Nicholas School Environmental Photography Exhibition Mini Grant

Timeline

2025

This project initiated during the Spring semester of 2025. The exhibition opens in Fall 2025.

Description

Affiliated program: SCALe Mini Grant

Summary

Initiated by graduate student Rebecca Cox, the Nicholas School Art Exhibition promotes art as a tool to understand local environmental changes and how our community can address them.

In Fall 2025, the Nicholas School community was invited to submit artwork that identified present and future challenges related to climate change and sustainability at Duke, and that demonstrated the promising solutions that Duke has already undertaken or can implement in the future. Twenty-nine submissions were reviewed by a jury of four that represented faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students. Ten images were selected for the exhibition and will be displayed in Hug Commons of LSRC and Grainger Hall.

Goals

This exhibition serves to bring the Nicholas School community together in recognition of the role that art can play in advocating for the environment in a more accessible way, going beyond field-specific jargon and speaking directly to the human emotions and experiences that we share.

To promote the role of art in environmental communication at Duke and beyond.
To highlight the ways in which environmental change manifests in our communities, and the methods with which we address it.
To facilitate collaboration and connection between students, faculty, and staff at the Nicholas School.
To connect the Nicholas School community to the physical spaces we occupy on Duke’s campus.

Experience and Learning Outcomes

This exhibition provides a platform for the Nicholas School community to share not only their artistic practices and capabilities, but also to document the changes and mobilization occurring in the rapidly-evolving climate crisis. Acknowledging the connection between art and environmental advocacy, the selected photographs spread awareness of the ways in which our personal, professional and academic efforts can contribute to a more sustainable society and address the pressing environmental challenges of our time.

Art has the unique ability to spark dialogue among diverse audiences as it does not necessitate scientific or analytical knowledge, making this exhibition an opportunity to spark conversation about environmental topics among new groups of people, beyond the classroom.

Student Leaders AND Staff Supporters

The project was led by MEM student Rebecca Cox with the support of the jurors Tim Johnson, Dan Roberts, Sondra Ponzi, Eileen Jennings and Nina Castro Alves.

Tim Johnson served as the project advisor.

Exhibition Artists

View the artists' photographs and read their commentary about the artworks on the StoryMap.

Connecting to Duke's Climate and Sustainability Fluency Framework

The Nicholas School art exhibition focuses on the Fluency Framework’s section on Catalysts for Change as it highlights art as a tool for environmental communication and the importance of creative skills in this field. This exhibition will showcase visual storytelling of local environmental challenges and resiliency, empowering the Nicholas School community to utilize art as a method of documenting change, spreading awareness and inspiring action.

The public-facing nature of an art exhibition provides opportunities for conversations among students, faculty and staff as we have shared experiences with the artwork, encouraging us to consider the subjects from a variety of perspectives. Gaining a holistic understanding of issues and possible solutions, through the stories the artworks tell and the discussions they prompt, enables us to ask better questions about reforming local policies or changing individual behaviors, leading to more effective environmental action.