Art for Climate Action: Community Projects

Event, Exhibitions, Free

Friday 28th April – Sunday 21st May 2023

God's House Tower, Town Quay Road, Southampton, SO14 2NY

Art for Climate Action: Community Projects

Art for Climate Action was a programme that explored the role that art has to play in encouraging people to connect with environmental issues and bring about meaningful change in perceptions and behaviours, leading to climate action and climate solutions. We believe that art has the power to make change and encourage radical thinking, enabling us to imagine and build a better future together.

Art for Climate Action: Community Projects was an introduction to two commissioned projects led by artists Lizzie Jones and Harry Meadows. Acknowledging the need for collective and collaborative approaches to climate action, the artists were invited to connect with communities in Southampton and co-produce a body of work which was exhibited at God’s House Tower in November.

This exhibition showcased the artists’ practices and projects that dealt directly with environmental concerns. Lizzie’s project, ‘Puppet Back Up’ proposed active moments as ways to explore, participate and raise questions. In the Main Gallery, Lizzie presented inspirations and approaches for ‘Puppet Back Up’ through painted banners, cantastoria and scenes, alongside characters from previous climate related happenings. Harry’s practice explored how we make sense of our environment by extending our human senses with digital tools and plant life. His weather station sculptures were on display in the Barker-Mill Project Space, contorted frameworks that explored combinations of digital climate sensors, animals, plants and the food we use to sense our climate.

The current climate emergency is an urgent and critical concern worldwide. As a cultural organisation, it is our responsibility at ‘a space’ arts to reduce and mitigate our own environmental impact as well as raising awareness and instigating climate action through our programme. This year, we committed to creating a new climate action plan for the organisation, alongside launching the Art for Climate Action programme.

This exhibition ran from Friday 28th April to Sunday 21st May at God’s House Tower.