
Please note with my increased teaching work, I suggest people interested in mentoring complete a Haumea Ecoversity Essential Ecoliteracy or Earth Charter Course first.
One-to-one accelerated learning
Develop your creative practice with access to my knowledge and expertise in ecoliteracy. Mentoring or coaching is an effective way of customising professional development to accelerate your creative practice needs. It has been defined as “a partnership between a more experienced and less experienced practitioner” and it can mean that you advance more quickly with this topic.
A mentor focuses on an individual's (mentee's) work to assist their career progress and confidence. Through dialogue, a mentor can assess conceptual aspects, and new knowledge from other fields to advance your creative practice or creative research.
How does it work?
Unless you live close to where I live, I offer bespoke remote mentoring online. When it's convenient for you, I will host a series of hour-long, one-to-one sessions on Zoom (these sessions can be recorded for you) or Skype.
Please be assured all mentoring sessions are private and confidential.
Who is mentoring for?
Mentoring is most useful for emergent and mid-career creative workers, art managers or art researchers who have developed a body of creative work and are self-motivated and keen to new absorb new ideas, concepts and practices.
Who have I helped?
I have helped creative workers (artists, musicians, art researchers, curators and others) who are developing projects with ecological themes or concerns. I have a broad and deep knowledge of the art and ecology field from my ongoing ecological art practice (as I shared in the US Minding Nature journal, 2019) and doctoral eco-social art practice research. See my testimonials here.
What can I cover?
I can tailor specific art and ecology knowledge, knowledge about the challenges and rewards of ecological art practice, introduce you to environmental philosophy, and ecological ethics, and help you navigate environmental science with ease (I worked in research science for a decade). I can connect you to other resources to enhance the effectiveness and credibility of your creative activities, curating, research or cultural policy work aims. If you live in Ireland, I can alert you to possible funding opportunities.
Why is mentoring - coaching costly?
Before mentoring individuals, and to save you money, I advise people to do my Haumea online Essential Ecoliteracy course first.
One-to-one mentoring is more costly than doing a workshop or online course as in a group situation.
Mentoring is also time-consuming for me, as I spend effort to engage deeply with someone else's creative practice.
When I look at your creative practice, it's not just about the hour(s) I spend talking with you to get to know your practice and your key concerns. My brain gets hooked on thinking about your practice for you and bringing the most relevant ecoliteracy knowledge to you to consider and explore. So I spend more time than you would imagine when I mentor someone.
My mentoring you, which I really enjoy, also means I have less time for my own creative practice and other teaching work. So the higher price reflects these aspects of having individual access to my expertise and time.
Example of my mentoring: with composer/musician Carole Nelson

A post about when I first started working with Carole in late 2018, can be read and listened to here
You can hear me in conversation with Carole when I was just starting to get to know her and her eco-forest aims for the album. My advice for Carole was only about ecological literacy - ecoliteracy - the philosophy, expanded ecosocial ethics that an ecological worldview must have. My first mentoring experience taught me what a joy mentoring is when we can learn and share together.
Carole went on to compose new forest inspired jazz works, that she developed further for her Carole Jazz Trio - this eventually became their stunning and critically acclaimed album Arboreal 🙂
You can see ecological insights in the mood, feeling, rhythm and titles of the track. It's beautiful as a complete production - although I still cherish the memories of receiving 'canopy' and 'beneath the ground' into my email and witnessing Carole's earlier versions and the trio's first public gig of the album before it was recorded. 'In the days of growing darkness' (after Mary Oliver's words) is another favourite.
Carole's new album was reviewed in the Irish Times here and here and internationally as well.
"a rare and elegant talent" - Irish Times on Arboreal album in 2020 best albums to date.
'Nelson is, without question, as the refined language of her writing and playing constantly reiterates, a singular voice,'
All About Jazz Magazine
More information on Carole's work is here
RIGHT (video) Cathy Fitzgerald and composer, jazz musician Carole Nelson reflect on Cathy's ecoliteracy mentoring and how it helped Carole in the development of her new jazz trio album 'Arboreal' (2020).

