The Arts Extension Service has been at the forefront of creative climate action for over a decade. From Director Dee Boyle-Clapp’s trailblazing course Leading Sustainable and Resilient Organizations (currently being renamed from Greening Your Arts Nonprofit Organization), developed in 2009-2010, to the Creative Women Leading Climate Action Symposium (2020-21) and Creative People Leading Climate Action Exhibit (2021), AES has continued to call attention to the need for arts and cultural engagement in the movement for climate justice, and has developed resources, trainings, and pathways for organizational success.
Culture for Climate Action (C4CA) is the Arts Extension Service’s initiative to bring all of this innovative work under one umbrella.
Consulting
AES offers consulting services for arts and cultural organizations, serving as planner, connector, facilitator, and advocate for the specific needs and realities of partner organizations and the larger sector. AES’s approach embraces the whole picture of an organization, helping staff and board plan strategically for clean energy and climate action and build momentum all the way through to funding and implementation.
Trainings
AES’s innovative Culture for Climate Action trainings and workshops support organizational leaders in realizing the unique potential of their organization to engage staff and board members, shape programming and community outreach, and/or transform policies and facilities so that the organization is climate-ready and contributing actively to the readiness of their town, city, region, state, and beyond. Through this work, AES is helping organizations evolve their internal cultures toward equitable and inclusive sustainability and resilience and in the process shaping the future of the sector as a whole.
Current Projects
Culture for Climate Action Rhode Island (Fall 2024)
In collaboration with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Culture for Climate Action RISCA, is a free virtual webinar series designed by the Arts Extension Service and Culture Climate Strategy to empower Rhode Island arts and cultural organizations to develop, fund, and implement creative climate actions that align with their unique organizational mission, values, and priorities. The three-session series is created for staff and board members from Rhode Island’s arts and cultural sector who own or lease facilities for their organizations and each session will feature a guest presenter from an Rhode Island arts organization who will share the work they are doing to address climate work. Virtual sessions will be held from noon to 1:15 p.m., as follows:
October 30: Creative Climate Action for a Just Transition
November 6: Strategies for Organizational Resilience and Sustainability
November 20: Evaluating Your Facility and Operations
Registration is limited to Rhode Island arts and humanities organizations.
Culture for Climate Action Vermont (Winter-Spring 2024)
AES created and facilitated a virtual workshop series designed to help Vermont arts and cultural heritage organizations plan for and mitigate the climate crisis and utilize their own programming and facilities to enhance organizational and (where possible) community resiliency. Offered in partnership with the Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Arts and Culture Disaster and Resilience Network (VACDaRN), Culture for Climate Action Vermont empowered participating organizations to develop, fund, and implement creative climate actions that align with their unique organizational mission, values, and priorities.
EmPower Massachusetts Innovation and Capacity-Building Grant ($50,000, FY23)
AES works with the UMass Clean Energy Extension to provide strategic and technical assistance to partners Double Edge Theatre, Ohketeau Cultural Center, and Paper City Clothing Company to assess their facilities, operations, programming, and other opportunities for clean energy and climate action in alignment with each organization’s unique vision and priorities. Together the project team will map out implementation pathways, identify funding and financing opportunities, and document the process, outcomes, and participant experiences for future outreach and education across the sector, emphasizing small to medium sized organizations for whom this work is often most challenging to undertake.
Culture for Climate Action Convening (coming Fall 2024/Winter 2025)
The Culture for Climate Action Convening will create a platform for organizations and individual artists to share ideas, gather inspiration, and highlight examples of successful climate action in the arts and culture sector in New England. In the process participants will support the development of a vision for climate action across the sector that responds to the unique needs and strengths of the region so that together we can engage in equitable, inclusive, transformative climate action.
Council on the Uncertain Human Future - UMass Amherst (2022-present)
AES Director Dee Boyle-Clapp participates in the UMass Amherst Chapter of the Council on the Uncertain Human Future, a convening of faculty and staff from across campus designed as “an intentional practice through which we acknowledge the climate and ecological breakdown underway‚ and the socio-political forces driving (and being driven) by it” and took part in the virtual, monthly, council meetings focusing on climate, climate grief, and practices to address them.
Learn more about the UMass Amherst Chapter.
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Our Campus Partners & Affiliates
- UMass Clean Energy Extension;
- UMass Fine Arts Center;
- Augusta Savage Gallery;
- UMass School of Earth and Sustainability;
- UMass Energy Transition Institute;
- Women of Color Leadership Network;
- UMass Amherst Environmental and Social Action Movement (ESAM).
Past Projects
Creative Women Leading Climate Action (2020-2021)
In the Fall of 2020 and Spring of 2021 the Creative Women Leading Climate Action engaged women and nonbinary people in building an intergenerational network with a shared goal of creative climate action. This virtual symposium highlighted artists and arts professionals responding to climate change and provides opportunities for students to both learn from arts leaders and forge their own network as they pursue leadership in arts and activism fields. The events were open to UMass and Five College students, faculty, and staff, as well as artists and professionals at large.
UMass Campus Climate Resiliency Plan Workshops (2021)
AES participated in a series of stakeholder workshops designed to inform the development of the UMass Amherst Campus Climate Resiliency Plan. The workshops considered the many ways in which UMass Amherst can better prepare for and respond to climate disaster events while building capacity for continuous implementation across the campus. The Campus Climate Resiliency Plan addresses the following five focus areas: social equity and governance; health and wellbeing; economy and society; infrastructure and environment; and leadership and strategy.
Past Speaking Engagements
Creative Culture, Vienna University (virtual), The Role of the City in Culture. January 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018
How Can Arts and Culture Address Climate Change? Full day workshop. February 29, 2020
Oneida Nation, Oneida, WI.