FORWARD: Issue #6: Climate
Heat Extremes
Video still, Future Philly – Green City featuring Cheyenne Flores, Amber and David Acosta, with film and audio by Eve Mosher. Part of Heat Response. Courtesy the artist.
One of the most immediate and pervasive effects of climate change is the overheating of the planet.
July 2023, for example, was the hottest month on record, followed by the earth’s hottest August on record. People around the globe are already feeling this daily. In the US, pernicious urban heat islands are concentrated in communities of color, and in more remote areas in the country, farm workers, often immigrants and people of color, are bearing some of the most dangerous exposure to heat, often without worker protection. Globally, poorer countries that have been long under-resourced are often lesser contributors to the causes of climate change and yet are disproportionately burdened by its effects and the required efforts to adapt.
We’re highlighting two artist-led projects, one that explores the impact of heat extremes on people’s lives and another that imagines optimal preparedness and response to emergencies set in motion by extreme heat.
In three Philadelphia neighborhoods, artists held workshops to gather stories from community members about how urban heat has affected them, and developed educational resources, hands-on tools, and popsicles—for cooling off! An ambitious project in the Australian state of Victoria brought artists together with scientists and cultural leaders to imagine new responses to heat-related emergencies, drawing on the knowledge of Australian Indigenous communities.
Continue reading to learn how these artists engaged residents to uplift community concerns, and worked with cross-sector leaders to create innovative responses to heat extremes.
Heat Response
A multipronged project, including video, murals, and mobile engagements, elevated residents’ concerns about urban heat impacts.
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Artist Role: Facilitating community-led solutions | Residents throughout the city were engaged in a multidisciplinary project on urban heat impacts.
Artist: Eve Mosher, with Jenna Robb, José Ortiz-Pagán, Amber Art and Design
Partners + Partner Organizations: Trust for Public Land, Pew Arts & Heritage Center, Tyler School of Art, Bahay215, 215 People's Alliance, and the communities of Grays Ferry, Southeast Philly, and Fairhill.
An interactive Heat Response mural created by artist Jenna Robb, sited at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's annual Philadelphia Flower Show. Photo courtesy Trust for Public Land.
To study the impact of urban heat across Philadelphia, artist Eve Mosher worked with the Trust for Public Land and collaborated with Jenna Robb, José Ortiz-Pagán, Amber Art and Design, and the communities of Grays Ferry, Southeast Philly, and Fairhill to elevate the lived experience of urban heat in Philadelphia through multiple projects. Over two years of community engagement, the artists created public art addressing the question, “Why should we care about urban heat, and what can we do about it?” To connect the three communities, the artists designed a cart from which they offered residents popsicles (designed and produced by the foodbank Philabundance) and packets with mullein seeds, a paper pot, and soil for growing, along with a recipe for mullein tea (Ortiz-Pagán), a superhero-themed coloring book called Seedlings (Amber Art and Design), and postcards that addressed urban heat (Robb).
Over two years of community engagement, the artists created public art addressing the question, 'Why should we care about urban heat and what can we do about it?'
Photo courtesy Trust for Public Land.
Each of the artists also created their own public-art educational project. In Southeast Philly, Ortiz-Pagán (with community leads Gibrán Medina and Sulay Sosa, and project partners Tyler School of Art and Bahay215) created "La Sombrilla," a modular community space for capturing rainwater, growing plants, generating solar energy, and hosting community gatherings. In Grays Ferry, Robb (with community lead Phyllis Brennan and project partners 215 People's Alliance) set up workshops for intergenerational conversations about urban heat. The confabs inspired gardening classes, the installation of a shaded park bench, and the creation of two murals: a celebratory one and an interactive one promoting the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's annual Philadelphia Flower Show. In Fairhill, Amber Art and Design (with community lead Charito Morales and project partners Tyler School of Art Community Arts Practices) created the Seedlings coloring book as a tool for education and engagement.
