BLUEPRINT SHOWCASE
At 6pm on Saturday 19th October, The Playhouse hosted a very special event to showcase the work of the BluePrint project with community representatives alongside project partners MaREI University College Cork, Derry City and Strabane City Council and Mayo County Council.
Over the course of the last 8 months, participants from both Eglinton and Newtownstewart who were affected by flooding in 2017 and 2022, have engaged in art practice including soundwalks and creative workshops to explore and capture the lived experience of communities who have learned to adapt and respond in the face of devastating flood events.
The Mayor of Derry City & Strabane District, Lilian Seenoi-Barr was our special guest for the showcase that included some very special live performances and the premiere of a surround sound art installation that has been specially co-created by the project participants.
The Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council said: “I was honoured to attend the launch of the Blueprint Project at The Playhouse. This is a really powerful initiative showcasing the devastating effects of climate change that are happening right on our doorsteps.
“It was humbling to hear the stories of the residents from Newtownstewart and Eglinton who have had their homes and their lives so deeply impacted by flooding in recent years. Their showcase and sound and light installation have allowed the participants to capture their experiences in a positive and lasting way. Well done to all involved.
“The Blueprint Project is a call to action. We must respond to this climate emergency with everything we’ve got. The fight against climate change requires all of us to play our part, the simple changes we make in our everyday life can have a collective impact. It’s time for us all to step up.”
The soundscape was produced in collaboration with artist Sara Walmsley and is entitled ‘In at Midnight and Away by Morning: The Uninvited Guest.’
The piece is a sound and light installation which draws on the lived experience of communities, who, in having to deal with the realities of flooding, are already learning to live with the impacts of climate change. It combines poetic reflection and the sonification of historic and predicted rainfall data.
The showcase also highlighted St. Eugene’s Choir, Newtownstewart as well as the Eglinton Community Resilience Group. Members of whom have co-created a spoken word and polyphonic performance that honours their experiences of flooding in 2017 and 2022. These creative outputs were shared at the launch of the Derry and Strabane Climate & Sustainability Commission on October 17th, calling for more action to strengthen climate resilience locally.
The event helped celebrate the creativity, passion and connections that have been sown in both communities, and continued the all-island learning exchange with Mayo, through attendance from flood-affected community representatives from Crossmolina and Mayo County Council.
BluePrint 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 Environment, Climate and Communications.
The fund supports creative, cultural and artistic projects that build awareness around climate change and empower citizens to make meaningful behavioural transformations.
The BluePrint project with University College Cork, The Playhouse, Derry City and Strabane District Council, and Mayo County Council, involves a co-creation process with flood-affected communities in Derry and Tyrone producing a sound installation for risk communication, and an all-island learning exchange with Mayo, producing a ‘creative co-creation’ toolkit targeting others working with communities around climate risk and resilience.
