• Project Leader: Helen Gilbert, Royal Holloway University of London, United Kingdom
• Patrick Lonergan, University of Galway, Ireland
• Neide Areia, Centre for Social Studies of University of Coimbra, Portugal
• Emilia María Durán Almarza, University of Oviedo, Spain
• Heli Aaltonen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

• Achievements

In its first year, CoastARTS has prioritised building relationships with local collaborators and communities as part of creative, multiphase practice-led research addressing coastal crises. Three postdoctoral researchers have been recruited to the consortium, working with teams in the UK, Ireland and Spain, respectively. In addition, four new Associate Partners have joined the Norway team, increasing outreach and potential impact, particularly among schoolchildren. The team has set up artist-in-residence projects at LABoral in Gijón (Spain) and the National Maritime Museum in London, and will soon welcome Teresa Hernández from Puerto Rico and Jessie Kleemann from Greenland to these posts. Across the consortium, public-facing events co-hosted with cultural sector partners have so far engaged approximately 350 participants in arts-based activities designed to raise awareness of climate change and other environmental crises that disproportionately affect coastal zones. Puppetry has emerged as one important method for the project’s exploration of more-than-human perspectives on coastal crises, and several CoastARTS researchers are developing creative and critical research in this field, including in liaison with The Herds, an international public art project staged in various locations on an epic journey from Central Africa to the Arctic via a number of European locations.

• News to be highlighted

In 2025, CoastARTS convened two 4-day Research Integration Workshops (RIWs), each focused on cross-disciplinary dialogue and sharing of research methods among consortium members. These events also featured contributions from external cultural and scientific experts knowledgeable about environmental challenges specific to each workshop’s theme. RIW1 unfolded in Bødo and Røst (in Norway’s central coast region) and focused on the theme of Ecocultural Identity with a particular emphasis on human–avian relations and increasing threats to coastal bird populations. RIW2 took place in Greenwich, London, in association with the National Maritime Museum and explored the concept of localities, especially in relation to urban estuarine environments. The third of the project’s five workshops will be hosted in Coimbra, Portugal, in April 2026, with a focus on coastal erosion and cultural heritage. RIW4, scheduled for Oviedo (Spain) in early 2027, explores coastal crises in the context of migration, while the final event in the series, to be held in Galway in late 2027, will concentrate on the arts of resilience as they apply to coastal crises.

Aaltonen, H. (2023) ‘Re-storying SDG 14: Life Below Water’, Nordic Journal of Art and Research, 12.2: https://doi.org/10.7577/ar.5172.

Aaltonen, H. (2021) ‘Celebrating Neighbourhood Birds: Performing Equality in Avian–Human Performance’, in Theatre and Democracy: Building Democracy in Post-War and Post-Democratic Contexts, ed. P. Janse van Vuuren, B. Rasmussen & A. Khala, Oslo: Cappelan Damm Akademisk, 217–37: https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.135

Aaltonen, H. (2020) ‘Manifestet: Advancing Freedom to Be Alive-in-Connectedness’, Drama: Nordisk Dramapedagogisktidskrift, 2: 6–7.

Areia, N. P., Tavares, A. O., & Costa, P. J. (2023). Public Perception and Preferences for Coastal Risk Management: Evidence from a Convergent Parallel Mixed-Methods Study’, Science of The Total Environment, 882, 163440: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163440.

Areia, N. P., Costa, P. J. & Tavares, A. O. (2022) ‘Social Engagement in Coastal Adaptation Processes: Development and Validation of the CoastADAPT Scale’, Environmental Science & Policy, 133, 107–14: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.03.011.

Lonergan, P. (2024) ‘Ecodramaturgy and the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Abbey Theatre’s Adaptation of Patrick Kavanagh’s The Great Hunger (2020)’, in The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First-Century Irish Writing, ed. A. Fogarty and E. O’Brien, London: Routledge, 249–60.

Lonergan, P. (2023) Theatre Revivals for the Anthropocene, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lonergan, P. (2022) ‘“A Missile to the Future”: The Theatre Ecologies of Caryl Churchill’s Far Away on Spike Island’, Journal Of Contemporary Drama In English, 10.1: 133–47

Matias, A., Pinto, B., Areia, N. P. & Carrasco, A. R. (2024) ‘Insights into the Public Engagement of Coastal Geoscientists’, Environmental Science & Policy, 162, 103943: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103943.