In an effort to elevate community members’ voices on the topic, Mosher and artists Nate Dorr and Gina Furnari created videos based on interviews with residents about urban heat, which were screened around the city. The project won the Environmental Protection Agency's Let's Talk About Heat Challenge and was featured in Cool it with Art, a guide for local governments, community-based organizations, and artists promoting creative approaches to address climate-driven extreme heat impacts and to promote healthy, climate-resilient communities. At the project’s end, the artists report that “participants expressed how urban heat disrupts their lives and how much joy there can be in coming together to creatively address climate change. Greening our neighborhoods can improve health and wellness, cultural preservation, youth development, community cohesion, and climate resilience.”
In the Philadelphia community of Grays Ferry, artist Jenna Robb worked closely with community lead Phyllis Brennan and project partners community group 215 People's Alliance. According to lead artist Eve Mosher, Robb and Brennan saw a need in the community during COVID lockdown and quickly responded with youth outdoor art programs in local Lanier Park. Intergenerational workshops provided a space for deeper conversations on local urban heat, which led to an installation of a park bench, representing connection and respite. The workshops fostered greater collaboration with the gardeners and 215 People's Alliance, including gardening classes and a celebratory mural. Robb also created the Heat Response interactive mural for the Philadelphia Flower Show. Postcard photos and community mural photos (with tree) by Jenna Robb. Heat Response interactive mural photo courtesy Trust for Public Land.
So that they could connect the three communities in Philadelphia with whom they worked, the artists designed a mobile engagement tool, "at times carrying a tree or an umbrella for shade, and always handing out Heat Response custom popsicles (designed and produced by Philabundance) and packets," says lead artist Eve Mosher. These packets included mullein seeds, instructions to turn the envelope into a paper pot, soil, a recipe for mullein tea (from José's work), the Seedlings coloring book (from Amber Art and Design's work)—you'll find a Seedlings link in this issue's Toolkit—and postcards about urban heat (from Jenna's work). Photos courtesy Trust for Public Land.
In Philly’s Fairhill community, Amber Art and Design worked with community lead Charito Morales and project partners Tyler School of Art Community Arts Practice. Amber Art and Design created practices with local artists to engage with community early in the process. "This inspired their co-creation (with students Holly Hazel and Kenza) of a superhero-based coloring book called Seedlings. Seedlings [available in this issue's Toolkit] was distributed at playstreets and community events around Philadelphia as a tool for education and engagement," says lead artist Eve Mosher. Photos by Linda Fernandez, Amber Art and Design.
Tea and activities for town hall. Photo by José Ortiz-Pagán.
La Sombrilla. Photo by Omar Buenaventura, Bahay215.
In Southeast Philly, artist José Ortiz-Pagán worked with community leads Gibrán Medina and Sulay Sosa, and project partners Tyler School of Art and Bahay215. José's work included Zoom town halls and hand-delivered gifts for participants. He worked with University of Temple/Tyler Art students on curriculum development, and interviewed neighbors who were involved in community gardens. "These interviews were shared in the neighborhood as pop-up projections. With this underpinning of knowledge, interaction, and experience, he created a collaborative team to build 'La Sombrilla,' a modular community space for rainwater capture, growing space, solar power, and community gathering," says lead artist Eve Mosher.
Participants expressed how urban heat disrupts their lives and how much joy there can be in coming together to creatively address climate change.
— the Heat Response artist team
Future Philly – Green City is one of three Future Philly films. Each features interviews with community members about "their lived experience with heat and their imagined future Philadelphia." These interviews inspired the short videos created by artists Eve Mosher, Nate Dorr, and Gina Furnari, who hope to elevate the voices of community members by screening the films around Philadelphia. Future Philly – Green City film and audio by Eve Mosher. Featuring Cheyenne Flores, Amber and David Acosta. Music: "Farewell" by @martynaslau | "Beautiful Day" by @justhea. SFX: City Ambulance from SoundBible | Birds by 5ound5murf23, freesound.org | More birds by yakubova-studio, freesound.org | Construction from Zapsplat | Walking by JohnsonBrandEditing from freesound.org | Stock footage from Elsa Luebling and Videvo | Kelly L from Pexels.com.
