‘Art. Sustainability. Activism.’ Event to Confront Climate Change Through the Arts

The third annual “Art. Sustainability. Activism.” event, happening March 26-28, unites performing, visual and literary arts with sustainability studies to offer a multi-faceted perspective on shared environmental concerns. The three-day series, which will take place at various locations across campus, is presented by the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center, MFA for Poets and Writers and School of Earth and Sustainability. 

“Art. Sustainability. Activism.” (ASA) programming creates opportunities to connect artists, scientists and changemakers to learn from each other and reckon together with climate change in an effort to elevate awareness, recognize climate grief and catalyze meaningful change. 

“We intend for this annual art, science, and humanities partnership to reflect society’s best efforts to address the climate crisis,” says Michael Sakamoto, performing arts curator at the UMass Fine Arts Center. “We want to show creativity at the center of any solution.” 

“Artists translate experience into the language of dance, the language of poetry and the language of image and music,” says professor Noy Holland of the UMass MFA for Poets and Writers. “A poet is a maker, a visionary who transforms the real—even the hard reality of data—into a vision of what is possible. This transdisciplinary series creates a prism of empathy, a necessary imaginative act in which what is possible becomes imaginable, both the horrific and the hopeful.” 

“With the unprecedented global challenges before us, it is clear that science alone will not provide the solutions,” said Curt Griffin, co-director for the School of Earth & Sustainability. “It will take fostering new partnerships and assembling creative teams that fuse together arts, sciences, humanities, innovation, and culture. Our partnership with the Fine Arts Center and MFA is an example of how we advance the conversation toward a more just and sustainable future.” 

UMass Amherst is ranked in the United States’ top 10 public research universities for sustainability by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The 2021 Sierra Cool Schools Sustainability ranking put UMass Amherst in the top 20 of 328 schools in North America. The university has developed climate action and carbon mitigation plans to bring UMass Amherst to reliance on 100 percent renewables campus-wide by 2032. 

To attend these in-person events, patrons are required to be fully vaccinated, per university policy. While masks are no longer required, attendees are welcome to wear masks while visiting.  

For more information about any event, to request interviews with artists or curators, additional photos or videos and to arrange for on-site photography or press passes, please contact John Seroff at the Fine Arts Center’s press department at facpress@umass.edu.