6.5 Lucy Powers: Environmental Education through the Arts
Hello, welcome to series 6, episode 5 of the Prompted by Nature podcast. I’m your host, Helen, and this is the final episode for some time. I’ve made the difficult decision to put the podcast on ‘indefinite sabbatical’ so that I can be more present and consistent with my writing. I have a short solo episode coming up to talk about it but you can get all the updates on my Substack newsletter. Just search ‘Prompted by Nature’ on the app or website.
Onto today’s episode. Today, I’m speaking with Lucy Powers from Rowanbank Environmental Arts & Education. This is a conversation we actually had before the summer and with summer holidays taking me away from anything other than my kids it fell by the wayside a little. I’m so happy to be releasing it now though as it’s full of hope and creativity.
Lucy is the director of Rowanbank. Rowanbank Environmental Arts & Education CIC is a social enterprise, combining science with the arts to bring people together to enjoy and learn how to better care for their environment. They engage people in an imaginative and inclusive way, helping them to connect with and experience the magic of nature.
Lucy is a Climate Ambassador with Climate Outreach, and has been awarded a Churchill Fellowship in creative climate communication and education. Lucy is a qualified Forest School Leader and an EcoHomes and BREEAM Assessor. Lucy is also an aerial performer and teacher for All or Nothing Aerial Dance Theatre and Dance Base, Scotland’s national centre for dance. Lucy has worked successfully with schools, community organisations, government agencies and the private sector.
In this conversation we discuss:
What Rowanbank is and how it came about
How Rowanbank merges art and science to make environmental education more accessible and exciting
The Natural Flights of Steps and the part it plays in Rowanbank
The importance of carbon literacy and finding a variety of ways to teach this
Rowanbank’s commitment to sustainable transport
Rowanbank’s collaborative approach to creating stories
Sustainable costume design
The advice she would give to her younger self
What she has coming up that she’s looking forward to
You can find Lucy on her website www.rowanbank.org.uk and social media @rowanbank_environmental_arts
Episodes that would go really well with this one are:
1.13a Dawn Nelson, Rewilding the Self through Storytelling
5.6a Angeline Morrison, Folk Music as Storytelling
5.10a Moya Lloyd, Building a Creative Community at the Boundary Way Project
As always I’m on Instagram @prompted.by.nature, on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on Substack, where you can become a free or paid subscriber - Prompted by Nature.
I’ll be back soon with the writing prompt that accompanies this episode. Sending you lots of love. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon. Bye.
