As part of Kilkenny Arts Office’s community arts and climate action programmes we deliver annual projects under the Waste Not Want Not programme. It consists of a variety of projects where we work with groups and individuals using textile waste, saving it from landfill and giving new life. The programme works to emphasise the personal power of each individual, supporting positivity and alleviating eco-anxiety. We create connections and build new communities as we focus on teaching new skills, capacity building and exploring values, which in turn changes and / or reinforces behaviours. The projects support individuals and local communities to understand and appreciate the personal power they have to undertake actions that will help to alleviate and the support the Climate crisis. The programme focuses on meeting people where they are at ensuring that activities encourage discussion, the sharing of ideas, peer learning and practical and creative solutions to over consumption. The programme enables us to discover individual and community areas of interest and their desires to support change and have a positive impact on the future, thus enabling us to continue to work creatively and engage groups and individuals in artistic and inventive activities that will demonstrate to them the influence they can have on supporting new ways of thinking about consumption and consumer behaviour.
The project demonstrates a high degree of creative quality both through our forms of engagement with participants and the pieces created as part of the project. However, the process – the activity of exploring and making is the constant in this project, the foundation from which the many positive factors emerge – Whilst there is joy and appreciation for finished items, the emphasis and benefits always lie in the process.
The Arts Office has a longstanding history of running environmentally friendly / climate action-based community programmes, notably Three Bags Full, Born to Knit and Making Space, all of which sourced specific waste streams and designed and delivered community projects, ensuring that specific waste materials remained in the system whilst at the same time creating new communities, and building local building confidence and capacity.
