Testimonials for Haumea Ecoversity
Katriona Gillespie, Mayo Arts Service
Cathy is a highly skilled educator who, during our introduction to ecoliteracy, offered participants the opportunity to make sense of our roles as creative practitioners. Haumea Ecoversity is invested in sustainability and ecological literacy and equips learners with knowledge that will help them to gain an understanding of how their work might progress in reference to this mode of learning… Read more “Katriona Gillespie, Mayo Arts Service”
Rhona McGrath, Roscommon County Arts Officer
Many thanks for your very informative introductory talk today with our artists on ‘why ecoliteracy is important for the cultural sector and for creative practice’– delivered so professionally, calmly and clearly. I really do appreciate you giving us your time and expertise.… Read more “Rhona McGrath, Roscommon County Arts Officer”
Leona Cronin, MSc Humanistic Psychotherapy MSc Mental Health & Addiction Studies Nature Therapist & Forest School Leader
Do you feel a sense of overwhelm and powerlessness when it comes to what is happening in the world around us? Climate action, climate change, climate catastrophe? The desecration of our natural world around us has accelerated so much it can be difficult to wrap our heads around the enormity of these consequences. As a result, it can result in… Read more “Leona Cronin, MSc Humanistic Psychotherapy MSc Mental Health & Addiction Studies Nature Therapist & Forest School Leader”
Dr Marilyn Lennon: programme co-leader MA SPACE at Limerick School of Art & Design
I am happy to endorse Cathy Fitzgerald who I met when she was a visiting lecturer in 2020 on the professional development course, Commissioning and Curating Contemporary Public Art, Valand Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden (Dec. 2020). Cathy presented a considerable breadth of knowledge, tailoring critical eco-learning to our professional group of public art practitioners. Her lecture was both… Read more “Dr Marilyn Lennon: programme co-leader MA SPACE at Limerick School of Art & Design”
Dr Iain Biggs: creative practice educator | artist | researcher – doctoral supervisor Britain, Ireland
It’s great to read about the impact Cathy Fitzgerald’s Haumea is having on people’s lives. Having watched her thinking and approach evolve over many years now, the comments above seem to me an entirely appropriate response to what is a valuable resource for all those concerned with developing a better understanding of the relationship between art and ecology. Knowing how… Read more “Dr Iain Biggs: creative practice educator | artist | researcher – doctoral supervisor Britain, Ireland”
Dr Paul O’Brien: visual culture philosopher, Dublin, Ireland
I was one of Cathy’s supervisors for her PhD, and indeed I think I was the main impetus in helping her to decide on pursuing what is always a demanding project, not least when it takes the form of both theory and practice, as it did in her case. Cathy is committed to environmental ideals, and combines (unusually) a deep… Read more “Dr Paul O’Brien: visual culture philosopher, Dublin, Ireland”
Krisanne Baker, water-centric ecosocial artist | educator, Maine, USA
Cathy Fitzgerald’s Ecoliteracy course far surpassed my expectations in materials presented and discussions. It is a valuable course at so many levels. I’ve been a practicing ecoartist for 12 years and educator for 25; despite my background, Cathy’s course was rich in knowledge that will continue to aid me in my teaching, personal studio practice, and ever-expanding community based art… Read more “Krisanne Baker, water-centric ecosocial artist | educator, Maine, USA”
Dr. Nikos Patedakis, philosopher and mentor, United States review
If life gifts you the opportunity to work with Cathy Fitzgerald, consider yourself lucky. If you are a policy-maker, please listen to her wise counsel. If you are considering signing up for one of her courses, do so posthaste. If you are a patron of the arts, get out your checkbook and put a lot of zeroes after that first… Read more “Dr. Nikos Patedakis, philosopher and mentor, United States review”
Helena Fitzgerald, Co. Carlow, Ireland: architect, lecturer and researcher
