Photo by John Williams on Unsplash
About Us
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The Shifting Tides Project brings together coastal communities from the twin shores of Carlingford Lough, and across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, to foster new connections with local marine environments through practical ecology and the collaborative creative arts.
The small-scale fishing, sustainable aquaculture, and tourism that is relied upon by many coastal communities across the island of Ireland, need a healthy marine environment to prosper. To help these same communities find new ways to become custodians of their thriving coastal ecosystems, our project will work with local stakeholders and community members to build a deeper understanding of the complex relationships that exist between humans and the marine world, through participation, performance, creativity, and education.
Community and Ownership
Effective climate action asks us to act locally but think globally. As such, effective climate action must be rooted in community and ownership. Shifting Tides will be developed in collaboration with impacted local communities who are the ideal candidates to take charge of positive climate intervention and marine management.
Collaboration, Creativity, and Education.
Arts-based practices are increasingly seen as a highly effective way to collaboratively develop meaningful connections with climate change, and to encourage public engagement. Culture influences trends and behaviours and elicits actions essential in adapting to climate change.
Our Team
Our multidisciplinary team, synergizing backgrounds in the arts and sciences with experience in project management and communication, will be supported by the reach and resources of The Wheel and NICVA. Placing community and creative engagement at the forefront of our project, we will begin by producing a series of site-specific performances co-developed with coastal communities, featuring input from a team with experience in ecology, zoology, scientific diving and underwater photography, filmmaking, circus performance and dance, music, printmaking, foraging, and aquatic sports.
Our Work
Throughout 2024 and 2025, our team will undertake the development of an educational outreach programme, community workshops, coastal foraging, oral heritage recordings, and scientific diving. A podcast and documentary web series along with short films incorporating arts outputs and elements of the local marine environment will also be created. In catalysing input from local artists and providing support and guidance across the community, our project will generate definitive change in ways of seeing and approaching the issues of climate change, marine ecology, and biodiversity.
Shifting Tides is a recipient of the Creative Climate Action fund, an initiative from the Creative Ireland Programme. It is funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in collaboration with the Department of the Taoiseach. The fund supports creative, cultural and artistic projects that build awareness around climate change and empower citizens to make meaningful behavioural transformations.
Get involved now by filling out our Expression of Interest Form.
Meet the Team
Suzie
Cahn
I joined The Wheel as the Shared Island Project Director in December 2021. My role is to manage this joint initiative of The Wheel and NICVA. Working collaboratively, the project seeks to bring communities together to address challenges, highlight solutions and capitalise on opportunities on a shared island basis.
Alexander McMaster
I am a writer and marine ecologist from the Atlantic coast of Ireland. A regular contributor to The Irish Times and RTÉ radio, I have published writing in Geographical Magazine and EU Observer. As a professional diving instructor and scientific diving instructor, seafarer and underwater photographer, I am involved with a number of projects on and beneath the water.
Samuel Arnold
Keane
I am a forager, illustrator and musician who blends his various art forms to tell
the stories of seaweeds, plants coasts and streets where he gathers, wades and walks. I am a qualified surf instructor with an academic background in Visual Communications, specialising in illustration & printmaking.
Danae Wollen
I am a qualified zoologist, and have recently shifted my focus to circus, acrobatics and physical performance. I performed with a number of Irish companies before spending two years exploring contemporary circus in Spain and France. In my work, I seek ways to merge art forms such as circus with live music, storytelling through movement, and sculpture as a backdrop to theatre.
Declan Mallon
I am currently director of Upstate Theatre Project. The company was formed in 1997 and is dedicated to socially engaged art practices. The projects, with, by and for communities adhere to a participatory and collaborative ethos. Productions involve a wide variety of genre bending styles and performance disciplines that have included large and medium scale live dramatic performances, immersive audio and visual installations, radio plays and video works.
