Why We Won’t Just Leave – An Exhibition on Climate Change

Dear Friends,

As an artist, 2020 brought opportunities for change.  Looking ahead to 2021, I am preparing for inspiring work with So-Cal and Alaska communities, deepening in vision for education and uplifting youth, and spreading love and beauty through art.

On these last days of 2020, I am asking for your generosity in helping me realize a vision. 

For the past five years I have traveled to Alaska to engage with communities across the state as an artist in residence with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska’s 16 National Wildlife Refuges.  My travels have taken me to incredible lands where I have met inspiring people, learned about rich cultural traditions, and experienced firsthand the astounding impacts on the landscape due to climate change. 

In February, 2021 Why We Won’t Just Leave: What Alaska is Telling the World About Climate Change will debut virtually at Los Angeles’ Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) uniting over 15 Alaskan artists, activists, scientists and community organizers to deliver their messages on climate change from the frontlines.  It is the first exhibition I have curated that brings Alaska to Los Angeles and the global community, creating an opportunity for cross-cultural understanding and collaboration towards a sustainable and thriving future. 

In Los Angeles nitrogen oxide in smog contributes to increasingly warm temperatures, wildfires surge through communities, prolonged droughts threaten food and job security, and unhealthy oceans cause marine animal die-offs.  In Alaska, glaciers are receding exorbitantly fast contributing to rising ocean levels across the globe.  Villages are collapsing into melting permafrost and eroding into the sea.  Lack of sea ice makes it almost impossible for species to survive.  Changing subsistence and landscape patterns make food sources and safe travel unreliable.  All the while, extraction companies feed on the riches of Alaska’s lands and waters, contributing to an exasperated climate.  Alaska is a critical player in Earth’s climate.  It is urgent that we take action to reverse our trajectory, and the good news is we can still do it. 

“Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.  Resistance and change often begin in art.” ~ Ursula K. Le Guin, author.

How do we tell the story of something that hasn’t happened yet?  That is the mission of dreamers.  That is the purpose of artists.  We create so we can envision it into being. 

Why We Won’t Just Leave is an exhibition that brings these messages to life.  It is a spark of hope in the darkness.  It is a call for unity, resilience and balance. 

An exhibition won’t solve climate change.  But art is pivotal in transforming culture, norms, and affecting change.  Art is an effective political tool. 

I need your support to bring Why We Won’t Just Leave to local and global audiences through virtual curation and programming this February through April.  Your solidarity and support make it possible. 

  All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law through SPARC 501(c)(3) tax ID. 

Your gift today supports:

• The development and presentation of a virtual gallery exhibition
• Physical materials and supplies supporting virtual exhibition and programming
• Ancillary programs that engage adults and youth in deeper explorations of climate change
• The participants in the exhibition in the continuation of their important work

Thank you, with all my heart,

Lindsay

P.S. Announcements coming soon on the opening of the exhibition and dates for ancillary programs you won’t want to miss!