Art, performance and climate science is coming together in the Climate Stories Collaborative annual project to spread awareness about climate change from April 21 to May 1.
The project includes “visual arts, narrative arts and creative expressions in all its many forms,” said Laura England, a sustainable development instructor and co-facilitator to the CSC.
The showcase, located in room 112 of Plemmons Student Union, is comprised of works from students and faculty, with some pieces being independent projects and others from class assignments. Many of the class assignments are an accumulation of the students’ work throughout their respective class, England said.
Though the different projects are varied in format and medium, they each hold the same underlying message: to “help grow the climate conversations, to make it more meaningful to folks who aren’t necessarily interested in the science or the politics of it,” England said.
Through the Department of Art, Department of Biology and Department of Theatre and Dance, students created projects inspired by their field of study and different climate conversations whilst working alongside faculty, said Lorraine Affourtit, an assistant professor of art history and visual culture.
“It’s a really amazing opportunity for different students and faculty across campus to get engaged in creative expression related to climate change,” Affourtit said.
The different departments involved in the showcase worked together through the CSC, whose history spans several years.
The CSC started back in 2017 when a small group of faculty members were inspired by a guest speaker at App State who talked about his work specifically, the Climate Narrative Project. Since then, the CSC has grown to more than 80 faculty members from 25 different units across campus, according to the CSC website.
The main message of the CSC is to spread climate awareness and to help students engage in climate conversation through the arts.
“Art has a way of connecting people and activating emotions so we can engage more,” England said.
The Climate Showcase, which the CSC has put on most years since 2017, has experienced a great deal of challenges since the first showing. Originally, the showcase was meant to present physical pieces of art and theatrical performances, and it did so during the early years of its run-through. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the showcase moved online.
After skipping the years 2021-24 due to poor timing and unavailable space, the showcase is back in person with this year’s location being the student union.
This year’s event hosts the guest speaker, Jill Pelto, who came from Washington to be a part of the showcase.
Pelto is a visual artist who specializes in paintings that “focuses on communicating human-environment connections,” according to her website.
She incorporates scientific data into her paintings by combining climate and conservation graphs with environmental art.
“The most impactful thing I can do sometimes is to connect with different communities around their stories with climate and the things they’re experiencing and then do art around those stories,” Pelto said.
During the climate showcase, Pelto spoke about her work and how it relates to the ongoing climate conversation. She demonstrated her data artwork and led an activity where people at App State created their own artworks based on various climate graphs.
“I get inspired by seeing students and the whole campus doing stuff, I just learn a lot from that and take away stories that aren’t stories that I know,” Pelto said.
The showcase plans to continue its work with engaging students and the Boone community through art until May 1. They plan on hosting more events related to climate conversations in the future, England said.
“Making creative work that responds to climate issues, it’s an outlet and it’s a form of communication and community building, and that’s what we need right now,” Affourtit said.
