Art Here and Now » Environmentalism

What Does Clean Water Have to do with Art? Blog Action Day 2010

Trout Monfalco — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:05:28 +0000

Help give clean water to people who don’t have it. Join our campaign
Water from the Arts

This is easy to answer.

Without clean water artists would die. There would be no one to paint, sing, dance or tell stories.
Without clean water, audiences would die. There would be no one to look at the art that someone might have already made.
Maybe you have some water, but it’s scarce or polluted. If so, you survive, but you are too weak or sick to care one bit about art.
Maybe you can get good water, but you must walk 3 hours to get it, and 3 hours to return. Have you ever carried a fish tank full of water? Think of carrying it for 3 hours. Think of carrying 3-5 times the amount of water, 3-5 times the weight – enough for your family – for 3 hours. After 6 hours, just to get water, you have to get and cook food. By the time you’re done, you’re exhausted. There is no energy left to even consider creating something new.

Art Here and Now has participated in Blog Action Day before, speaking about the Environment and Climate Change. Those are complex issues, with debate surrounding the causes and impacts on the future. But this one is simple.

Without clean water, people can’t live.
If water is available but scarce, a major part of your life is devoted just to getting it and surviving.
There is no time for something more.
This is already happening, right now, throughout the world.

As important as I believe art is to civilization, history and culture, some basic foundations must exist for art and invention to stand on. One part of that foundation is water for drinking, cooking and cleaning.

So that’s depressing.
The good news is, we know how to solve it. We need to get water to people without it.

What can you do?

Get the facts. The more you know, the more you can help and get others involved. The videos on this page give a great overview. You can learn more from Charity:Water and water.org.
Give money to get water to people who need it. We have started a campaign for people who love the arts and want to give water, Water from the Arts.
Communicate. Make art about clean water. If you’re an artist, you are a communicator. Through your work, you can show people the importance of clean water, inspiring people to help. Send links to this story or other pages linked from here. Write your own post.
Don’t pollute. If you’re an artist, follow our tips from a few years ago and create work in less toxic ways. Don’t use bottled water.
Use less water. Take quicker showers. Plant plants which match your local climate (so that they can live completely from natural rain water).
Choose products that take less water to produce. This is called the product’s Water Footprint.

This won’t happen overnight. But our efforts add up to big change.

If you know other ways to connect the arts to providing clean water, let us know and we’ll spread the word.

Art, Artists, & Climate Change, Resources and Inspiration – Blog Action Day 2009

Trout Monfalco — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:30:44 +0000

This is a post for Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change.

A few years ago, I wrote a post for Blog Action Day presenting ideas for creating art in more environmentally friendly ways – Making Art Without Unmaking the Environment. Art supplies and other byproducts of our work is notoriously toxic. Just like businesses and construction are changing to be more green, artists must update their ways of working as well, to minimize their long term affects on our planet.

But artists are more than businesses manufacturing a product. We are cultural messengers. We are here to speak about and reflect things that are important to us and our cultures. One common message we have been signaling, regardless of our country or medium, is that we must pay more attention and care to our planet. The Earth’s climate is changing, and we must take action to stop or reverse it. According to the United Nations, “There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed.” The Earth is the only home we have, along with the millions of other species who share it with us.

If you disagree with the idea that the climate is changing, or that humans are causing it, I would only ask you to consider the odds and the consequences. Many scientists believe this is happening and it is caused by human action. But what if you’re right, and it was only a 50/50 chance we were responsible. Do you think humanity’s fate, and the fate of many other species, should be decided by the toss of a coin?

So what are artists doing to make a difference? Here are some stories about artists affecting our collective approach to climate change through their work. There are many great stories of well known musicians and filmmakers putting together concerts, films and other events to make a big difference. But I wanted to shine a light on people you might not have heard of.

Portrait of an artist as a climate activist from Grist magazine. Senator Barbara Boxer held up a photograph by Subhankar Banerjee to the full floor of the Senate, to prove the Alaska refuge was not a “flat white nothingness.”
Early artists key to Yellowstone Park’s preservation, helenair.com. The paintings of Thomas Moran and photographs of Henry Jackson were critical to the U.S. Congress creation of Yellowstone, the first national park.
In 2005, Grist pleaded What the warming world needs now is art, sweet art and four years later, followed it up with Climate Art is Hot.
SEED Magazine says The Arts Community is Responding to Climate Change, and Changing the Conversation in the Process.
Green Theater Initiative talks about Addressing Climate Change One Theatre Artist at a Time.
Here is an entire episode of the PBS series Art:21 devoted to Ecology and art.
Climate Change Education has a great Media and Arts section, including great lists of artwork and artists broken down by discipline: painting, sculpture, video and new media, and more.

Now, how can you make a difference? Here are pointers to more information about grants and funding, exhibitions, shows and more. If you know of other resources, or other stories about artists making great work, post a comment below and I’ll continue to update this post.

Climate Change Art Resources

Green Museum informs, inspires and connects people through environmental art and encourages the creation of new work that serves communities and ecosystems.
Ars Natura, nature in art, art in nature.
Strange Weather, a resource hub about climate change for artists, writers and activists.
Landscape and Arts Network brings together landscape architects, engineers, architects, artists, educationalists and ecologists who feel passionate about improving and sustaining the quality of our urban and natural environment.
Free Soil, an international hybrid collaboration of artists, activists, researchers and gardeners who take a participatory role in the transformation of our environment.
Ear to the Earth heightens environmental awareness through sound, inspires engagement in environmental issues, and sustains engagement through ongoing activities. The website is a forum for composers, sound artists, and everyone interested in sound to listen and participate.
RANE – Research in Art Nature and Environment actively seeks creative methods through which art can impact on our current environmental predicament. Using artistic practice the group aims to offer interpretations and models of thinking about the natural world that help to promote a sustainable future.
Eco Arts Online brings together science, environmental, arts, indigenous, and other organizations to offer you a wide variety of events – performances, exhibits, talks, tours, films, fairs, and more.
The Ashden Directory, bringing together environmentalism and the performing arts.