I invited Cathy to provide a guest lecture for 3rd year architecture students at the Cork Centre of Architectural Education, Univ. College Cork in Nov 2019. She provided a comprehensive, engaging presentation on the anthropocene and newer concepts such as the symbiocene and solastalgia. These frameworks introduced the students to thinking about man’s impact on the environment in a way… Read more “Helena Fitzgerald, Co. Carlow, Ireland: architect, lecturer and researcher”
Frank Abruzzese, cofounder Cow House Studios, Wexford, Ireland
I’ve known of Cathy’s practice for years and had been looking for a way to work with her for some time. Recently, we ran a residency called ‘How to Flatten a Mountain’ and it was our good fortune that Cathy was able to run a day-long workshop with our resident artists. Cathy was a fantastic facilitator and the artists were… Read more “Frank Abruzzese, cofounder Cow House Studios, Wexford, Ireland”
Cathy Fitzgerald PhD, transformative learning educator, ecological (eco-social) art practitioner, researcher and former scientist
Delivers the following consultancy, speaking, writing and research services to:
art and design, and architecture colleges/universities, art institutes, local authority arts offices/services departments, art organisations, arts and sustainability and community-led restoration projects,
In Process, and Upcoming:
2023: IMMA Earth Rising 2: organising the 'Quickening Holisim: Creativity as an Act of Love' seminar, Sept
2023: Invited to present ecoliteracy workshop for Irish culture & sustainability think-tank, Princess Grace Irish Library Monaco
2022-ongoing : Arts Council 'Invitation to Collaborate' Award, working with 3 Local Authority Arts Offices to provide ecoliteracy training to creatives, lead artists and LA staff for 3 County - Carlow, Kildare and Meath wetland habitats Gnathoga Nádurtha programme
Past Ecoliteracy seminars, workshops
2023: Hometree Ardnaculla Summer School, led Art & Ecology panel session, July
2023: 3-day Brewery Lane Writers ecoliteracy workshop, April
2023: Creative Carbon Scotland / Edinburgh Botanic Gardens Invited Speaker: Stories for Wiser forestry: the Right forest practice in the right place March 27
2022: Kilkenny Arts Office intro. to ecoliteracy webinar, Dec for sponsored bursaries
2022: Leitrim Arts Office intro. to ecoliteracy webinar, Oct for sponsored arts office bursary
2022: Lab Gallery Climate Cafe with curator Shannon Carroll
2022: IMMA Earth Rising: Facilitator for keynote lecture with author Lucy Jones of Losing Eden, Oct
2022: Arts Council - speaker for a Climate policy roundtable, July
2022 Invitation and n-person research presentation for Web of Life celebration workshop with international ecological art practice pioneer, Prof Newton Harrison, UC San Diego. 17-18 March
2022: Mayo Art Services intro. to ecoliteracy webinar, with ecopoet Grace Wells and composer Carole Nelson, July
2022: London Royal College of Art Doctoral Training Programme, Jan.
2022: Roscommon Arts Service, intro. to ecoliteracy webinar,, Oct
Clients
Hometree Charity, Summer School, Co. Clare
Brewery Lane Writers Festival workshop with Margaret O'Brien
IMMA - Earth Rising Festival
Local Authority Arts Offices: Roscommon, Mayo, Leitrim, Kilkenny, Carlow, Kildare, Meath
The Lab Gallery, Dublin with curator Shannon Carroll
Irish Arts Council
Creative Carbon Scotland
Burren College of Art Co. Clare, research fellow, visiting lecturer
Wexford Cowhouse Studios, provide ecoliteracy forest visits
Cork School of Architecture - ecoilteracy lecture
Crawford Art College MTU EcoArt Level 9 course, Crawford Contemporary Applied MA by Research programme - visiting lecturer
Carlow – Our Thriving Tribe, EU research artist as entrepreneurs participant, Visual Carlow
Leitrim Dock Art Centre, visiting lecturer
Limerick School of Art & Design MA Space, Dublin with Dr Marilyn Lennon
IMMA -Breaking Cover Collective, visiting lecturer
Gothenberg VALAND Art College (Sweden)
Chrysalis Arts (UK) Yorkshire – visiting online ecoart practitioner, lecturer
Cathy is an incredible resource for art education institutes, art organizations and individual artists of all kinds. Go to Cathy to increase ecoliteracy (eco-wisdom, eco-cultural skill) and rejuvenate your own art practice or that of your students and/or community. Bringing ecology and art together is essential right now, and Cathy understands the social, political, scientific, philosophical, and creative challenges it presents."
