Director of Creative Ireland Wexford, Elizabeth Howard with Dr Cathy Fitzgerald and facilitator, eco-poet and writer, Grace Wells after their in-person ecoliteracy, Earth Charter and values-based learning for Wexford Local Authority Staff with responsibility for Climate Action, December 2024.

Contribution to foundational Values-Based, Integrated Environmental & Social Policy for Ireland’s Creative Sector

Testimonial: Elizabeth Howard – Director, Creative Ireland Wexford (January 2025)

“Cathy and Grace’s half-day ecoliteracy session for county staff with strategic responsibility for climate action and community engagement was very informative. It gave teams and individuals the opportunity to explore the intersection of ecology and art. The session prompted us to reflect on our value systems and underscored the importance of taking tangible steps toward change. It is suitable for all departments and can spark cross-departmental conversations and actions. Attendees from Wexford County Council’s Libraries, Arts, Environment, Housing, and Town Management divisions provided very positive feedback, including these key insights:

• ‘It was fascinating to hear from two practitioners—my knowledge has expanded. I plan to explore how I can inform staff work and also use the knowledge gained to guide the tidy towns group.’
  
• ‘The session reaffirmed the connection between creativity, culture, climate action, and biodiversity. It is all linked, and a holistic approach is essential.’
  
• ‘I now appreciate the critical role the creative sector plays in shifting attitudes and perceptions at an almost subconscious level. I especially liked the examples about the river, folklore, and mythology, and how to involve community and stakeholders in projects.’”

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Ecological Values-Based Policy Development for the Irish Creative Sector

In 2023, Dr Cathy Fitzgerald was invited by the Irish Green Party to frame their Green Party 2023 Arts & Heritage policy around the Earth Charter (2000), endorsed by peoples’ movements, UNESCO, and the IUCN.

The Earth Charter’s language and succinct ecological worldview—and its principles of environmental and social justice, democracy, and peace—enables arts organisations and practitioners to rapidly adopt holistic systems thinking and ecoliteracy. By anchoring the Green Arts & Heritage policy in the Earth Charter, Cathy aligned Ireland’s creative sector with more than two decades of global progress in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), integrating the Earth Charter, the 2030 Agenda and the developing Pact for the Future (Vilela & Jimenez, 2020; Castillo Ceja, 2024) for sustainable, equitable and peaceful futures.

Accredited ESD Earth Charter Educator

Supported by a 2020 Irish Arts Council Professional Development Award, Dr Cathy Fitzgerald completed a five-month intensive accreditation as an Earth Charter Educator through Earth Charter International—host of the UNESCO Chair in ESD at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica, a country pioneering sustainability leadership.

This immersion connected Cathy with pioneering sustainability experts such as Dr Mirian Vilela (Executive Director, Earth Charter International), US Prof Emerita Sam Crowell (‘Re-Enchanting Education with the Earth Charter webinar— for Haumea Ecoversity, 2025), subsequent mentorship for Cathy with US Prof Peter Blaze Corcoran (co-editor of The Earth Charter in Action, 2005), and holistic transformative learning with Canadian Dr Mark Hathaway.

In July 2022, Cathy presented these insights at the Arts Council’s Roundtable Climate Policy meeting, advocating urgent, sector-wide fluency in holistic, value-driven systems thinking. However, awareness of the foundational need for values based learning, the many decades relevance of the Earth Charter to promote systems thinking is still at its early stages in Ireland.

View Cathy’s online 2022 Irish Arts Council Roundtable slide presentation here

View Cathy Fitzgerald, Prof Michael Cronin (TCD), Irish translator of the Earth Charter Phoebe Cope and Grace Wells audiovisual presentations at IMMA’s 2023 Earth Rising seminar here

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“Let Communities Lead” “Around Common Values: Development of In-person Ecoliteracy Values Earth Charter Training for Irish Local Authority Staff 2024…

In collaboration with Dr Nikos Patedakis (University of California) and supported by the Carlow Arts Office’s Irish Arts Council “Invitation to Collaborate,” Cathy designed a seven-week online Earth Charter course taken by over 100 creative professionals.

As part of the three-county “Gnathóga Nádúrtha | Natural Habitats” programme (2022–24), the course demonstrates how integrated values—guided by the Earth Charter’s principles and symbols—quickly up-skill practitioners with an ecological worldview, enabling them to inspire their communities.

In 2024, alongside eco-poet and facilitator Grace Wells, Cathy developed a half-day, in-person ecoliteracy training workshop on values and the Earth Charter, for Local Authority staff responsible for climate action in Carlow, Kildare, and Meath. Their presentations, featuring case studies of how creatives are utlilising the Earth Charter creatively to activate diverse communities for climate and ecosocial action, illustrate how shared values and the Earth Charter’s symbols foster inclusive, safe “brave spaces” where communities act on what matters most to them and their places—complementing traditional sustainable development goals by activating ethical principles that ignite citizens’ conscience for change.

Fitzgerald and Wells have since extended this programme to Local Authority climate-action teams through Wexford Creative Ireland, earning enthusiastic feedback from council staff and cultural partners.d programme, earning enthusiastic testimonials from the Wexford Creative Ireland Director, Elizabeth Howard and council staff (see above).

Depending on availability, Cathy Fitzgerald and Grace Wells are available for in-person ecoliteracy and values based learning, please email us below.

Policy writing services

Cathy Fitzgerald has acquired significant overview of values-based learning and the significance of the educational turn involved in ESD and the inclusive power of the Earth Charter for cultivating an ecological worldview and integrated principles for system change since 2019.

She is available to review arts policy language to align with ecological language, concepts and the inclusive integrated ethics and systems thinking | ecoliteracy of the peoples’ and UNESCO and IUCN-endorsed Earth Charter.

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Email Cathy Fitzgerald:

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