Indianapolis is waking up to the climate emergency. In Indianapolis, the passage of a youth-led climate resolution in 2017 led to THRIVE Indianapolis, the community climate action planning process. In our day-to-day work, and in our enjoyment of Indianapolis cultural amenities, we routinely discover that our artists are feeling the stressful urgency of the climate emergency we face. Many in fact are expressing these urgent feelings through their art practice.
We began to ponder: What if we sent out the call to artists of all disciplines to focus their art on the climate emergency, during Indianapolis’ bicentennial celebration? Artists have, over time, warned us of dangers, imagined better worlds, and helped us break through calcified thinking to new paradigms.
The climate emergency requires that our best minds focus on the challenges and solutions; our very lives depend on it. We believe that calling on our artists to address this challenge will reveal extraordinary opportunities for our shared predicament.