Dr. Nikos Patedakis, philosopher, educator and mentor, DangerousWisdom.org
Ecological advisory services
FOR ECOSOCIAL CREATIVE COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES
Cathy offers advice and writing on clear and accessible theory-method frameworks to guide creative workers or art-managers on how to develop successful long-term art-led community programmes that address urgent ecosocial issues
Increasingly art-led, ecosocial art programmes, led by local artists who accrue deep ecological knowledge of their place, who build relationships with community and connect with local scientific, environmental and traditional knowledge holders, local educators and others, will be valued to engage communities to live well within rural or urban areas.
Due to the ecological emergency, Cathy predicts there will be an unavoidable shift in the creative sector to prioritise embedded-in-place, ecosocial art activity over years, over the production of 'new work' as currently prioritised by many Art Councils. Harnessing the creativity of communities to safeguard their places, will be an urgent and community building response to the environmental catastrophe.
Correspondingly, it will be essential to support creatives, who over years, amass valuable ecoliteracy (ecological knowledge) of their places. Perhaps a model will develop to value long-term creative residencies and thus support those art practitioners who develop rich 'ecologies of practice (deeper relations between communities and their places)' over the current emphasis of bringing outside artists to areas for short periods. Short residencies, at present, only allow superficial examination of ecological systems and do not foster deep community awareness for place. In some ways, as other researchers have noted, creatives working for places and community will have roles akin to those in Indigenous cultures, who reminded their communities of the beauty and preciousness of the environment through traditional creative activity.
[Photo Above] In her home area, Cathy advises and supports local Carlow-based artists on the successful ecosocial framework for the Creative Ireland Carlow Drummin bog school art programme (2019) see here.
Cathy will be writing a significant document for future art activity for the area surrounding Carlow Drummin Bog following a significant Creative Ireland Award (2020-22) and ArtLinks bursary (2020).
RECENT BOOK CONTRIBUTIONS
‘Routledge Handbook of Placemaking 2021 ‘The Hollywood Forest Story: Placemaking for the Symbiocene’
Cathy's article 'Goodbye Anthropocene - Hello Symbiocene' (2019) first presented at NUIG and then at the international Anthropocene conference at Trinity College Dublin reviewed new ideas by philosopher Glenn Albrecht in his 2019 book 'Earth Emotions' and how they might frame advances in situated ecosocial art practice. It attracted over 1300 reads on her website and was later published in the book Plasticity of the Planet: On Environmental Challenge for At and Its Institutions (2019) MOUSSE PUBLISHING.
SPEAKING - PUBLIC LECTURES
with Cathy Fitzgerald PhD
Cathy has provided lectures for Art.Earth UK (2012, 2016), UCC Art & Sustainability programme (2012) with philosopher Dr Graham Parkes,
Dundee Art College postgraduate doctoral research seminar (with Prof Mary Modeen, 2016), Latvia Fields (2016),
Gothenberg VALAND art college online
Commissioning and Curating Contemporary Public Art (2020)
Invited Guest speaker The Dock Arts Centre, TreeTV (2020):
Whose Woods These Are:
Wendell Berry’s A Good Forest economy–with Cathy Fitzgerald
Cathy was invited as guest lecturer for
UK Chrysalis Art and Climate practice series (2021)
Cathy gave a guest lecture for Irish Museum of Modern Art - IMMA's
Breaking Cover ART AND ECOLOGY ENCOUNTERS Apr -Sept (2021)
organised by public engagement facilitator Paola Catizone
(who complete Cathy's Haumea Online Ecoliteracy course in 2020,
and Earth Charter course in 2021)
DISTANCE THIRD-LEVEL CULTURAL AND LOCAL AUTHORITY ARTS OFFICE TEACHING & LECTURES
Introductory ecoliteracy, sustainability values training nd talks can be offered.
