
Belonging: Remembering ourselves Home’
writes what I feel…about the importance of art for
these challenging times:
”They say a place becomes yours only after you lose
something precious there. The earth absorbs your grief and
then, moist with suffering, new things begin to grow in your
likeness.”
___________________________________
On that note, I would like to extend an invitation to you all
to join me for a workshop tomorraw at 9am, on how we
might progress art and sustainability policy and strategies for
Ireland. Please join me, it will be very informal discussion and
do let others know. Thank you so much.

57. Pam Bonsper & Dick RInk
So you’re all
invited!
Join me tomorrow for
workshop on
How might we
progress similar
art & sustainability
strategy for Ireland
Room SE 129
All welcome!
9am -10:30am
__________________________
Email:
cathyart@gmail.com
Web:
hollywoodforest.com