{"id":3887,"date":"2019-09-30T15:25:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T15:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=3887"},"modified":"2019-09-30T15:25:26","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T15:25:26","slug":"are-you-the-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2019\/09\/30\/are-you-the-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You the Artist?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Patrick Chandler
PhD Student in Environmental Studies Program at University of Colorado Boulder and 2019 winner of the <\/em>Radford Byerly Award in Science and Technology Policy<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Patrick Chandler during a performance of Inside the Greenhouse\u2019s musical for youth engagement,\u00a0Shine, on Earth Day 2019. Credit: Beth Osnes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you the artist?\u201d This question followed\nby others of a similar type such as: \u201cWho\u2019s idea was this exhibit\/production?\u201d\nand \u201cWho\u2019s the lead on this project?\u201d are some of my least favorite. For the\npast ten years, I\u2019ve been working with communities and organizations to bring\nscience and art together to communicate about environmental issues in order to\nengage observers and promote action. Each project has been a team effort that\ninvolved artists, scientists, educators, students, and community members. But\nsomehow, that seems to be an unsatisfying answer to those who ask the questions\nlisted above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We tend to try and single out individuals, in\nboth good and bad situations, in order to simplify responsibility. When a crime\nis committed, the question becomes, \u201cWho did this?\u201d rather than \u201cWhy did this\nhappen?\u201d The same happens when amazing things occur. Our first inclination is\nto ask who rather than how and why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isolating an individual as a cause simplifies\nour perception of events and alleviates responsibility. It enables us to say,\n\u201cThat person did something amazing\/terrible!\u201d and sets them apart from you and\nI. Most of us can name 10 individuals that stand out in history with no\ndifficulty but might have trouble naming ten communities that collectively\ntransformed humanity. I think this is because creating these hero\/villain\nstories helps us to believe we don\u2019t need to try and be that good (that person\nis special!) and that we couldn\u2019t possibly be that bad (that person is\ndisturbed!). So, what would happen if we abandoned this simplified narrative\nand embraced the idea that each of us can embody the full spectrum of human potential?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change, plastic pollution, and the\nunderlying causes of both threaten our ability to survive on this planet. But,\nmore often than not, we look to others for solutions rather than confront our\nown infinite potential. If we are to overcome these global environmental\nissues, we have to admit that each one of us can have significant impact, and\nwe have a responsibility to actualize our potential. But, not alone. In and\nwith community we can combine our incredible potential to transform systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to start asking what we can do\n\u201cwith\u201d instead of what we can do \u201cfor.\u201d If scientists, artists, and educators\nask what they can do in partnership with communities rather than what they can\ncreate for them we can begin to form a new vision that brings the head and\nheart together and motivates action. However, this is easier said than done. It\ntakes a dedicated group of partners, time, resources, and flexibility along\nwith regular work to maintain a partnership to make it happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past two years, I\u2019ve been a part of a group of partners from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and the Jefferson County School District (JeffCo) who have been working together to pilot a curriculum with students in Jefferson County. Our goal is to develop lessons that bring together art and science in 4th<\/sup> and 5th<\/sup> grade classrooms to address climate change and create a performance that invites the community to work with students to build resiliency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Students and teachers from Jefferson County Schools during a visit to CU in March 2019. Credit: Lianna Nixon.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actively involving students in climate change\nissues while they are still relatively young is important. Research reveals\nthat pessimism about addressing climate change increases with age\u2014particularly\nfrom early to late adolescence (Ojala 2012). It is essential to discuss\nresilience and climate concerns in a positive way. Michale Rohd, author of Theatre for Community Conflict and Dialogue:\nThe Hope is Vital Training Manual<\/a> <\/em>writes that, \u201cThe act of\nexpression is an act of connection\u2014through it we become positive, active\nparticipants in our lives and in our communities\u201d (Rohd 1998).  Witnessing youth arts and performance gives\nadults hope. Engaging youth in solutions-oriented arts regarding resilience and\nclimate change increases their level of hope and positive action. Giving youth\na feeling that solutions to climate change are within their control can\nmotivate behavior that benefits families, local community, and the world\n(Stevenson and Peterson 2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a need for an effective framework for this type of community-integrated co-production of lessons to promote action. Though each community has specific needs, the process of bringing communities together and designing an art\/science project with<\/em> and not for<\/em> them has an associated set of best practices. Our hope is that through this project, we can add to the understanding of what creates effective art\/science\/education partnerships and help actualize the collective potential needed to overcome the immense challenges we currently face as a society by actualizing our collective potential. In doing so, we hope to change the focus to how change happens in communities and the process that enables systems to become sustainable rather than who to single out as a separate and uniquely powerful individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ojala, M., Fakulteten f\u00f6r utbildningsvetenskaper, Humanistisk-samh\u00e4llsvetenskapliga vetenskapsomr\u00e5det, Uppsala universitet; Institutionen f\u00f6r pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier, 2012. Hope and climate change: The importance of hope for pro-environmental engagement among young people<\/a>, Environmental Education Research, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 625.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rohd, M.,1998. Theatre for community, conflict; dialogue: The Hope is Vital training manual<\/a>, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stevenson, K.T., Peterson, M.N. & Bondell, H.D., 2016. The influence of personal beliefs, friends, and family in building climate change concern among adolescents<\/a>, Environmental Education Research, pp. 1-14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Patrick ChandlerPhD Student in Environmental Studies Program at University of Colorado Boulder and 2019 winner of the Radford Byerly Award in Science and Technology Policy Photo: Patrick Chandler during a performance of Inside the Greenhouse\u2019s musical for youth engagement,\u00a0Shine, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentaries"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-25 01:43:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3888,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions\/3888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}