We’ve been talking to…  Eve Mosher

At Open Road we’re passionate about storytelling and giving people voice. We believe that understanding the past can inspire change in the here and now and help build a better future. We regularly have inspiring conversations with remarkable people through our work who are using storytelling to drive change. We’ve created We’ve been talking to…  to share these conversations – the learning and the inspiration. Let us know if there is anyone we should be talking to. 

Eve Mosher, Artist “We’re not dreaming and walking away”

Tell us about who you are and the work you are currently doing?

Right now, I’m the Embedded Artist for the Sea Change project. I’m working in Montrose, a small town on Scotland’s east coast, but the wider Sea Change project is also active in Buckie, a harbour town on the Moray coastline. Sea Change was initiated by Culture for Climate Scotland and is looking at two coastal communities that are facing a lot of change. It involves working with communities to help them define for themselves the future they want to see. I’m within the community as an artist using creativity to engage people in that conversation. Through the process of imagining a future I hope we can set up an infrastructure to make things start to happen as well. We are not just dreaming and walking away.

We’re living in a time of rapid change, what story from the past do you think it’s important to preserve? 

As much as I’m thinking about the future, learning from our past is so deeply important. I think the stories that are carried from indigenous cultures about how we can live with the land, how we honour the land as well as other species need to be preserved. They are a guiding light towards the future. Looking back at those stories is so important to inform how we respond to current and future climate challenges. We’re not losing anything by being more connected to the land, we’re gaining. We’re learning from a time that didn’t put humans above all else, but had humans intertwined with everything else and I really like that. 

What’s on your mind right now?  

I want people to fall in love with the future, as Rob Hopkins puts it. Yes, we can get mired and there are so many awful things happening in the world, but there is also such an amazing opportunity. I really want people to fall in love with the future. I want people to get excited because that is how we make things happen.

Looking three years into the future what changes would you like to see?  

With the Sea Change project specifically, my goals are to strengthen networks across Montrose so that different people start to work together and see each other as a resource.  The future I’m falling in love with is a bit beyond three years. This is because there’s such a disconnect between what’s happening with people on the ground in places like Montrose and up at the level of Westminster or the White House.  The folks I meet, the people I work with, are overall, on the same page. Even when I meet people who don’t believe in climate change, they may still want to build a more resilient community and/or build new networks or increase access to the foods around us. In three years, I want to see a better connection between those who hold power and the people they are holding power over. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share. 

One thing I’m getting excited about is the idea of how stories can guide us into the future. There’s a writer I’ve been chatting to about how can we get people to start writing mythologies for the future. How do we tell a story now for the future. How do we tell the stories of the future to the people in the here and now.