Contemporary Arts and Climate in the Classroom: A conversation between a contemporary arts and an interdisciplinary art-science education team

Effective science and environmental education should raise complicated questions for students. To deeply engage with these topics and questions, students must be able to articulate and follow their own paths of inquiry. This is difficult. Developing a true understanding of content to inspire change, requires more than student's basic knowledge of content. It calls for building connections between disciplines and integrating knowledge. Engaging students with the contemporary arts as they learn supports this deeper engagement.

This presentations focuses on connections between contemporary artists and climate/environmental science related to student learning from two perspectives: the interdisciplinary teaching team (art and science educators) and a contemporary artist. Examples of student engagement with scientific content and contemporary arts is taken from an interdisciplinary, field-based art-education course, focusing on coastal boundaries and climate change. As most of the students were non-scientists, the course sought to relate science content through interdisciplinary themes and encouraged students to deeply integrate science.

Students had to research a contemporary artist, such as Diane Burko. By examining contemporary art, students experienced scientific knowledge through a different lenses and modalities. Students encountered the climate knowledge from a complexly different perspectives, presented in intriguing, curious, and unusual ways. We will show examples of students translating and expanding their scientific knowledge as through a serious investigation of contemporary artists focused on environmental challenges. In particular, students were able to learn from the artists themselves - through things like artist statements, exhibit catalogs, and websites. This highlighted the commonality of the creative and research process scientists and artists share. We will relate student responses directly to the contemporary art they used - merging learning in science and contemporary art. We will explore how engaging with contemporary art in this forum compares and contrasts to other experiences. This educational experience heightened an awareness and appreciation of environmental issues and increased the reach of contemporary art.