Learning Opportunity Summary/Outline 

(This is a general outline of four key sessions focused on 1-goal setting and cohort building; 2-making informed decisions about where artists work, their energy and transportation choices; 3-understanding the impact of artist materials, techniques, and infrastructures; and 4-taking what was learned, understanding local climate effects, and making changes.) 

1. Artistic Centering & Cohort Building. Artists play a critical role in society, using their creativity to inform, inspire, and shape our understanding of the world around us. In the face of climate catastrophe, artists have a unique responsibility to understand their own climate impact and use their art to promote sustainable practices and inspire collective action. By working together in a cohort, artists can provide one another with a sense of community, support, and collective resilience. This network can help them navigate challenges, share experiences, and offer encouragement as they adapt their artistic practices to be more resilient and tackle climate change effects.

2. Goal Setting Exercise. In this session, artists will think about their artistic practice and what they want to achieve through this program. The aim is to help them identify environmental resilience goals alongside their individual artistic goals. This session enables artist participants to concentrate their efforts into manageable and actionable steps in the short-term, which will help them reach longer-term goals.  

• Fostering Collaboration and Shared Learning Exercises. This exercise aims to foster collaboration and shared learning among the artists in the cohort by encouraging them to share their individual goals, identify common themes, and explore potential collaborations. This collaborative environment will promote learning, growth, and innovation.  

1. Environmental & Sustainability Resilience Training: Where You Work. Understanding the climate impact of artist studios and artist travel is particularly important in San José, where 85% of community-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from transportation and buildings. Given the city's ambitious goal to reduce its net GHG emissions to zero, everyone has a crucial role to play in adopting sustainable practices in their workspaces and travel habits. This training plays a vital role in addressing these concerns by providing artists with the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions about where they work and their transportation choices. 

• Energy & Finding the Baseline Workshop. By exploring concepts around energy consumption, carbon emissions, energy hierarchy, renewable energy, clean energy, and carbon drawdown, artists will gain an introductory understanding of energy-related issues alongside the tools to assess, optimize, and reduce their studio's energy consumption. Hands-on instruction will also help artists develop energy baselines using a carbon calculator designed specifically for the arts sector, empowering them to measure their studio's energy usage and identify areas for improvement. The inclusion of local city, county, state, and federal resources in this workshop will also empower artists to access financial and technical support for energy efficiency upgrades and clean energy adoption.  

• Travel & Commuting Workshop. Artists often travel extensively for exhibitions, residencies, and other professional opportunities. By exploring zero-emission vehicles, active transportation, shared services, public transit, and strategies to reduce travel distances, artists can significantly reduce their climate impact and contribute to a more sustainable future. The inclusion of local, national, and international resources in this workshop empowers artists to make informed choices regardless of their location or travel destinations. This workshop will help artists navigate the complexities of transportation options and identify the most sustainable choices for their specific needs.  

1. Resilience Training: How You Work. The production and consumption of artistic materials, mediums, and other supplies can have a significant impact on the environment. By understanding the impact of their materials and processes, artists can make informed choices that minimize their footprint and contribute to a more sustainable future.  

• Applying Circularity & Zero-Waste Principles to Art Practices. This comprehensive workshop equips artists with the knowledge and tools to adopt circular economy principles and zero-waste practices, minimizing their environmental impact and creating work that is environmentally responsible. This workshop delves into circular economy principles, a framework that emphasizes reducing waste, reusing materials, and extending product life cycles; the 5 R’s (refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle) so that artists gain a clear understanding on how to maximize resource efficiency and promote a circular approach to their practices. It also introduces the concept Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) a tool for evaluating the environmental impact of products and processes throughout their entire life cycle. By engaging in these concepts, artists can make informed decisions about the materials and processes they use and start to move toward materials with a positive impact. Facilitator: Representative of Ki Culture and from Barder.art on application, representative from Environmental Services on Recycling & Garbage.

• Alternative & Future Materials Lab. This learning session will invite other artists who are transitioning towards ecologically conscious art and design practices to share their work with the cohort. These active presentations will introduce the impact of common or traditional materials and techniques, and the range of natural, circular, and sustainable art materials that are emerging as exciting alternatives to fossil-based or toxic materials commonly used in the arts and design. Facilitator: Representative(s) of Jan van Eyck Academie Future Materials Lab.

• Sustainable Exhibition Lab. This learning session will touch on all aspects of climate-smart exhibition-making with an emphasis on environmental stewardship. This lab begins with the premise that artists who are addressing climate, pollution, and waste in their studios and practices, must also address exhibition infrastructures, taking active steps to mitigate their environmental impact. Our aim is to provide a series of best practices for presenting low carbon, low energy, low waste productions with galleries and museum large and small. Topics covered include planning and design, and outline networks for resource sharing and problem-solving.

1. Resilience Training: Understanding Local Impact, Diversifying Income & Embracing Adaptation. Much of the learning to this point has focused on decarbonization, adopting eco-conscious artmaking methods that minimize environmental impact and promote sustainability. From utilizing alternative materials and reducing waste to exploring clean energy sources for studio operations, building such resilience in the face of climate change is crucial for artists, especially for those in high-impact areas. This final session will pinpoint artistic adaptations to changing conditions to protect their livelihoods and continue creating art that inspires and engages their communities. It includes key steps: 

• Understand Climate Change Impacts: Artists gain a thorough understanding of the specific climate change impacts expected in their region, including rising temperatures, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and disruptions to natural resources. This knowledge will guide artists in preparing for potential challenges and adapting their practices accordingly.

• Diversify Income Streams: Artists must rely on a variety of income sources beyond solely selling artwork. This discussion will explore opportunities in teaching, workshops, commissions, artist talks, art handling, grants, residencies and other creative economy endeavors and advocacy networks to engage and reduce financial vulnerability in the face of climate-related disruptions. .

• Embrace Sustainable Adaptation. Revisiting goals set at the outset, taking what was learned and applying it as artists move forward, each artist will share their ideas for adapting their studio, artistic and exhibition practices to be more resilient to climate effects and lower in GHG emissions. Members of the cohort will each discuss how it fits into their artistic goals and climate and environmental aims established in the beginning and how it developed along the course of the workshop learnings. This aspect of the program is premised on the understanding that studios and practices will be unique to each artist, so their adaptation criteria will be too.

Program Timeline & Phases 

There are three phases to the overall artist participation:  

1. Cohort Learning and Community Building 

• The Cohort Learning and Community Building in Phase 1 consists of four learning sessions total on four consecutive Saturdays in June.

• 2. Independent Reflection with Coaching 

•  During Phase 2, the artist will receive support from City’s Climate Art Program Creative Strategist, along with office hours and studio visits for 1:1 meetings.
  
  3. Share back and Reconvening

• Phase 3 will consist of cohort reconvening at the end of summer once artists have been able to reflect on their work and make progress on adaptations. 

Compensation