Students and faculty tackle climate change with art
April 10, 2023 - Maddie Pukite
“Hope is hard.”
So will read the new linen banners in the Honors College, which depict silhouettes of students with found poems.
To showcase community response to climate change at the University of New Mexico, two professors in the Honors College selected two students to work collectively on a cyanogram art display. They designed the banners and wrote the poems based on responses to a survey where students could submit their thoughts, hopes and fears surrounding the climate crisis.
The project began after professors Amaris Ketcham and Megan Jacobs received money from a grant from the Honors Research Institute and wanted to create an art display that tackled climate change through both visual and written work. They selected two students — sophomore Victoria Nisoli and senior Ethan Ward — to participate.
“(We wanted to) showcase UNM students and have them be integrated into the landscape,” Nisoli said. “So we have satellite images of the Rio Grande, and then also pictures we took of the landscape that we all integrated into one image. It's important to also emphasize the people — the students within the crisis — since we're using their words.”
The banners were supposed to be displayed in Smith Plaza in front of Zimmerman Library. However, Ketcham said, due to high installation costs and concern from different departments surrounding the content of the work, they will be displayed at the Honors College.
