Abstract
Public art in environmental and nature studies blends creativity and advocacy to invite reflection on our relationships with the natural world. Popular artistic representations express a commitment to work for change, as opposed to mere optimism or positivity. Some forms of public art are individual creations, but there are also ways to foster co-creation and interactive forms of public art advocacy. We present ways to invite participatory approaches to public art that advocate for sustainable environmental practices. Visual and poetic languages/rhetorics are known to have a more visceral effect on humans than other sorts of rhetorics/language. We use color, design theory, sensory language, and the immediacy of image in order to provoke an emotional response in participants, a response that engenders hope and action. Drawing on feminist epistemologies, this presentation theorizes hope as an intellectual and artistic practice that communities can use in strategic ways to elicit change. We theorize about and provide concrete examples of the ways that integrated visual and poetic arts create sustainable environments of hope. Using endangered and delisted species from various environments as examples, as well as public and digital images of hope, we model the ways that parks, museums, posters, bus and subway tags, sidewalk etchings, and bookmaking and printmaking workshops can invite citizens to learn about and support conservation movements in their environments.
Presenters
Nancy C DeJoyEmeritus Professor, Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures, Michigan State University, Michigan, United States Ellen Moll
Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies, College of Arts and Letters, Michigan State University, Michigan, United States Samantha Earley
Professor, English, Indiana University Southeast, Indiana, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Hope, Public art, Sustainability, Feminist epistemology, Expanded definitions of society
