A three-year Cork evaluation credits 42 arts projects with building capacity for climate action

Six of the 42 funded projects, close to one in seven, got the deep dive: sustained attention, 46 events between them, an average near eight events per project ^[14][15][3]. A single visit tells you an event happened; returning tells you whether the same people came back and whether a partnership between a community group and a local authority held together after the launch. The other 36 projects enter the evaluation through surveys, interviews and focus groups ^[16].

Participants reported stronger capacity and motivation to act, and new social connections ^[2]. The team also recorded effects on values, perspectives and sense of agency that carried into participants' workplaces and professional networks ^[7]. These are outcomes reported by people who chose to take part, and a community project about biodiversity loss draws the kind of person willing to give up a Saturday to biodiversity loss. The described evidence base is self-report and observation, with no comparison group and no before-and-after measurement ^[17]. So the study documents what these projects produced, without estimating how much of the change the projects themselves caused.

Nyhan, a professor of engineering for sustainability at UCC, said: "The scale of the climate challenge requires more than technological solutions; it also requires deep cultural change." ^[9] The evaluation ties the fund to Ireland's Climate Action Plan, finding that it enabled collective action at community, regional and national levels ^[11]. Nyhan also said the findings "demonstrate the important role that the arts and cultural sector can play in delivering a fair and inclusive transition to a climate-neutral Ireland that leaves no one behind" ^[10].

Projects supported a just transition best when they adjusted to different needs, abilities and levels of climate awareness. The researchers say that adjusting helped marginalized and underrepresented groups participate while building trust, community ownership and capacity ^[6]. Collaboration and knowledge-sharing extended across communities, organizations, industry, local authorities and NGOs, including through Shared Island cooperation ^[13].

Anyone writing the next engagement bid can lift the design: tailored engagement, repeated presence, and outcomes measured as capacity and motivation. Capacity and motivation come before behaviour and emissions. The report recommends that arts, culture and creativity be embedded more strategically ^[12].