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Loving Earth Project: South Belfast Meeting’s story

Sadly the Celebration Earth! festival of arts and sustainability at St Alban’s cathedral on 19th September, has been cancelled for COVID-19reasons.

We are delighted to have introductions to the project in French, Spanish and Dutch and anticipate further documents in these languages soon.
Contributions to the Loving Earth Project from around the world are welcome. If you would like to help with further translations, or to be a local/regional Loving Earth contact person, please get in touch.

Starting on 27th May, Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre will be posting a series of online events to share our work -in -progress on Loving Earth Project textile panels. You may have started a panel, and need help or motivation to finish it,; you may not quite know where to start and would like to discuss; or you may have made one or two panels already and would enjoy sharing the process with others. All welcome! Come and meet each other, make new friends and explore what we can do both as textile artists and to care for the future of our fragile ecosystem, starting wherever we are.

Lottie Percival, an artist who regularly runs workshops at Riverhouse Barn, and a Loving Earth Project facilitation will be there to help with suggestions or problems.

Details are on our Events page

On our new Resources page you will also find videos introducing the Loving Earth Project, another with a guided meditation to help you think about the issue you want to focus on and a series of ‘how to’ videos to help with making the textile panels, but you can start in any way you like.

On Saturday 25th April at 11 am weheld our first online chat to talk about the textile panels we are making or would like to make .
A dozen of us met together for the first time. We had a really interesting conversation, less about the panels we will be making but rather about how we might develop the project in future. Plans are now afoot to hold a series of makers’ chats on Zoom, and an online course at Woodbrooke over several weeks.  A range of videos are also in the offing. Watch this space.

If you’re not on our mailing list, contact us and ask to join it.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . Please share with Friends if you’d like to chat with them as you make and think about your panels.

We’re delighted that a recording of our guided meditation is now online at  www.woodbrooke.org.uk/lovingearth . This short meditation is a really good way to get you started to think about the theme of a Loving Earth panel  and to explore what you might do to care for something you love on our precious planet.

The meditation is  6 minutes long – though you can pause it at any time of course .

We hope to develop some other online resources soon.

Like others, many of our plans have been upset by the tragic Coronavirus pandemic . However the Loving Earth Project is very well suited while we are in isolation or quarantine.

Working with Woodbrooke, we are developing further resources to help people engage with the project in different ways , but you should also find all you need to know on this website.

However, while Friends House  and other public spaces are shut down, please do not send your panels in to us. Instead, please email us a photo of your panel, along with your text about it and your name and contact details. We can then add it to our online gallery and will contact you when the time is right to send it on to join the travelling collection. Thank you.

It would also be lovely if you could tell others about the project, via Facebook  @LovingEarthProject or in other ways. Many people of all ages will be looking for creative and useful ways to fill their time, and all levels of skill are welcome.  It may be a good opportunity for some to learn new skills (eg via the internet) and to improvise with materials we have to hand. It would be great to come out of this pandemic with a glorious display of textiles to celebrate what we love, tell people what we are going to do to help protect the future of our fragile ecosystem and inspire others by our examples.

Take a look at our events page to see where Loving Earth Panels are being exhibited and workshops are being held.

Loving Earth Project is now working in partnership with Woodbrooke Quaker study centre,  to take forward the Loving Earth Project among Quakers in Britain.  This exciting development is part of the work Woodbrooke is undertaking over the next few years, funded by Quakers in Britain, to support Quakers in their witness to sustainability and care for the planet. Both the spiritual roots of Quaker witness and practical aspects will be addressed. A team of Woodbrooke associate tutors is being assembled to support Quaker meetings wishing to engage with the Loving Earth Project, if they need support. Further information will be available shortly.