Climate Art Beat^®

Winona, MN

Aabijijiwan /Ukeyat yanalleh, It Flows Continuously: Karen Goulet and Monique Verdin at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. Installation view, 2024. ©Minnesota Marine Art Museum, 2024. Courtesy of the museum. Photo credit: Bailey Bolton.

Minnesota Marine Art Museum

“Aabijijiwan / Ukeyat yanalleh,” which translates to “It Flows Continuously” in Ojibwe and Houma, is a collaborative exhibition by multimedia artists Karen Goulet (Ojibwe) and Monique Verdin (Houma). The two artists are bound by a common river, the Mississippi, which originates in northern MN (home to the Ojibwe) and empties into the sea in coastal regions inhabited by Houma. Through sculpture, textiles, photographs, collages and video, Goulet and Verdin bear witness to the history and ongoing changes to the watershed they both inhabit.

Now through July 7, 2024

Washington, DC

Prentice H. Polk, George Washington Carver, 1938. Gelatin silver print. ©Tuskegee University Archives, Tuskegee, AL. Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution National Portrait Gallery.

National Portrait Gallery

Forces of Nature: Voices that Shaped Environmentalism examines some of the key people – scientists, politicians, activists, writers and artists – who have influenced attitudes toward the environment in the U.S. from the late 19^th century until today. Through portraiture, visual biography, and the subject’s own words, the exhibition probes these leaders’ enduring impact on public perceptions of the natural world.

Now through Sept. 2, 2024

Easton, PA

Tom Maxfield, ¿Qui Hemos Hecho? 2015. Illustration. ©Tom Maxfield, 2015. Courtesy of the Nurture Nature Center.

Nurture Nature Center

“Plastic is everywhere, from the products we buy to how we package our food,” notes the Nurture Nature Center. Troubled by the volume of plastic waste now cramming our landfills, clogging our waterways, and threatening our health and environment, the Center invited 27 local artists to help design a community education program about plastics. The collaboration yielded a three-pronged response: an art exhibition, Insidious Plastics, to call community attention to the growing threat of plastic trash; a series of community outreach activities to spur dialog and inspire action on ways to reduce plastic waste; and an online directory of books, resources, and ideas for further action.

Now through July 30, 2024

Mystic, CT

Leopold and/or Rudolf Blaschka, Spineless: Octopus tetracirrhus. Glass. Circa 1850s. ©President and Fellows of Harvard College. Photograph by Joe Michael. Courtesy of the Mystic Seaport Museum.

Mystic Seaport Museum

In the 1850s, a father-son team, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, drew on personal observation, scientific records and sailors’ journals to create elaborately detailed glass models of hundreds of marine invertebrates. Museums and universities worldwide covet the models for teaching and display, celebrating the Blaschkas’ faithful attention to form, anatomical detail, and color. Spineless: A Glass Menagerie of Blaschka Marine Invertebrates features over 40 of these exquisite models, assembled from the Museum’s own collections, the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, and other institutions. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view this artwork and explore the impact of globalization on marine organisms. Co-curator Dr. James T. Carlton, an internationally renowned expert on invasive marine species, explains: “[T]he models elegantly illustrate the absence of boundaries between art and the science of the sea, including our modern-day environmental concerns for ocean conservation.” 

Now through Mar. 2, 2025

Edinburgh, Scotland

Love Machine. Necklace, coffee machine by Veronika Fabian, London, England (K.2021.33). ©Veronika Fabian. Image © National Museums Scotland. Courtesy of the National Museums Scotland.

National Museum of Scotland

Over the past year, the National Museum of Scotland has acquired several artifacts that reflect how the pandemic and climate change have inspired the creation of remarkable works of art, craft, and design. A blog by Sarah Rothwell, Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design, showcases several of these works, including Veronika Fabian’s Love Necklace. Crafted from Fabian’s coffeepot, the necklace is part of the artist’s ongoing project You, me and your stuff. By questioning whether we really need all the objects we buy, the artist hopes to inspire us to make more rational choices about our consumption.

Available Online Now

Washington, DC

Ben Pease (Apsáalooke-Crow), A Man’s Worth Apsáalooke Scout White-Man-Runs-Him, 2022. Oil, acrylic, India ink, Inkjet print on paper, antique ledger paper on canvas. 24” by 36.” ©Ben Pease (Apsáalooke-Crow), 2022. Courtesy of the Katzen Arts Center.

American University Museum Katzen Arts Center

Grounded: Restoring Our World Through A Sacred Harmony With The Earth and Each Other features the work of 15 premier contemporary artists from Indigenous American tribes traditionally based in and around the Great Plains region. Acknowledging and honoring the wisdom of their ancestors, the artists invite us to envision a new “groundedness” in our relationship to all of creation: the earth and its wildlife, each other and ourselves. The exhibition is curated by Caravan, an international nonprofit supporting transformation through the arts. Also on view at the Arts Center until August 11 is The Human Flood, a mixed media installation by artists Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin exploring the human and societal impacts of the ever-growing mass migration caused by climate change.

Now through Aug. 11, 2024

Online Art Exhibition

Carolyn Peirce, Asian Elephant, Recycled paper collage ©2020 Carolyn Peirce. Courtesy of the artist.

Honoring the Future: We, The Ark

We, The Ark features Carolyn Peirce’s playful, yet powerful, recycled paper collages of vulnerable and endangered animals. This online exhibition beckons us to rebalance our broken relationship with nature – in short, to revolutionize how we care for our Earth. An accompanying Educator’s Guide offers free online STEAM resources for teachers of middle through high school students.

Available Online Now

Shenandoah Valley, VA

Caitlin Garvey, From The Shenandoah Journey series, 2022. Infrared photograph. ©Caitlin Garvey 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

Caitlin Garvey Photography

Newly relocated to the Shenandoah Valley at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, photographer Caitlin Garvey found herself “wondering how one fits into a community.” Discovering in this time of climate change that “questions of identity and belonging are grounded literally and metaphorically in the [surrounding] land,” she began taking infrared photographs of the Valley’s breathtaking views. Her online photographic essay, entitled Shenandoah Journey, “burrows deep into the soil of my new home to acknowledge the awkwardness of what it means to be human, desiring to be at home in myself while striving for something beyond – and acknowledging the smallness of that need in the face of the land that encompasses us all.” A poignant and captivating case for recognizing and conserving our natural heritage!

Available Online Now