Climate Change Art Exhibitions, shows, festivals

Participate or Die, Wooloo.org. Wooloo.org is organizing the people of Copenhagen to open their homes to thousands of environmental artists during the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Denmark this December. By asking artists to develop happenings and reflections for a new life – and then request that thousands of participants implement them – Wooloo.org aims beyond the traditional art exhibition to become an active organizer of experiments in civic engagement and social empowerment.
Lake, a journal which publishes contemporary art that engages with ecological issues.
ecoartspace, promotes a diverse range of artworks that are participatory, collaborative, interdisciplinary and uniquely educational. “Our philosophy embodies a broader concept of art in its relationship to the world and seeks to connect human beings aesthetically with the awareness of larger ecological systems.”

Climate Change Opportunities for Artists
Calls for Artists, Grants, Residencies, Commissions and more

Green Museum, Calls for Artists
Artists Project Earth Funding
Artist as Citizen, connecting art students with donors to help them create projects on social issues.

Get the work of Thomas Moran, Henry Jackson and Subhankar Banerjee.

We are Honored to be part of Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Trout Monfalco — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:00:55 +0000

Blog Action Day harnesses the power of thousands of blogs to simultaneously address a single important issue on one day. This mass attention, from the many different vantage points and passions bloggers write from, gives the issue new resonance with readers, and can spark discussions about the importance of the issues and actions we can take to solve our problems. We have written for a previous Blog Action Day in our post Making Art Without Unmaking the Environment.

In 2009, Blog Action Day is on October 15th. The topic is Climate Change. Please return to Art Here and Now on that day to read more about Climate Change and the arts, and check out your other favorite sites and blogs to learn more and join the discussion.

Environmental Knitting

Trout Monfalco — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:26:16 +0000

Earlier in the week, for Blog Action Day I wrote Making Art Without Unmaking the Environment. Today I found this related post, about eco-friendly textiles, which I hadn’t included.

Read the post on the Feather and Fan blog.

Making Art Without Unmaking the Environment

Trout Monfalco — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:55:26 +0000

This post is part of Blog Action Day.

(Outside the norm, today’s post has intermixed store links to more easily show environmentally friendly art tools and materials.)

Art is still mostly a hand made thing. As most things hand-made, materials of the craft used to be natural – wood, clay, marble and natural pigments. But like other goods after the Industrial Revolution, art supplies became more toxic and harmful to the environment and artists. This is not only true for things like paints, thinners, and plastic based sculpture material, but also for photography, all the way from the roll of film to the final print. Over 10 years ago, some communities even banned film processing because of the toxic chemicals involved.

At the same time, artists want their work to be durable and high quality. How can you make high quality work while still keeping yourself and the environment safe?

Buy locally if possible. If you have to have supplies shipped to you, plan ahead and use ground shipping. Overnight and other types of air shipping require much more fuel, using more energy and leaving more pollution behind.
Try reclaimed surfaces to paint on. For instance, reclaimed masonite and other wood can be a great painting surface. You can also use scrap fabrics as canvas instead of new canvas.
Take photos with a digital camera. I have to be honest with you, I haven’t switched to a digital SLR yet. I still use my trusty 20 year old 35mm, but it’s time. I’ve been waiting for them to come down in price and go up in quality, and I’m about ready to make the plunge. The fact is, the manufacturing of film and developers, and run off from the chemicals that are left over, are terrible for the environment. Nothing is perfect, but digital is much more environmentally friendly. That isn’t to say you should throw away your perfectly good film camera, that’s wasteful too. But when the time is right, move on and take more eco-friendly photos.
Create work from recycled or discarded material. Make sculpture from auto-parts. Design clothing from discarded fabrics or dismantled clothes no one wanted. Create jewelry from old broken cellphones and eyeglasses.
Use environmentally friendly solvents and thinners.
If you have a choice of paint mediums, choose water-based paints, preferring watercolor over acrylics, and acrylics over oils. You may also be able to find soybean oil alternatives.
Use clay, wood or marble instead of plastic sculpture doughs.
Avoid aerosols and other sprayed pigment. Use spattering and other brush techniques instead, if possible.
Take care of yourself in your workspace. If you have to use spray pigment or varnishes, or you’re using any material that creates powder in air (such as pastels), keep good ventilation and wear a mask.
If you’re a musician, unless you have a reason for the long lost tradition of beautiful cover art or something else special for your fans, consider distributing digitally instead. Not only does this save energy and materials from manufacturing your CD, but also saves fuel and prevents pollution caused when they are shipped. You can do this yourself without a record deal using services like TuneCore. One day when more people have better viewing technology, filmmakers can do the same to distribute their work.

Obviously, great artists will always be more concerned with the end results. Sometimes the result will beg a process or material that is bad for the environment and the artist. But most of the time, a different, more eco-friendly choice can be made that won’t compromise the art at all.

If you have any other ideas, or links to other environmentally friendly art supplies that we might not have heard of, post them in the comments.

Read more:
Guide to Using Art & Craft Materials Safely
The Dangers of Modern Art
and last but not least
Eco Art Works, Earth Friendly Non-Toxic Art Supplies, Safe for you and the environment.