Fresh Perspectives: Using arts and culture

This session was about how arts and culture are being used in innovative ways to tackle climate resilience in different cities around the world.

• Chris Pearson Professor of Environmental History, Liverpool University
• Bryony Ella Research Artist, Liverpool University

First up, Chris and Bryony introduced their work in New York, Paris and London called Melting Metropolis: City heat stress with art and a historical perspective.

• At a time of climate breakdown, their research project Melting Metropolis aims to expose and critique the past and present political, economic and cultural structures that create everyday and extreme heat in urban environments and the ensuing health injustices. The project aims to:
  • Increase understanding of marginalized communities’ lived experiences of everyday and extreme heat in London, Paris, and New York
  • Support residents to have a better future in hotter cities
  • Give voice to lesser heard experiences and knowledges of lived experiences of urban heat
  • Demonstrate the value of history to understand and critique the present
• They collaborated with Urban Archive in New York to assemble images and stories of New York summers. This work explores how New Yorkers have historically responded to hot summer weather by seeking relief in shade and water. A headline from an old paper proclaimed ‘The Sun’s pitiless rays, death and discomfort in the tenement houses’
• They also shared a series of ‘Drawing Heat’ workshops where participants could explore the sensory and bodily experiences of heat.
• A key learning from this session was making the point that heat is intangible, temporal, invisible. We need to be careful about using the right language – not everyone will understand the word ‘resilience.’

Claudia Zarazua Director of Arts and Cultural Planning, City of Cambridge, MA

Claudia then introduced her department’s work of using art/culture/creativity to generate imaginative and equitable solutions to the problem of heat:

• They have produced an excellent guide called Cool it with Art which shares practical steps for using art in our communities to tackle rising temperatures. The guide explores three kinds of interventions: creative communications, creative engagement and creative cooling infrastructure.
• The first two interventions are about raising awareness of and generating participation in a community dialogue on climate risks and preparedness measures, so people know what to do to deal with heat exhaustion, for example.
• The third intervention is about developing creative interventions that provide shade and other cooling opportunities in the public realm. Claudia shared some images of great installations that were created across the city.
• A theme running through their work is that shade is social justice and the power of art and experimentation can help to support climate justice.
• She concluded with some lessons learnt, including that heat risk exposure is hard to convey/translate, that trees cannot be the only solution to cooling and that community belonging is critical!

Conference session write-ups

Keynotes: Mete Coban (Deputy Mayor), Emma Howard Boyd (London Climate Resilience Review), Indy Johar (Dark Matter Labs)

Fresh Perspectives – Young people-led panel discussion

Fresh Perspectives – Two US projects using art and culture to explore climate resilience

Including All Voices – ensuring communities are fully involved

Neighbourhood Futures – Tackling climate resilience and health equity

Homes and Buildings – Designing inclusive climate approaches

Council-led Housing Network – climate resilience through council development

Fresh Perspectives – Alumni ideas on climate resilience, plus domestic retrofit and infrastructure innovation in Arnhem

Inclusive Finance – Financial models for equitable climate resilience

Neighbourhoods – Designing inclusive climate approaches

Health and Racial Equity – Developing community-led action for ethnic minority communities

Make It Happen – Closing plenary with conference takeaways, including governance, finance and partnerships

Strand Aldwych Walking Tour – how a striking new landscape was created in the historic London

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The conference is part of our major Knowledge programme for 2024/25, with a final report in Spring 2025. Find out more about our Climate Resilience and Equity programme.

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