In order to give the project an immediate focus, water and river systems will be the central theme.
Explorations will begin with local water and river systems but will expand to include their catchment areas. These explorations will include coastal areas, estuaries, lakes, streams, springs, bogs and peatlands, reed beds, fens, salt marshes, flood plains, wet alluvial woodlands etc.
Increasing the planting of trees, and increasing renewable energy sources are some of the most well-known strategies to tackle climate change, yet in the popular imagination restoration of water and river systems is often overlooked. Restoring river systems and their habitats can drive change across the entire catchment area. River restoration contributes to biodiversity and can include things such as re-meandering, creating green natural river banks, removal of man-made obstructions to open up habitats for migratory fish, planting of trees which provide shade and reduce water temperatures, restoring upland wetlands to increase water storage and assist the prevention of flooding etc.
The community selected is Kilmacthomas and the creative appointed is Kieran McBride.
Kieran McBride
His theatre training took place at the Samuel Beckett Centre in Trinity College, Dublin and he followed this with an MFA in Art in the Digital World at NCAD. His recent theatre work includes an acclaimed set design for Heather by Thomas Eccleshare and performance in the award winning show Men at Play by Brian Burns. He is currently developing a documentary theatre project with ex-Debenhams workers entitled An Injury to One is an Injury to All. This aims to give voice to the struggle of the workers as well as the political and legal context of their fight for justice. He exhibited work in the group show Cycling Through the Rages, curated by Kelly Ratchford, at the Olivier Carnet Gallery, Dublin which explored the issues of urban transport and the challenges faced by cyclists.
Kieran’s arts practice has organically gravitated towards the field of participatory and community based arts and he is committed to the production of work that is socially engaged. Prior to the pandemic he studied community development under Amel Yacef at the CDETB. He has developed a series of voice and movement workshops for elderly women at the St. Andrews Resource Centre in Dublin and is currently a volunteer at Manor Chillout, a social space for LGBT+ youth run by Waterford Youth Services.