Haumea Ecoversity Mentoring

As part of my role as lead artist with Corca Dhuibhne Inbhuanaithe – A Creative Imagining to explore ways in which farmers on the Dingle Peninsula can diversify to address climate change (funded by the inaugural Creative Climate Action Fund), I was supported to work with Dr Cathy Fitzgerald as a mentor. Cathy provided crucial context for the work and references to other interesting creative-led community climate and biodiversity projects. I also took part in both Haumea Ecoversity Essential Ecoliteracy and Earth Charter ethos courses which were valuable and insightful. I’m also looking forward to working with Cathy again on my next Creative Climate Action… Read more “Lisa Fingleton – Ecosocial artist, writer and grower”

As the 2022 Platform 31 Artist for Clare County Council, I was able to avail myself of several mentoring sessions with Cathy. She’s a very intelligent and sensitive mentor who listened carefully to my many different needs, gave good advice and was very encouraging. Cathy was very empathetic about all the challenges I was facing. As an eco-arts practitioner, I’m well aware of the complexities of our multiple ecological crises, and of how overwhelming our reality can be. But Cathy has great vision and values in this area and was a true inspiration. She has a huge scope of knowledge, and easily directed me towards many inspiring eco-philosophers and artists whose work continues to support my… Read more “Grace Wells, ecopoet & writer, Co. Clare, Ireland and contributer to Hometree.ie”

Cathy was an excellent mentor to me, she opened me up to lots of new areas of research and inspired me with recommendations of similar artists working in my field. She has a vast knowledge of eco issues and how we can start to address them as artists. She has a holistic and gentle approach and you can tell how passionate she is for working towards an eco-inclusive worldview. After finishing the mentoring sessions I feel excited about my new journey – 14 June… Read more “Deirdre Southey: multimedia, installation artist and curator, Wexford”

Ecoliteracy is a knowledge form I sought before I knew it had a name. Cathy’s mentoring gave me a framework to slot my thinking into and join up the dots I have been working to uncover through my artwork over the past decade. Her generous and careful approach to one-to-one mentoring came at a crucial time for me thinking about the use of plants in my work and helped me understand the wider concerns surrounding my research. Cathy helped me see that there is a greater international network of thinkers past, present and future that I can tap into. In the months after our mentoring session, I felt a definite shift into a new awareness and a passing of a significant threshold since thinking more consciously about ecological practice; which once passed, you can’t go back from. That ecoliteracy has a name and is a process that can be worked on (over a lifetime) is incredibly enabling. I thank Cathy deeply for her support and engagement with my… Read more “Catriona Gallagher: UK Greece-based visual moving image artist”

Cathy has been a wonderful mentor in the past few weeks, full of knowledge, thoughtfulness, and genuine deep love and care for ecology as a theoretical subject and a lived experience. Even from the first session I felt immersed in a new way of thinking holistically about this vital subject matter. It goes without saying that these sessions with Cathy have shifted my perspective and got me to ask some pretty fundamental questions of myself and my work. She has been a great teacher and support for my upcoming project at IMMA Dublin and I look forward to continuing the… Read more “Navine G. Dossos- visual artist, London-Athens Aegina Greece”

Working with Cathy was a wonderful experience, learning about the deep history of ecologically-engaged artwork, and being exposed to new ideas and processes which will continue to resonate in my own practice. Author of ‘Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence’… Read more “James Bridle: writer, artist – Greece”

It was a privilege to participate the Cathy’s Earth Charter course. I was so impressed by the breadth of her approach incorporating spiritual, moral and practical guidance on the Earth Charter. Also, I was moved by its relation to me as a human, an artist and a part of a World community. She and Nikos were inspiring and provided me with a huge injection of new knowledge. I will continue to pursue the path of the ecosocial path that I find my practice on but with now a framework of the Earth Charter and an awareness of other practitioners who are similarly… Read more “Jeni Roddy, theatre visual artist-teacher, Wexford, Ireland”

I would like to thank you Cathy for the course. I think this kind of education, all you delivered–was so comprehensive and so good–I feel like I have been studying for two years! It is worth spreading and could be a part of a study program at a university 🙂 You inspired me to develop my activity as an ecosocial art practitioner. I aim to develop ecological art projects for junior high schools, take students to the forests and develop creative-learning situations in nature. Like the German artist Tino Sehgal, I lost the interest in creating pleasing decorative things to sell. I’ve became more aware of the urgency of other methodologies for art now. Eventually, I imagine I will work exclusively with natural material like plants, wood and stone, but the most important is to make people embrace different ways of knowing to live well with all of Earth’s… Read more “Dagmara Pater:visual artist | post-grad. researcher Norway”

I found Cathy’s Haumea Online 6-week Essential Ecoliteracy course and mentoring inspiring on a number of levels. Educationally, I found Cathy to be a teacher who communicates with gentleness and conviction and the topics covered are varied and interesting with access to the work of many outstanding thinkers and artists. I learnt much and became a lot more ecoliterate ( although I still have a way to go). As a visual artist, I felt I had joined a community of people, a network of artists, both in Ireland and around the world who have a common understanding, who share information and have the potential to act as a support to one another. Personally, the course led me to begin meditating on a regular basis after trying unsuccessfully for many years. One of the artists/philosophers referred to on the Ecoliteracy course wrote: “When the student is ready the teacher will appear”. I am glad that Cathy and her course appeared when they did.    Thank you… Read more “Gillian Cussen: visual artist, Cork, Ireland”

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 positive integer. 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. Cathy has an excellent mind, both creative and analytical. She has education and training in the sciences, including a long stint as a research tech, yet she retains the sensitivity and soul of an artist. Cathy’s work as an artist reminds me of a lecture Toni Morrison gave, in which the Nobel laureate lamented that the problem with so much of the art these days is that it isn’t *about* anything. As a philosopher I can confidently… Read more “Dr. Nikos Patedakis, philosopher and mentor, United States review”

Cathy is an inspirational teacher, artist and friend who has enriched my understanding of ecocide and climate chaos immeasurably. I was embarking on a composition project and knew that I wanted to connect my music and creativity with an eco-practice but had no tools or deeper understanding other than my flailing sense of impotence in the face of climate chaos. Cathy guided me through resources, philosophers, activists, books and videos with a light and generous touch. I came to understand the importance of joining with others, of finding ways to express grief, of finding the courage to keep speaking truth to power and understanding the importance of every tiny action we make.My project is now ongoing with support from the Irish Arts Council. Cathy, you have my deep gratitude and my admiration for your knowledge and your dedication.… Read more “Carole Nelson – Musician, Composer, Ireland review”

Cathy helped guide me through one of my projects responding to the ecological crisis. Coming from Dublin and having had no formal education in the area of ecology, I found the research-heavy going at first. But Cathy gave me the confidence to pursue. She was clear and concise and generous with her knowledge. The project has since been selected for New Irish Works 2019 and I am indebted to Cathy for all her support!… Read more “Sarah Flynn – Visual Artist, Ireland review”