Suitable for: adults mid-career to established creative practitioners for all art forms, third-level art students, educators, curators, art researchers of all creative disciplines, MA, doctoral and post-doctoral level.
Cathy has taught undergraduate Art and Ecology programmes at the Burren College of Art, given introductory Guest Vistor Lectures at the Crawford Art College MTU Level 9 EcoArt Programme (2021), Middlesex University Under and Post-Grad Social Art programme (2021), visiting Lecturer for Crawford Applied Contemporary MA by Research Programme (2021) tutored MA and PhD art candidates, and has facilitated Art & Ecology sessions for the Cow House Studios, Co. Wexford in her ongoing ecosocial art Hollywood Forest (where she lives)
ECOLITERATE WRITING
Cathy's research and writing skills evolved through her doctoral-level research in ecological art practice (The Ecological Turn, 2018) and her ongoing review of advances in the emergent art and ecology field, and her earlier career in writing scientific reports. Cathy has read widely across the art and ecology, ecocriticism, ecophilosophy and environmental ethics fields over many years. Her first art article was based on her undergraduate Fine Art thesis 'Science and the Eclipse of the Earth' (CIRCA, 2001).
Cathy's advanced ecoliteracy and academic knowledge of ecological art practice, art and science, ecocriticism, eco-philosophy, environmental ethics, transformational learning for sustainability, can assist you in developing leading research and written articles, and design effective calls for exhibitions, art programmes and projects that aim to effectively address ecosocial issues.
Cathy's article 'Goodbye Anthropocene - Hello Symbiocene' (2019) first presented at NUIG and then at the international Anthropocene conference at Trinity College Dublin reviewed new ideas by philosopher Glenn Albrecht in his 2019 book 'Earth Emotions' and how they might frame advances in situated ecosocial art practice. It attracted over 1300 reads on her website and was later published in the book Plasticity of the Planet: On Environmental Challenge for At and Its Institutions (2019) and featured on the on the Australian initiated website: The Institute for Interdisciplinary Research into the Anthropocene (IIRA), Feb 10, 2020
See more of Cathy's writings here
International Journal Publications
Irish Publications
ECOLITERACY POLICY EXPERTISE
Cathy was invited to present her review on the absence of Irish art and sustainability policy by Professors Karen Till, Prof. Gerry Kearns, Geography Dept, Maynooth University for the 50th Conference of Irish Geographers in May 2018 and lead a workshop on the topic ‘Raising the Shining, Reflective Shield’: the urgent need for cultural policy to engage Irish civil society toward eco-social well-being (Fitzgerald, 2018). She was then invited by Dr Nessa Cronin to further develop and share this research at the Moore Institute, alongside Dr Iain Biggs (UK) NUIG, May 2019.
ECOLITERACY POLICY EXPERTISE
Policy research and writing expertise
Art & Sustainability Cultural Policy Research Expertise:
Cathy was awarded a Carlow Arts Office Award in 2016 to develop a research study on the absence of art and sustainability policy in Carlow, and which soon became a review of the lack of policy, strategy and educational and financial supports for the Irish arts sector as a whole. Her report and online summary can be seen here.
Cathy's critical fluency of ecological insights, sustainability concepts and values, ecocentric language means she understands the radical shifts in Irish cultural policy that the ecological emergency will prioritise.
See all of Cathy's research in this area here
Testimonials
Dr Cathy Fitzgerald (PhD by Creative Practice) is a successful and popular transformational learning guide, lecturer, writer, speaker and researcher for sustainability for the creative sector, an ecosocial practitioner and a former scientist. This makes her uniquely placed to guide other creative professionals toward the most urgent topic in contemporary art today - how can we effectively employ creativity to inspire societal change in our audiences for the better world we know is possible.
Interested in learning more, please contact Cathy below: