Dr Hazel Farrell, South East Technological University
We are deeply honoured to receive the inaugural SATLE Impact Award for the SETU Sustainability in the Arts Festival. It is wonderful to see the passion and dedication of the students and staff acknowledged through this prestigious award.
The inspiration for the festival was a desire to enhance student engagement in their learning journeys, coupled with the strategic aim of contributing towards a culture of sustainability in the university and wider community. While many initiatives look at embedding sustainability in the curriculum, we wanted to take this a step further and give learners an inclusive and accessible platform to showcase their learning and create broader impact. The focus on the arts also brings a unique perspective to the narrative on sustainability in HE and provides scope for innovative approaches and creative outputs. The strength of the project lies in the multi-disciplinary collaborative approach and peer learning inherent in this both from a student and educator’s perspective.
The festival is largely student-led with learners exploring how the SDGs relate to them in their own discipline areas and producing outputs that reflects this. It has incorporated undergraduate programmes in music, visual art, graphic design, culinary arts, languages, and postgraduate studies in internationalisation, and this forms the basis for a rich and diverse learning environment. A wide variety of creative approaches to showcase teaching and learning have featured in the festival including an immersive experience with visuals, original music, and an installation of found objects; visual art and graphic design exhibitions from recycled and sustainable materials; cooking demonstrations and multilingual recipe cards; dioramas; research posters and presentations; and a collaborative ‘Sunflowers’ mosaic.
While it was initially piloted as a 1-day event on a single campus in 2023, it has since expanded into a week-long festival across all SETU campuses with several national and international partners, and a vibrant outreach programme. The 2025 Sustainability in the Arts Festival focuses on the theme of ‘Land, People, Culture’ and takes place on the 7 – 11 April.