Refuge: Heatwave
A multiyear project in the Australian state of Victoria brings artists together with scientists, emergency workers, and cultural leaders to create innovative responses to major climate-change events.
Location: Australia
Artist Role: Innovating preparedness | Artists worked with cross-sector leaders to develop innovative preparedness measures for future climate challenges.
Artists: Multiple.
Partners + Partner Organizations: City of Melbourne’s Arts House, Australia Council (now Creative Australia), Victorian Government, Emergency Management Victoria, Resilient Melbourne, University of Melbourne, Australian Red Cross, St. Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre, Creative Recovery Network, the Peter Doherty Institute.
Contact, by artist Asha Bee Abraham, focused on people not able to reach emergency relief centers, laying bare the class, race, and gender factors that can contribute to vulnerability. All photos by Bryony Jackson.
From hurricanes to heat waves, cities around the globe are at ground zero for major climate change impacts, and they’re warming at about twice the rate of the planet as a whole. In 2017, Arts House undertook Refuge: Heatwave, the second iteration of its six-year Refuge project. The project explores social and community resilience and propels a growing cohort of artists to create innovative preparedness measures alongside scientists, first responders, and cultural leaders in imagined climate change impact scenarios. Each annual Refuge cycle includes a transdisciplinary knowledge-exchange lab, artist residencies, and public events.
Redreaming, by Emily Johnson and Vicki Couzens, encouraged participants to think beyond their own and white colonialist concerns to embrace communities outside of the human race.
The project addresses climate change well beyond its effects on individual human beings to embrace heat’s effects on cultures and communities.
Future Proof, by Fair Share Fare and artist Jen Rae, used the lens of food to examine access to the resources and skills most needed in the aftermath of a disaster. Image from the Pavement Pantry.
Future Proof, by Fair Share Fare and artist Jen Rae, investigated the possibilities presented by a barter economy, locally sourced eating, and other elements of a resilient system that could feed a population during a crisis. Image from the Pavement Pantry.
The project addresses climate change well beyond its effects on individual human beings to embrace heat’s effects on cultures and communities. Project interactions have included artists Vicki Couzens and Emily Johnson’s engagement with deep time in the durational work Redreaming. The piece encouraged participants to think beyond their own and white colonialist concerns to embrace communities outside of the human race. Artist Asha Bee Abraham’s Contact focused on people not able to reach emergency relief centers, laying bare the class, race, and gender factors that can contribute to vulnerability.
In Future Proof, artist Jen Rae used the lens of food to examine access to the resources and skills most needed in the aftermath of a disaster. She investigated the possibilities presented by a barter economy, locally sourced eating, and other elements of a resilient system that could feed a population during a crisis. In the Ruth Crow Corner, community member Lorna Hannan convened a panel of experts and provocateurs for conversation-as-action. In the cool Arts House basement, participants got respite from the heat and were invited to share how heat affects them and the community, and to learn from local elders.
“By placing artists at the centre of a necessarily adaptive practice, Refuge asks for complex responses to complex problems,” wrote Josh Wright, Arts House acting artistic director at the time of the project. “Combining empathy and action, the aesthetic and the transdisciplinary, Refuge articulates the value of adventure and exchange in imagining and enacting our collective futures.”
Named after local humanitarian and environmentalist Ruth Crow, Ruth Crow Corner served three days of conversation and information over a cup of tea, hosted by Lorna Hannan and locals.
Ruth Crow Corner by Lorna Hannan offered a place to hear each other’s stories, quiz experts in vaccination and immunology, play idea-generating games, and discover which community members help us through times of stress.
In Ruth Crow Corner, Lorna Hannan convened a panel of experts and provocateurs for conversation-as-action.
Redreaming, by Emily Johnson and Vicki Couzens, encouraged participants to think beyond their own and white colonialist concerns to embrace communities outside of the human race.
FORWARD: Issue #6
Climate
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