WHEN ARTIST LISA Fingleton first started working with farmers from Corca Dhuibhne in west Kerry, they weren’t sure what to make of her.

“We were working with ten farming families in Dingle and looking at diversification and using art to explore climate change,” she told The Journal.

“And when people heard there was an artist working with the project, they were like, ‘sure what good is that going to do?’

Fingleton was the lead artist for Corca Dhuibhne Inbhuanaithe, a Creative Climate Action Project. She and the 10 farmers involved in the project creatively explored climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as the role that farmers can play in tackling the climate crisis.

But first, she said, it was important to gain their trust.

“We valued trust and and we really felt that trust was important and that it shouldn’t be taken for granted,” she said.

Soon, however, the the group gelled together, and were able to openly discuss issues around farming and biodiversity, the changing weather and the farmers’ own experiences of trying to make a living in a rapidly changing social and physical landscape, as well as their ideas on how deal with the problems.

“The fact that I was able to hear their ideas, and talk to them, and then draw their ideas, I think really helped,” says Fingleton, who is also an organic farmer herself.

So we did a full big vision board about the future of farming. And they were able to describe it and I was able to draw it. So we have this really succinct drawing about farmers’ ideas around climate change. 

This board then grew into a wall which was unveiled last year at the National Ploughing Championships, with hundreds of farmers contributing. 

For Fingleton, these are good examples of how art can get people thinking and talking about the climate crisis in a collaborative way, free from the anger and division that makes up a lot of the coverage of climate change in the media.

Next week, she will take part in a panel discussion with farmers and screen a short film – called Voices from the Field / Guthanna ón nGort- about the Corca Dhuibhne farmers.

This will form a small part of Earth Rising, the four day eco-festival taking place at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), alongside many other events and experiences that seek to engage with and respond to the climate emergency. 

Earth Rising

Earth Rising will run from Thursday to Sunday next week at IMMA, on the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin 8

The festival has an ethos of collaboration, dialogue and collective action at its core, as it seeks to creatively explore and respond to the climate crisis.

There will be wide array of screenings, activities, talks, installations, workshops, musical performances and more across the four days, all of which respond to the climate and biodiversity crises in some way. The festival will also include a number of specific events as part of Culture Night on Friday, opening late until 9pm.

All the events will be free, and there will be many child-friendly activities and a lot to see and do for all ages (though IMMA advises pre-booking for some). 

Some of the events across the weekend include:

• A wide range of workshops, including human-size nest making, cheesemaking, reworked upcylced jewellery-making, and many more.
• A community smokehouse where people can smoke their own fish, as well as a Field Kitchen area which will feature live cooking demonstrations, discussions, and interviews across the entire weekend. 
• A range of performances, including an Eco Céilí, and Gaelic ritual immersive theatre piece, and a roaming plant music performance, among others.
• A dedicated area for children and young adults run by ECOUNESCO that will host a programme of workshops and discussions across themes of climate, and biodiversity.

As well as this there will be a wide variety of visual art installations, exhibitions, screenings and much more. 

Bringing people together 

Director of IMMA Annie Fletcher said that the festival will “serve as a catalyst for creative thinking and our collective agency in the face of pressing global issues”.

“Earth Rising embodies IMMA’s commitment to fostering creative-thinking, dialogue, and understanding as we collectively address the climate crisis and envision a brighter, more sustainable future,” she said.

Linking in with her own work, Lisa Fingleton says art can be a way to get people caring about climate change, which is essential if the world is the tackle the crisis head on.

“I think we are an amazing country for creativity, with fantastic writers, poets,” she said.

“And like writers, artists always start with blank pages. And we can actually create a vision with people, we can actually help people to visualise a new future and a new way of going forward.

“I think the old systems just have not served us, and as the author Joanna Macy says, we can’t continue with business as usual. We have to create new ways of being.

And I think that’s why something like Earth Rising is really important, because it’s bringing artists together in one space for four days, to have communication with communities and talk about these huge big issues in really creative ways. 

Earth Rising runs from Thursday 21 September to Sunday 24 September. More information can be found on imma.ie