This week’s Repair Cafe comes with added Green Hearts for a Big Eco-Action Artwork.
Put some green heart into your art this Saturday with Eco Hub Aber. They will be hosting a Green Heart Art Workshop in Aberystwyth Band Stand from 12-3pm as part of The Great Big Green Week. Local artists and makers will help Aber people show the love for their green spaces by creating green hearts for a mosaic to be delivered all the way to Westminster.
Art as a Force for Change in Aberystwyth
Eco Hub Aber’s Kate Rolt said: ‘Art can be a fantastic way for people to come together. It can also be a powerful political force for change. You don’t always need to shout the loudest to get political points across. Through the power of art we can make our decision-makers sit up and re-think. We can show them what the people of this country actually want, love, and will go out and vote to protect. To get involved, you just need to make a heart, take a photo, upload it, simple!’
Local artist Rachel Booth, a talented illustrator, whose beautiful illustrations of animals and birds express the magic of the natural world, will be bringing pre-painted green hearts for adults and children to use. Local maker and facilitator Maeve Moran will be running a felt-heart drop in. Maeve runs workshops on heritage crafts and sustainable mending, crochet and upcycling. The Eco Hub Aber team will also be running potato printing workshops for all ages.
This will be an extra eco-action alongside the usual Repair Cafe, from 11-1pm, where clothes, electrical and other household items as well as tool sharpening and jewelry can be brought to the team of volunteer fixers. This week they are introducing a new volunteer, Jill, who specialises in jewelry, sewing and mending small fiddly items. If you want to bring an item for the volunteers to fix, the repair cafe will be open until 1pm. There will also be refreshments available.
How to Take Part in The Great Big Green Week
Eco Hub Aber want local Aber folk to come along, take part in the art and share photos of their big green hearts on The Climate Coalition’s website. These will become part of a powerful mosaic to be unveiled in Westminster on 9 July during the ‘Act Now, Change Forever’ mass lobby.
Cath Peaseley from Eco Hub Aber said: ‘The photo you upload can be of you, your green art heart or even a natural space that you love like the sea. You can use your photo to start a conversation at #GreatBigGreenWeek, tag us at Eco Hub Aber, or tag your local MP and share on any social media you have. All this helps show how much we care about climate change and that we want our government to take action.’
The interactive mosaic will be created from photos all over the UK uploaded to The Climate Coalition’s Website. Anyone can take part in uploading up to 10 photos each before the 18th June deadline. A variety of pictures show hand-crafted green hearts and heart-shaped hand gestures, others show yellow daisies or hot pink foxgloves growing wild in local woodland.
One contributor said, under their close-up shots of wildflowers: ‘My local woodland is my place to unwind, switch off and relax. I love photography and it’s my place of inspiration and mindfulness.’
Another uploaded a haunting image of a beach and wooden groynes placed in the shingle to stop the sand from being washed away. They said: ‘A very quiet end of the island known for shows in wild birds and a place I loved in childhood. I fear we may lose it to the waves.’
What is The Great Big Green Week?
The Great Big Green Week 2025 is a chance to join waves of green action all over the country. It is organised by The Climate Coalition, one of the UK’s largest environmental campaigning groups. They work towards a greener future for everyone, protecting nature from climate catastrophe. The Climate Coalition represent over one hundred organisations including The National Trust, Women’s Institute, Oxfam, and RSPB as well as ordinary people from across the UK.
Here in Wales, The Big Green Week is supported by Climate Cymru – a parallel Welsh organisation representing hundreds of Welsh groups and individuals. They believe in urgent and fair climate action for the people of Wales incorporating the use of the Well-being of Future Generations Act: a piece of environmental legislation specific to Welsh Government. The Repair Cafes are supported by the National Lottery Community Fund as well as Eco Hub Aber members.
Eco Hub’s Kate Rolt said: ‘From a little town in West Wales all the way to Westminster, Aber is being asked to say its piece about the place we love. A clean sea, a biodiverse environment, a haven for wildlife to thrive and a beautiful place for us to enjoy, if you love green Aberystwyth, come down and tell everyone why!’
