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 Energyby 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.

EXHIBITIONS AT 516 ARTS:

Knew Normal and Off the ChartsAugust 29 – October 31, 2015

516 ARTS presents concurrent exhibitions focused on navigating changing environments.  Knew Normal,curated by Nancy Zastudil, features paintings, drawings and photography and small props that bear witness to the effects of climate change on our environments, bodies and psyches.  Artists include: Gala Bent, Nick Brown, Mel Chin, Adriane Colburn, Naomi Kizhner, Lee Lee, Wendy Mason, Nina Montenegro, Ryan Pierce, Dario Robleto, Miriam Simun and Cedra Wood.  Off the Charts,curated by Rhiannon Mercer and Claude Smith, explores the visual language that artists use to document, process, map and manipulate a better understanding of the ever-evolving world we inhabit.  Artists include: Sandow Birk & Elyse Pignolet, Anne Gilman, Jerry Gretzinger, Mary Iverson, Bethany Johnson, Jane Lackey, Mitchell Marti, Nathalie Miebach, James Sterling Pitt, Ross Racine, Matthew Rangell and Alexander Webb.

Scott Greene: Bewildernessand Beau Carey: RiseNovember 21, 2015 – January 9, 2016

516 ARTS spotlights two of Albuquerque’s most prolific painters with concurrent solo exhibitions exploring contemporary changes in the landscape from human activity while referencing the rich history of classical and 19th century American Landscape painting.  Scott Greene: Bewildernesssuggests a place existing beyond imagination, myth and reality where awe-inspiring pristine wilderness endures side by side with the idea of nature as something to be controlled and exploited.  Beau Carey: Risereferences navigational coastal profiling and compositional structures of the 19th century American landscape painters to examine how modern landscapes came to be spatially constructed.  Rooted in globalism and environmental dominance, these paintings look at how we will navigate and view a rapidly changing physical world.

GUEST SPEAKERS:

516 ARTS will present a series of speakers to address the issues around climate change from both the science and art perspectives.  Speakers include renowned artist Mel Chin, who is currently working on a project about developing a solar economy in the Western Sahara (September 10, 5>30pm, presented in partnership with UNM College of Fine Arts); and Ruben Arvizu who, together with Jean-Michel Cousteau, was named Ambassador of the Global Cities Covenant on Climate and serves as Director for Latin America with the Cousteau Society (November 12, 5:30pm, presented in partnership with the National Hispanic Cultural Center).

YOUTH OUTREACH PROGRAMS:

516 ARTS is offering STEM+Arts workshops with artists Abbey Hepner and Rubén Olguin at local schools in partnership with the National Hispanic Cultural Center, STEMarts Lab and The Paseo.  We will also host student groups at 516 ARTS for exhibition tours, discussions and hands-on activities throughout the fall.

PROGRAM PARTNERS INCLUDE:

516 ARTS
ABQ UNM CityLab
Albuquerque Public Schools
AmeriCorps VISTA
Central Features
CyQloVíA
Civic Plaza Presents
Downtown Albuquerque MainStreet Initiative
Downtown Grower’s Market
Explora
National Hispanic Cultural Center
The Paseo
STEMArts Lab
University of New Mexico:
Art & Ecology
Center for Advanced Research Computing
College of Fine Arts
Creative Writing Program
Landscape Architecture

SPONSORS INCLUDE:

The Albuquerque Journal
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
Bernalillo County Community Events
Conservation Voters New Mexico/Juntos
Levitated Toy Factory
Mid-Region Council of Governments
Positive Energy Solar
Union of Concerned Scientists
University of New Mexico
College of Fine Arts
School of Engineering
Office of Research/Provost

FUNDERS INCLUDE:

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Bernalillo County Community Events
The City of Albuquerque:
Mayor Richard R. Berry, City Council
& Urban Enhancement Trust Fun
The FUNd of ABQ Community Foundation
McCune Charitable Foundation
New Mexico Arts, a division of the Office of
Cultural Affairs, with the National Endowment for the Arts

Click to download the current PREVIEW PRESS RELEASE (pdf)
Check back for more information

Image: EVII from Jerry’s Map by Jerry Gretzinger, Still from Chasing Ice by James Balog