Art is a powerful tool in bringing awareness to climate change and environmental justice and aiding climate resiliency efforts. Art educates, engages, and helps transform individuals and communities. The Forum featured three, FREE art-related activities:
Live Painter
At Wednesday Reception • 5 – 6:30 PM
The evening reception will feature Long Beach artist Katie Phillips live-painting. Phillips is the co-founder of Squeeze Art Collective, a painter, muralist, illustrator, and graphic designer. Her varied work ranges from portraiture to surrealist, but the common thread throughout all of her work is color. She draws her inspiration from music, dreams, her environment, and other artists. You can see a few of her murals around Long Beach. Phillips says this about the painting she’ll paint during the reception: “Climate change is affecting us all – no matter how much money you make or what your social class is. As residents of Planet Earth, we are all responsible for helping each other as our resources grow scarcer. The hardest hit are people living in poverty. My piece will aim to create awareness of this issue and stir the hearts of people who have the means to help.”
Art Activity: Creative Reuse Zine Workshop
At Wednesday Reception • 5 – 6:30 PM.
Participants will use recycled paper and ‘trash’ to create their own zines (self-published/D.I.Y. pocket sized magazines using collage and writing) to express their thoughts about deforestation, consumerism, and other causes of climate change. The process, which involves folding a single sheet of paper into an eight-page booklet, is a creative solution to reducing over-consumption and waste while helping dispense valuable information and foster creative expression. Local environmental activist and creative reuse artist Erin Foley will facilitate the activity. Foley is the co-founder of The Friendship Neighborhood, which hosts an annual event that brings community members together to connect, discuss neighborhood self-sustainability, and participate in family-friendly workshops on creative reuse, bike safety, and environmental justice.
Walking Tour: Creative Placemaking
Thursday, September 8 • 7:15 – 8 AM
Start your morning off right with a 45-minute creative placemaking walking tour with local expert April Economides, president of Green Octopus Consulting. The briskly paced walking tour will include short stops at a pocket park, parklet, public art installations and murals, highlighting how creative urban elements bring local communities social, ecological, and economic benefits. The tour departs the registration table promptly at 7:15 AM.
Forum organizers would like to thank Green Octopus Consulting for organizing the art related activities at this year’s Forum.
