VisionShift! Art in the Age of Climate Change
VisionShift! is a collaborative of organizations including Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe Art Institute, Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Earth Care International (Youth Leadership Program), Fine Arts for Children and Teens (FACT), New Energy Economy, Santa Fe Place, and Warehouse 21. It also includes community individuals engaged in arts, social activism, environmental sustainability, Positive Youth Development, law, literature, and more. We expect additional organizations will join the Collaborative in the coming weeks.
Community-based art is active expression that develops from people working together creatively to improve their individual and collective vision and circumstances. This collaboration is by its nature dialectical. It is an expression of both individual and group identity. All creative expression, no matter how “original,” pools resources from both individual and community life. With this recognition, community art distinguishes itself from more socially conventional customs or style, in both vocabulary and theoretical approach. Rather than being be boxed in as an “individual genius,” the artists incite as a cultural catalyst, a magnificent stimulus for a larger process of social engagement and transformation.
VisionShift! brings together the diverse environmental, youth, and artistic communities of Santa Fe and the surrounding areas, as well as nationally based and recognized artists. We specifically encourage Hispanic and Native American participation.
The below organizations are supportive of our community’s effort to use art to help understand and take action regarding climate change.
Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA) was established in 1979 as a venue for the pursuit of cultural practices fostering ideas and collaborations in multi-disciplinary contemporary art with a focus on the intersection between visual and media art, performance, and film culture. CCA is committed to serving emerging, mid-career and established artists and their ideas, and takes a compelling stance with regard to promoting the value of avant-garde art and cultural life in the Southwest.
Earth Care International believes the heart of sustainability is caring for the Earth and ensuring that thriving ecosystems - our life support - exist into an infinite future. In creating a sustainable world, young people have an essential role to play in the process of change. When authentically engaged, youth serve an essential and vital role in communities as energizers - bringing new ideas and thinking to the table, and the willingness to implement new ideas without being stymied by past failures. This energizing and creative force is essential to building sustainable communities.
Fine Arts for Children and Teens (FACT) empowers and transforms lives by teaching artmaking, literacy, and life skills in an innovative learning environment. We emphasize reaching underprivileged young people, and program sites include low-income public schools, the county detention center, and our own local community art studio. FACT believes that the arts can help young people gain fundamental academic and social skills, making them more confident and overall better life-long learners.
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is located in one of the most diverse concentrations of Native peoples in North America, in the heart of the nation’s oldest multi-cultural communities and in one of the largest art markets in the country. In any given year, there may be up to 112 different tribes represented within the student body. At IAIA, all students are equally assured of the best opportunities for critical, professional and cultural development provided from a Native perspective.
New Energy Economy is dedicated to creating opportunities for New Mexico by developing solutions to global warming. With abundant renewable energy resources and innovative building technologies, New Mexico has an extraordinary opportunity to benefit by creating a new direction for energy in America. At New Energy Economy we create state legislation, influence federal legislation, and convene networks of businesses and organizations to pursue long-term healthy economic development.
Santa Fe Place is in the business of helping more effectively reach consumers when and where they make buying decisions. We partner closely with our businesses and consumers to identify opportunities and solutions. We create relationships that impact loyalty, builds name recognition, and generate sales.
The Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) was founded in 1985 by Pony Ault and the noted architect and artist William Lumpkins, both of whom sought to provide a unique opportunity for emerging artists to pursue a brief, intense period of study with critically acclaimed visiting artists. Today, the Institute remains, as it was founded, an independent, educational, nonprofit organization. In support of its mission, SFAI has developed a wide range of programs aimed at serving artists at various stages of their careers and diverse audiences.
Warehouse 21 is a hub for youth directed development in the arts through mentorship and entrepreneurial opportunities. Uniting youth from throughout New Mexico, participants are involved in performing arts, visual arts, digital media arts and also includes sewing, silkscreen and sculpture.
Earth Works Institute is a non-profit environmental services organization that fosters EcoWise communities. EcoWise communities actively address the causes and impacts of climate change and natural resource degradation to promote healthy ecosystems and healthy communities. EWI helps communities build capacity to restore, protect, and live in harmony with their natural environment. We implement this mission through an integrated approach: bringing together education, community-driven land stewardship, watershed restoration, land-use planning and policy work, and a green collar climate corps.
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) - The Institute of American Indian Arts is located in one of the most diverse concentrations of Native peoples in North America, in the heart of the nation’s oldest multi-cultural communities and in one of the largest art markets in the country. The mission of IAIA is to empower creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning and outreach. At IAIA, all students are equally assured of the best opportunities for critical, professional and cultural development provided from a Native perspective. Serving Native students from across the country allows for a unique cultural exchange within the student learning environment.
