Episode 19: Creative Changemaking in Art & Architecture (with Sinéad Cullen)

I know Sinéad Cullen is not alone in once feeling inadequate for not being a fists-in-the-air, protest-in-the-streets kind of activist; for not taking a stand in that dimension of The Great Turning we call “Holding Actions.”

I also know she’s not alone – and many of you listening will relate – in being deeply inspired by spontaneous creative expression, by powerful shifts in perspective, and by creative new design solutions. An architect, visual artist, and Movement Medicine teacher, Sinéad is deeply engaged in the other two dimensions of The Great Turning: “Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes,” and “Shifts in Consciousness.”

Click Play above to hear us talk about:

• shifting from a “linear economy” way of designing buildings toward structures (and art!) that are “designed for disassembly” 
• plus why sometimes people don’t like that idea
• getting lost and coming home through creativity
• traveling the spiral of the Work that Reconnects through movement and visual art
• creative expression as the bridge between hopelessness and possibility
• solutions that emerge from slowing down, and valuing diverse perspectives
• and Sinéad dreaming up a new chapter in her life that brings her back to architecture, integrating Movement Medicine, the Work that Reconnects, and her time spent in ecovillages and indigenous communities

And after you listen, please leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

Sinéad Cullen, of Beautiful Earth Projects, lives in the southwest of Ireland. She’s an architect, visual artist and Movement Medicine teacher. She believes we are all creative, and she’s fascinated with the creative process and how we access our creative power. Sinéad works with individuals and organisations, engaging heads, hands and hearts to imagine and build healthier ways of living. She supports creatives to become creative changemakers. She has also worked as an architect and sustainable design consultant in the construction industry, recently completed a year-long one painting a day challenge, and spent two years living in and learning about intentional communities and eco-villages, including time with indigenous groups to learn about their innate connection to the world.

Here’s one of her paintings I love, called Firkeel in February:

Connect with Sinéad Cullen through her website: http://sineadcullen.com/

Read this beautiful piece to hear more of Sinéad’s story, and receive the wisdom from her time in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Colombia, connecting with an eco-community and their Kogi neighbors: https://letscreate.sineadcullen.com/index.php/2018/03/30/the-golden-thread/

Learn more about Circular Economy: https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview

Check out Jason McLennan’s talk at Bioneers: https://bioneers.org/jason-mclennan-reconciliation-regeneration-zstf2206/

Learn about the Living Building Challenge: https://living-future.org/lbc/

Read Fred Lamotte’s poem Environmental Buddhism 101: http://saintjulianpress.com/buddhism-101.html

and Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias