Climate Care Corner
Located at the Top of the Stairs next to the main Dear Earth exhibition at Kirkcaldy Galleries, the Climate Care Corner is a space for further reflection, information and to inspire collective active response. We worked collaboratively with Fife-based artist Katie Fowlie to develop the climate care corner, in it she presents Wild Worries: Craft, Confide, Compost, an evolving installation addressing the theme of permacrisis through a shared ritual of care.
The Climate Care Corner has been designed to foster community and explore diverse approaches to environmental stewardship, shifting the focus from the feeling of “permacrisis” to the agency we hold, individually and collectively. Art may provoke thought, but it is through action that we build hope. The Climate Care Corner invites visitors to pause, participate in sustainable art activities, and transform your reflections into tangible commitments, recognising how small, local steps contribute to global change.
Katie Fowlie’s Wild Worries: Craft, Confide, Compost
For this installation, artist Katie Fowlie, alongside public participants, creates biodegradable
‘Mosslings’ from ethically foraged materials, contributing to a growing, communal artwork.
Inspired by Scottish folk rituals and global traditions of entrusting worries to objects, these miniature, living talismans embody collective anxieties. Each Mossling functions as a micro-biome, representing the transient and transformative nature of both fear and the natural world.
Through this tactile process, participants engage in active care, fostering individual and collective resilience. As the Mosslings decompose and nourish the landscape, they become a living record of our shared concerns and vulnerabilities. This offers solace and agency, transforming anxieties into quiet monuments of renewal, deeply rooted in land and culture. At the exhibition’s close, this forest of guardians will return to the earth, composting our worries and feeding the soil to spark new growth.
About Katie Fowlie: Katie Fowlie is a multidisciplinary artist based on Fife’s rugged coastline. With over 20
years of experience at the intersection of ecology, heritage, and community, her practice repurposes sea-worn relics and foraged plant matter to create site-specific works. Her artistic practice centres on process, consistently prioritising low-impact making and transforming solitary artistic endeavours into shared acts of care that foster well-being and connection
The Climate Clootie Tree
The Climate Clootie Tree offers a focal point for collective healing, encouragement, and positive change. Visitors are invited to entrust a concern, offer a hope, and pledge a climate-positive action.
This tradition is deeply rooted in Scottish folk rituals, drawing inspiration from ancient Celtic Clootie Wells. Historically, strips of cloth, or clooties, were ibued with a wish – often for healing – and tied to trees, sometimes after begin dipped in sacred waters. Inspired by this heritage, our clooties offer a unique space to acknowledge a personal climate anxiety or dedicate a positive pledge for our planet’s future.
The Climate Care Corner clooties are made from natural fibres, specifically untreated linen. They will be returned to the soil after the exhibition. As the weather and gently integrate back into the lade, they symbolically carry your intentions to the earth.
Climate Pledge and Hope Leaf Tree
The Hope Leaf Tree invites participants to pledge a tangible commitment, or express a wish for the environment on paper leaves and tying it to the tree.
Every individual action, however modest, contributes significantly towards our collective impact for restoring the health of our planet. The collection of leaves is a source of inspiration for actions we can take to directly address the climate emergency, and reinforces our common wish for positive change.
Worksheet Activities
The Climate Care Corner also includes a selection of books for children, young adults and families, as well kids’ worksheets that you can find and download below.
