Sustainability and the Environment

Jorge Menna Barreto on Environmental Sculpture

Today, we’re taking you out for lunch with Brazilian artist Jorge Menna Barreto. The café within the pavilion that houses the 32nd São Paulo Biennial in Brazil is no ordinary eatery. The artist created Restauro, or Restoration, in partnership with local chefs and farmers to encourage awareness about the way we use our land and the global consequences of how we eat. The farming practice behind this project is agro-forestry, the simultaneous cultivation of crops and trees. Jorge Menna Barreto’s entire project is an inspiring environmental sculpture.

Deborah Mitchell: The Artist as Guide to the Everglades

Today, we take you to meet to Deborah Mitchell in her studio on Miami Beach, to talk about the ways that Florida’s southwest coast influences her art. The contested landscape, endangered by encroaching urban development and sea level rise, is where she engages as an artist and an advocate for North America’s only subtropical wilderness: The Everglades. Mitchell’s mindful practice expresses her affinity for this fragile ecology, and her desire to learn, share and preserve its science and history.

Rauschenberg Residency on Rising Water

At the Rauschenberg Residency on the island of Captiva just off the west coast of Florida, we meet artists, writers, and scientists working on projects related to the environment. They’re here for a special session known as the Rising Water Confab, a month-long program exploring the topic of climate change.