Arts and Environment

"The Center for Disaster Philanthropy is hosting a webinar to help foundations, corporations and individual donors learn about the storm, the impact of the devastating flooding and how they can help affected communities." The webinar takes place on Thursday, September 22 at 2pm ET. Registration is required.

From Filantropic Puerto Rico: "Today, five years after Hurricane María, Hurricane Fiona has caused catastrophic rainfalls, major mudslides that have left whole communities inaccessible, rivers have overflowed causing tragedies and debris has blocked some of the main streets and highways across Puerto Rico. The hurricane also caused the fragile power grid to shut down, provoking an islandwide blackout that also left the majority of the population without access to clean water."

"The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is seeking proposals from artists to decorate its 46,000-pound waste collection vehicles. But artists whose designs are selected will not be paid, raising questions about whether the city’s open call devalues art," said Jasmine Liu for Hyperallergic. "DSNY is rebooting this public art project, Trucks of Art, for the second time, and will be accepting expressions of interest from artists until September 18. Its inaugural edition happened in 2019, when four artists and students in a visual arts class were selected to cover the 400-square-foot blank “canvases” with images of sanitation workers, recycling, and flowers. Almost 100 artists applied, and Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia at the time called the designs 'truly … works of art.'"

"How can we stop the world from burning? For many years, I responded to that question as an environmental advocate," said author Manisha Bapna for Orion

"In our fight against climate change, my colleagues and I employ hard-edged tools such as legislation, policy, and litigation—all informed by science and real-world impacts on people and nature. But as the Anthropocene accelerates and our time runs out to set the world on a more sustainable and equitable course, I have come to recognize that these tools alone cannot change the world fast enough to save it."

From the National Endowment for the Arts, "This Arts Data Profile gives national and state-level estimates of artists in the workforce. The figures derive from American Community Survey (ACS) data covering 2015-2019. The ACS is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. State-level estimates are available for the total number of artists and for each individual type of artist (workers in any of 13 specific artist occupations)."

From The Center for Effective Philanthropy: "Despite the urgency of climate change and the narrowing window for action, philanthropic funding to address climate change remains very limited. Total philanthropic giving by foundations and individuals focused on climate change mitigation represents less than two percent of total global philanthropic giving, according to the ClimateWorks Foundation. While there is some evidence of increased momentum in recent years, more action will be needed to match the scale of the climate crisis."

"We are at a historic crossroads — a social, environmental and economic reckoning hastened by COVID-19 and a global movement for racial equity. As arts and culture funders, we’ve seen how the landscape is shifting," said co-authors Rocío Aranda-Alvarado and Lane Harwell. "Artists and storytellers are regrounding and reimagining themselves, reshaping arts infrastructure and systems that have never been equitable or sustainable, and working to realize the narrative possibilities to come."

The Packard Foundation’s Bioenergy strategy is issuing a request for project proposals to grassroots organizations based in the U.S. South or Canada that have programs focused on frontline community organizing and power-building around social, environmental, or climate justice in one of the following issue areas: Forest protection, Community land rights, Combating extractive energy industries.

"Despite tough lessons learned after Hurricane Harvey, most artists and arts and history organizations in the Houston area are still unprepared for the next disaster," states a new guide by the Houston Arts Alliance designed to help local artists and nonprofits on how to become resilient now.

As Next City writes, "while the idea of scientists collaborating with musicians to create climate science-inspired music may initially sound surprising, it’s actually a very logical approach to solving a pernicious problem. If science doesn’t move people to action, maybe music will."