The Role of the Arts in Environmental Education

My Masters Final Portfolio focuses on the arts as a tool for community engagement and environmental education. In order to explore this topic, I created and disseminated several arts-based productions/presentations/actions that served to educate the public about climate change solutions. The over-arching guiding question for my final portfolio (and this report) is: Can the arts be used to educate and inspire individuals and communities to take actions towards alleviating both local and global impacts of climate change? In other words, is it possible to encourage individuals and communities to become more engaged in climate change solutions by either witnessing or participating in multidisciplinary arts-focused undertakings? And, if so, how can the impact of multidisciplinary arts in community engagement and environmental education be evaluated and documented? My theoretical framework was that dire warnings about climate change obstacles and climate change solutions, unto themselves, are not enough, especially given that the “climate emergency” has grown only more urgent, with so many resources (of necessity) being directed to the COVID pandemic. This was also my rational in creating a video version of a one-woman show, rather than a community-engaged approach.