Art spurs climate change discussion in museums here and across the U.S.

[Uncle Joe]

“He walked up and asked us what we were doing, as many did,” recalled Jane Winchell, the director of PEM’s Art & Nature Center and curator of Natural History. “And he said, ‘These trees weren’t here before, right?’ But the trees had been there for years, passed unnoticed by many, until they were painted blue for Konstantin Dimopoulos’s ‘The Blue Trees’ installation.”

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“The Blue Trees” is one of several ongoing environmental exhibits at PEM. Winchell is spearheading PEM’s new climate and environment work, and so far, she says, it’s “been a really rewarding and inspiring and empowering process to take part in.”

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Anjali Mitra, The Seas Are Rising, So Are We, 2020 (Courtesy of PEM)

Winchell notes that sometimes, artwork about the climate crisis can feel devastating, and sometimes it can feel inspiring, and both kinds of art play a role in the climate conversation.

“Down to the Bone,” for example, she puts on the more devastating end — muddy polar bears stare hollow-eyed into the camera, next to naive cartoon animals amid the bones of their species. But the “Climate Change: Inspiring Action” exhibit sits in the adjacent room, offering viewers an opportunity to embrace a more promising future.

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https://www.boston.com/culture/arts/2022/10/16/art-spurs-climate-change-discussion-in-museums-here-and-across-the-u-s/

[BigmanPigman]

1. This is what I'm like to see, not paintings like Van Gogh's Sunflowers

getting soup thrown all over it by climate activists. That type of behavior does no good for anyone. Creating artwork instead of destroying it is what garnishes support for a political issue.

https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-activist-just-stop-oil-vincent-van-gogh-sunflowers-soup/