Raising environmental awareness through art projects

Abstract

The paper analyzes the importance of actively raising awareness about the significance of ecology and the preservation of our environment through various art forms. The role they play in the process is an important one, both in terms of educating the younger, and raising awareness among the older generations about environmental issues. Art strives for the preservation of culture and cultural heritage, and represents a permanent record of a certain age, a way of life, the social and political circumstances, human opinions, and socially relevant topics. Ranging from architecture, as the most frequently used type of art, via literature and film, to music which reaches the widest of audiences, it can convey any message to the greatest number of people, and each art form can give its own contribution to environmental issues. Socially engaged art is a frequent occurrence. Throughout history, art has been used as a call to rebellion, resistance, and change. Environmental topics have been increasingly more present in art over the past few decades, but are still not present enough. Great potential for the awakening of mankind in terms of the environmental challenges we are facing lies precisely in various art forms. Everyone has their own preference when it comes to art, which is why no art form should be neglected; instead, they should all be developed equally so as to encourage as many people as possible, spanning all generations, to consider the importance of environmental issues.

How lasting is the impact of art?: An exploratory study of the incidence and duration of art exhibition-induced prosocial attitude change using a 2-week daily diary method.

“…Increasingly, art has also been targeted at changing behaviors and thoughts. Although certainly not new (see, e.g., Kidd & Jackson, 2010; Moriuchi, 2014), the use of artworks and art exhibitions has recently been championed as a solution for effecting change with a broad range of topics—such as shaping attitudes about nature or climate change (Galafassi et al, 2018; Lee, 2021; Marinaro & Flores, 2016; Marković & Petrović, 2021; Merrick, 2011; Pinsky & Sommer, 2020; Sommer & Klöckner, 2021; Speidel, 2020), refugees (Briciu, 2020; Mendelssohn, 2018; Papouli, 2017), homelessness (Peters, 2019), domestic violence (Walker, 2021)—or for generally making individuals more reflective and empathic citizens (Briciu, 2020; Gerger et al, 2018; Pelowski et al, 2020). Blockbuster examples include the installation of pieces of icebergs in front of European government offices by Olafur Eliasson ( Ice watch , 2015), an inflatable sculpture resembling a boat of refugees ( Law of the journey , 2017) by Ai Weiwei, as well as main themes of museums and recent major art events (Venice Biennale; B.…”

“…Cohen & Heinecke, 2018;Janes & Sandell, 2019). Because it represents such a unique form of communication, a blending of perceptual, cognitive, and affective factors, as well as a forum for provocative questions and sharing experiences, art-it is argued-may provide a promising means to achieve success (Hall & Robertson, 2010;Markovic ́& Petrovic , 2021;Roosen et al, 2018). As put by the curators for another such recent initiative focused on societal challenge (Tate, 2019), "art has the power to change public debate because it has the power to change each of us, to shift ideas and sentiment.…”