Environmental Art

My goal for this project is to use art to convey a critical message: building resilience in a world marked by accelerating climate change and ecological destruction requires becoming an active participant in creating the world we want. Making art involves reflection, distillation, meaning-making, and accessing different ways of knowing and communicating. I feel strongly that art can convey ideas and feelings that other means of communication cannot.

Artists have been addressing environmental issues for a long time (the photo above is of the seminal environmental installation work Wheatfield), but the high stakes of our present moment have spurred new interest in environmental art and making connections between artists and scientists.

Here in Philadelphia, the Schuylkill Center for the Arts’ environmental art program is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Mural Arts is launching a capacity-building initiative around using public art as a catalyst for developing sustainable solutions to environmental challenges.

Well-known artists in our region like Diane Burko and Stacy Levy, along with many others, focus their creative practice on raising awareness about environmental issues. In New York, the BioBat Artspace focuses on the intersections between art and science. The SciArt Initiative aims to bring science, art, and technology together.

I have also found a lot of exciting work highlighted on the Artists and Climate Change Blog. In future blog posts, I will share more information about environmental art in Philly and beyond.