We’re missing an obvious climate and social justice solution—art! Art is crucial for climate action—it raises awareness, inspires change, fosters community, influences policy, and shifts cultural perceptions.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
When we think about “solving climate change,” many of us think we either need technology, individual behavior change, and/or different policy and system-level incentives. Which is correct… but it’s time to stop limiting ourselves to what we can quantify.
We’re missing an obvious climate and social justice solution—art, which humans have known about since before we were even homo sapiens. 🙈
Here’s what we’ll cover step-by-step:
It’s time to go beyond ROI, metrics, and greenhouse gas emissions because perhaps being creative is the point of it all. 🎨
🎯 Action step 1 of 4: READ — Let's start by looking at a few articles together.
Art and creative expression isn’t just a fun activity—it also boosts our mental well-being. Let’s explore why it’s time to stop thinking about art as this frivolous cute little bonus of society!
🎨 Art helps us imagine a more hopeful future.
Girija Kaimal, Drexel University professor and art therapy researcher, has a theory that art-making helps us navigate problems that might arise in the future. Our brain is a predictive machine. Kaimal says that “when you make art, you're making a series of decisions such as the kind of drawing utensil to use, what color, and how to translate what you're seeing onto the paper. Ultimately, you’re interpreting the images and figuring out what it means.” Art builds our imagination skills, and we can’t think of a more necessary time for imagining the future.
A 2016 paper in the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association found that 45 minutes of creating art in a studio with an art therapist significantly lowered cortisol (stress hormone) levels. The best part? Skill level didn’t affect health outcomes! We love the idea that finger painting could save your mental health!
🧠 Art makes you a better learner and can improve your memory.
Art enhances areas of your brain to perform tasks that they are designed to do! Practicing music, for example, made brain regions engaged in processing sound bigger. Art education, especially early in life, makes you a better collaborator. It makes you more socially and emotionally resilient too, and we all need to build our own resilience before we can effectively create climate resilience.
When we take care of ourselves and our mental health, especially through creative outlets, we become equipped to take on the climate crisis in creative ways.
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 1 of 4: READ.
🎯 Action step 2 of 4: LISTEN — we'll watch a short video or listen to a podcast to further expand on our topic.
Edi Rama, the former Mayor of Tirana (Albania's capital) increased public safety, reduced crime, and improved tax collection rates from 4% to 90%. He did it by simply painting buildings bright orange. If it sounds too good to be true, watch his TED talk:
Mayor Edi Rama used art to…
A moral of the story, according to Mayor Rama: “We wanted to give people the sense of a city, not simply as a physical space but a as a space where they could imagine a future. It’s a lesson that beauty and beautiful spaces can make people’s behavior change completely.”
The transformation of Tirana under Edi Rama is one of our FAVORITE stories about why everything can't just be about ROI and metrics, especially when we are trying to save something as magical as the only planet we have! 🌍
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 2 of 4: LISTEN.
🎯 Action step 3 of 4: ACT — Now it's time to do something. Let's go!
Courage and joy are our two main values in our Soapbox community, and what’s a better way to blend these two values than to embark on the ultimate creative journey of art-based activism?! 🧑🎨 Here are seven ways you can combine art and climate action:
1. Spend money on art and support artists.
You can do this by going on an art walk (search “art walk near me”), visiting a gallery curated for local artists, or finding artists to support by posting in your online neighborhood groups! So many artists use their work as a way to bring awareness to climate and social justice in big and small ways—their messaging, their materials, the communities they partner with, etc. Spend money on art! (Pottery! Poetry! Music! All the things!)
Future Arts and CAIR are two organizations worth exploring. Also, put Bandcamp Friday on your calendar. 📅
2. Use art from The Climate Collection.
Now that you’ve committed to paying artists, here’s a little treat for free: The Climate Collection. If you spend hours browsing this, we won’t judge. 😉
3. Go to an art build.
Ever wonder who makes fun signs for protests, rallies, and more? The answer is… YOU! Going to an art build for your local environmental group (try 350.org to find one) is a fun and family-friendly way to create artful activism. Our friend Nicole Kelner’s newsletter, Arts and Climate Change, is also a great way to get plugged into climate art!
4. Use a creative agency that doesn’t support fossil fuels.
If your business is working with an agency now or in the future, look the agency up on Clean Creatives! They pledge to drop fossil fuel polluters and they even have a great report card to call them out.
5. Play a game you already know, but better.
Catan just dropped a solarpunk version of their game and we can’t wait to play it. “You must decide: Invest in clean energy resources or opt for cheaper fossil fuels, potentially causing disastrous effects for the island?”
You could also play Daybreak, which is a cooperative game about stopping climate change. It features hundreds of original illustrations by a diverse team of (human) artists from around the world.
6. Visit a climate museum!
If you’re in NYC or planning a trip there, check out the climate museum! You can also get inspired and make your own. We can help you get funding for a pilot vibrary (a third place for making meaning in your community). If you’re interested, join our membership community and we’ll chat more. 😉
7. Paint your city!
Expand your horizons! Paint your city, county, state, etc. There is probably a bunch of money waiting for you in government grants for arts & culture. (Step 1: Go on your city’s website and search “arts & culture grants.) There are usually opportunities for murals and other beautiful ways you can add color and vibrancy to the place you live!
Art is crucial for climate action—it raises awareness, inspires change, fosters community, influences policy, and shifts cultural perceptions. There’s so many ways to take action when you embark on this creative journey! Remember to share what you're doing in this 1-min form so we can celebrate together!
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 3 of 4: ACT.
Before we go any further, it's time for you to pledge your commitment. It takes less than 30 seconds to pledge and we can bother you about it in a friendly way, so we can hold each other accountable. Pledge here!
🎯 Action step 4 of 4: REFLECT — what can you commit to? What fresh perspectives can we look at?
We have to lean into what makes us human. We have to lean into our creativity, our love for beauty, our desire to make art, and our inclination for community. 🤗
Your reflection is yours and yours only, but we recommend setting your timer for 3 minutes and writing down a response to at least one of these prompts.
To reflect back on our favorite story from Edi Rama:
People started to drop less litter in the streets, started to pay taxes, started to feel something they had forgotten, and beauty was acting as a guardsman where municipal police, or the state itself, were missing. And indeed, it was beauty that was giving people this feeling of being protected. And this was not a misplaced feeling. Crime did fall. The paint on the walls did not feed children, nor did it tend the sick or educate the ignorant, but it gave hope and light, and helped to make people see there could be a different way of doing things, a different spirit, a different feel to our lives, and that if we brought the same energy and hope to our politics, we could build a better life for each other and for our country.
The climate movement has nothing without hope and light. Art isn't a bonus; it's the point. 💃
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 4 of 4: REFLECT.
Check out our membership community for more resources like free weekly events with social justice experts, sustainable product discounts, pre-written email templates, a social impact job board, and in-person hangouts with new friends. Thanks for taking action with Soapbox Project!
Get our free bite-sized climate action plans before you go!