Wednesday, September 9, 2015

SEEDY Habitat: Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts


We will be SeedBroadcasting with Habitat: Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts during the Downtown Block Party in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This will kick off a very special SeedBroadcast project that we will be growing over the next several years, focusing our creative seedy cultivation on the role of local seeds, seed keepers, and regional foodsheds to feed communities and build resilient agri-Culture in the fact of Climate Change.

We will have a fantastic group of artists from Land Arts of the American West and UNM Art and Ecology working with us during this event.

Bring your Seed Stories to record and open-pollinated seeds to share!

Saturday, September 12, 2015 from 1pm - 4pm
On Central Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets
Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico


In partnership with 516 ARTS

Here is more information about other events and activities during the Block Party.

516 ARTS is organizing a collaborative season of public programming in the fall of 2015 that explores climate change through the arts to create a platform for education and dialogue. The public programs for HABITAT: Exploring Climate Change Through the Arts will include: a series of exhibitions at 516 ARTS; the popular Downtown Block Party; special events with guest speakers; film screenings; and youth programs.

Climate change is an urgent issue of both global and local concern. The Southwest can be considered one of the most "climate-challenged" regions of North America, with rising annual temperature averages, declining water supplies, and reduced agricultural yields. In New Mexico we've already seen destabilized and unpredictable weather patterns, water sources going dry, forests not recovering from fire, loss of urban trees, and crop failures. Public programs for HABITAT strive to raise awareness about these issues by taking an innovative approach to engaging with social and environmental change, and by bringing the community together to focus on sustainability.

DOWNTOWN BLOCK PARTY:
Interactive Art Projects, food, music and fun for the whole family!

516 ARTS presents its third Downtown Block Party on Saturday, September 12, 2015 on Central Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets Downtown, which expands the gallery programs into the street. This year, the event is presented in partnership with the Downtown Albuquerque MainStreet Initiative in celebration of the Downtown Albuquerque Arts & Cultural District. It highlights outdoor artworks and projects that address alternative energy, food issues, and land and water use in the future, all with a focus on positive solutions and dialogue. For example, GhostFood by Miriam Simun, is a performance and interactive/participatory event that explores eating in a future of biodiversity loss brought on by climate change. The GhostFood mobile food trailer serves scent-food paintings that are consumed by the public using a wearable device that adapts human physiology to enable taste experiences of unavailable foods. Little Sun Pop-Up Shop, by artist Olafur Eliasson (Berlin, Germany) and engineer Frederik Ottesen (Copenhagen, Denmark), showcases an attractive, high-quality solar-powered LED lamp they have developed, which serves as a social business focused on getting clean, reliable, affordable light to the 1.2 billion people worldwide without access to electricity. For The Future of Energy by Andrea Polli and students, the public is invited to engage with local energy issues using an app to find and create potential, and to see what they are generating in real time through visualization tools.