Artists discuss climate action

THE climate crisis and the role that artists can play to tackle it will be up for a special discussion at Skibbereen Town Hall as part of the Arts Festival on Saturday July 29th. 

‘I heard a quote which said that we need the arts to help us feel the urgency of the climate crisis, and I think it was something we decided to do something about,’ Declan told The Southern Star.

‘There’s a lot of events which are focused around the climate crisis,’ said Declan. 

‘We have a day of discussion at the Town Hall called The Art(s) of Climate Action, where we will have eight really impressive speakers discussing climate change and the role of the arts, and we will encourage discussion with the audience.

Speakers at the event include Dr Paul Deane, a senior research scientist in clean energy futures in UCC. He lives in West Cork and is regarded as one of the top five most cited scientists globally in his field.

Other speakers include Alicia O’Sullivan ia 22-year-old law student in UCC who has been working on climate action from an early age and has just returned from interning at the US Senate.

Tara Brandel is a choreographer and dancer whose work increasingly focuses on the environment and climate justice. 

Ana Ospina is founding director of Green Skibbereen, while Dr Micheál O’Connell is an artist who makes observations on technology in the landscape. 

Dr Jessamyn Fairfield is a lecturer in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Galway and she is also director of Bright Club Ireland, a research/comedy variety night with over 100 performances across Ireland since 2015.

Sinead McCormick is a visual artist living on Sherkin Island, while David Giles is one of Ireland’s two Youth Delegates for the UN, while facilitator Róisín Foley is a curator, writer and researcher based in West Cork

The event takes place at Skibbereen Town Hall on Saturday July 29th from 12pm to 4.30pm. 

Admission is free but charitable donations to Cecas https://cecas.ie