Now it’s tenth year the Borris House Festival of Writing brings together celebrated historians, activists, musicians, journalists, environmentalists and literary minds to help us navigate these uncertain times throughout the day.
The Future is in the Fields: Creative Conservation on the Farm. Paddy Woodworth, Lisa Fingleton and Hannah Quinn-Mulligan talk about what policies and practices can keep Irish farmers happily on the land, while meeting increasingly urgent climate and biodiversity targets — and on the role the arts and artists can play in developing this new vision for our agriculture.
Lisa Fingleton is an ecosocial artist, filmmaker, writer and grower. Living and working on a small organic farm near the sea in Kerry, she has spent many years cultivating deep-rooted connections between art, food and farming. Her book The Local Food Project explores the power of growing and eating local food. Lisa is concerned about the fact that we are importing so much of our food and losing the capacity to be self sufficient, despite what we know about climate change and carbon footprint. She strives to ‘be the change’ she wishes to see in the world and likes to walk the talk, grow the food and integrate life with her studio practice. For the last number of years she has been working closely with her partner Rena Blake on The Barna Way, an ecosocial art project on their farm. Last year they planted 10,000 native trees on their land. As the newly appointed Kerry Visual Artist in Residence with Kerry County Council she has been engaging with groups and individuals specifically interested in the intersection between art, biodiversity, ecology and climate change. Lisa received an MA in documentary film at Goldsmiths College, London in 2015. She is also a Fine Art graduate from NCAD.
You can purchase a copy of The Local Food Project here
MEDIA LINKS
- Drawing with Nature: Connecting Art and Ecology
- Irish Times Article: 30 Day Local Food Challenge
- Greenbites Podcast: Bee the Change. Lisa Fingleton and Rena Blake with Elly O Byrne
- Foodture Interview: Could you eat local for 30 days or more?
- Laois Woman’s New Book Aims To Tackle Climate Change
- Irish Examiner: Food revolution – Filmmaker Lisa Fingleton’s BLT moment
- Irish Examiner: How cool would it be to serve Christmas dinner and say, ‘everything came from within 20 miles of here?
- The Irish Times: A month of eating only Irish Food (by Ellie O Byrne)