Eco Art Matters with Cathy Fitzgerald PhD

Eco-social artist, researcher and educator, Dr Cathy Fitzgerald, talks of how her ongoing (since 2008) eco-social art practice, The Hollywood Forest Story, and how it helped her develop ecoliteracy and agency to promote new-to-Ireland permanent forestry from her small forest in rural South County Carlow, Ireland. As her practice developed over the last decade, and with insights from working previously to provide professional developments supports through Arts Offices in the South East of Ireland, Cathy became acutely aware of the absence of arts policy, strategy and educational supports for creative workers to engage effectively with the unfolding eco-social emergencies. In recent years, Cathy reviewed overseas art and sustainbility programmes and cultural policy research (Fitzgerald, 2017) to identify that culture, which includes the arts, is the overlooked 4th Pillar of Sustainability. Cathy's research reveals that Ireland's cultural sector at present, is not activated or supported for its potential to prov