Environmental art: A path to civic progress in a time of policy retreat in the United States

Abstract

Over the past forty years, the environmental movement has won important victories, from the Clean Air Act to the Paris Accord, yet the overall environmental outlook for our planet remains dire. At a moment in the United States where policy approaches to climate change are stalled, art is positioned to contribute to this movement and complement existing strategies in environmental policy, education, and research. This paper surfaces a number of examples of environmental art, from public art to products to speculative design and explores theories of social change and behavioral research that help explain the challenges and limitations of traditional approaches and suggest the potential of art in creating environmental action. How can environmental art move us forward in a time of policy retreat in the United States? How can we assess environmental art as a form of socially engaged art and in light of avant-garde perspectives?

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