#44 | The Future is in the Fields: Cultivating Creativity & Community with Artist Lisa Fingleton
Lisa Fingleton is an artist, filmmaker, writer and grower of organic fruits and vegetables. From her home on a nineteen-acre organic farm and native woodland on the west coast of Ireland, Lisa is a prime example of one who thinks globally and acts locally. This is particularly true of growing and consuming food from their own region, something she encourages people everywhere to do.
“When people say to me they're buying their local food boxes, or they're getting up on a Saturday morning and going down to their farmer's market, that is actually a really radical act that needs to happen.” - Lisa Fingleton
Through her art projects, films and books, Lisa cultivates seamless connections between art, food and farming in a project called The Barna Way. The Barna Way is a mindset, an approach to life that involves “Listening to the land and creating an inclusive and welcoming space for all.” Lisa describes their lifestyle project as a way of “being in the world that is hopefully quite peaceful and connected with nature.”
On the organic farm and wildlife sanctuary Lisa and her partner own and manage, they are proud to cultivate a Healing Herb Garden as well as a Peace Path running through the native woodland that graces their land. It is on this land where they engage with diverse community groups through “social farming and live food and cultural events, while protecting habitats for wildlife.”
Recognizing the urgency around food insecurity, the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and forced migration, Lisa uses art as a means to help people engage on a creative basis rather than on a fearful footing. She encourages all of us to use artful expression as way of imagining environmental solutions, as well as to express our ecological grief known as solastalgia.
“How do we really connect with nature and listen to what nature needs us to do? Because too many times we're policy driven. Science is very important, but actually the connection and the creativity are, in my opinion, equally important.” - Lisa Fingleton
In this episode, we discuss:
• Lisa’s unique approach of combining art, film, food, and writing to bring community together to deal with a changing world
• How Ireland’s government and the Irish Museum of Modern Art support combining art with science to grapple with climate change
• Lisa’s film, Voice from the Fields, which helps the non-farming world understand challenges local food growers face
• Why shopping at your local farmer’s market is a radical act of supporting the planet & protecting food sovereignty
• Ireland’s indigenous farmers’ deep knowledge about the land and passion for protecting the future
• How Lisa’s hyper-local work in Western Ireland sends a message international in scope
