May 2024: the power of art
Each month, we break down our topic into four weekly modules. Catch up on previous editions here.
This week's module: ACT
- ✅ READ | Your brain (and city) on art
- ✅ WATCH | How to transform a city through color
- 🎯 ACT | How you can put art into your activism practice (TODAY)
- REFLECT | Share your art reflections! (5/22/24)
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes for the action plan
Here's what we'll learn today Reader
Hello hello! I'm sending this from New York City where spring is springing and Soapbox is dinnering tomorrow. Our venue, Rethink, does SO much great work around food waste, and they'll be providing meals for us (upcycled food?!) and I can't wait.
If you're in the city and looking to have the time of your life with new sustainability friends over a delicious dinner, come join us!
Being in NYC feels like the perfect time and place to keep talking about the power of art (like... the dystopian vibes of last week's Met Gala juxtaposed with all the actually incredible stuff that's happening...) In our ACT module today, you've got a bunch of options to choose from, and I can't wait to hear which ones you're committing to.
Before we kick off this week's Changeletter, I want to share this dose of optimism with you: Microsoft employees resigning in protest and speaking out against how the company is helping oil extraction. You might remember that Soapbox's two core values are courage and joy... and this is an incredible story of courage.
P.S. another IRL event in a diff city: an outdoor Seattle sustainability hang that's also an iNaturalist scavenger hunt! RSVP here.
Your bite-sized action plan Reader
✅ ACT by choosing a few options from this 7-course menu and report back here!
🎵 Jam while you're reading: Solarpunk Lofi or Hila the Earth
- Spend money on art and support artists.
You can do this by going on an art walk (search “art walk near me”), a gallery curated for local artists, or asking around 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. And put Bandcamp Friday on your calendar (Bandcamp actually cares about its artists lol).
- Use art from The Climate Collection
Okay now that you’ve committed to paying artists, here’s a lil treat for free: The Climate Collection. If you spend hours browsing this, we won’t judge. 😉
- 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. Nicole's newsletter, Arts and Climate Change is also a great way to get plugged into climate art!
- Use a creative agency that doesn’t support fossil fuels
If your business is working with an agency, use Clean Creatives! They pledge to drop fossil fuel polluters and they even have a great report card to call them out.
- Play a game you already know, but better
Catan just dropped a solarpunk version of their game and I 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?”
Also, another game rec: Daybreak, a cooperative game about stopping climate change. It features “hundreds of original illustrations by a diverse team of (human) artists from around the world.”
- Visit a climate museum!
"If you’re in NYC or planning a trip there, check out the climate museum! Or 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).
Also speaking of NYC, come have dinner with us tomorrow!
- Paint your city!
Your city, county, state, etc. probably have a bunch of hidden money in government grants for arts & culture. (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!
Remember to share what you're doing in this 1-min form!
See you next week for our final module where we'll REFLECT together on the power of art! And see you in NYC if you're here tomorrow. (We are actually sold out, so shoot me an email and let's see what we can do)
Love,
Nivi
