New exhibition in Leeds explores the power of art to inspire action on climate crisis

“When I am not at work on my days off, I am very active in plant activism,” she says. ”I have been passionate about that for quite some time and I was keen to bring my passion for the environment and climate issues to my work and then the opportunity came up to become a staff sustainability architect to promote more sustainable practices. Through various conversations I decided that one thing I could do within this was to bring climate issues and stories into the programming within our galleries.”

Evans approached the Stanley & Audrey Burton gallery curator about doing a small creative intervention, rewriting some of the interpretation boards in the main gallery space. There happened to be a gap in the programming schedule in one of the smaller gallery spaces and the initial idea grew into something bigger. “It was suggested I could do an exhibition there so I started to identify themes and began looking at works in the collection for inspiration,” she says. “I have a particular interest in biodiversity and the impact that climate change is having on animal life and plant life.” The show comprises textual intervention in the main gallery as well as a display featuring a selection of well-loved and lesser-known artworks from the University’s art collection that celebrate the beauty and importance of the natural world.

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Among the highlights of the exhibition are a number of works from the University’s extensive collection of drawings, woodcuts and manuscripts by Yorkshire Dales historian Marie Hartley, including her 1953 drawing Fields of Askrigg which reveals a pre-industrial approach to agriculture and depicts fields bounded by thick, diverse hedgerows that would offer shelter and food for wildlife. “I have always had a soft spot for Marie Hartley’s illustrations and this was a great opportunity to display some of them,” says Evans. “She was very active in the early 1950s and in the 70-year period since there has been a distinct loss of an abundance of nature and of certain species. We can use her artworks as a record of what was abundant at the time – and as a reminder of what we have lost.”

Our relationship with the natural world has changed over recent generations and has certainly become more distant and disconnected in the post-industrial age. “One of the main themes of the exhibition is how we can use art to help us reconnect with nature,” says Evans. “We have some lovely Clare Leighton etchings of rural life and people working the land from a different time. We can use being with art and nature to increase our understanding of what we are set to lose if we don’t take action.”

Also featured in the show are pieces by Augustus John and Andy Goldsworthy, both of whom spent time immersed in nature in order to create their artworks. “I really wanted to include their work because through their creative practice working in the landscape, they developed an innate understanding of nature and I think we can learn from that.” There are contemporary ceramic works by Sophie MacCarthy detailing the shades and shapes of leaves as well as celebrations of urban nature in works such as Margaret Hannay’s Washing Day, while Phoebe Boswell’s Sentinel (Green) portrait of a fisherman in Zanzibar depicts the effects of climate change and overfishing.

“It is becoming more widely recognized that the climate crisis is very challenging for people to connect to emotionally,” says Evans. “It is so huge and frightening, but talking about it through art gives people a way in. I hope that the exhibition will encourage people to ask questions about the climate crisis, to think about it a bit more and to perhaps make a small change in their lives. That change might be about recycling or to not use pesticides. If everybody does just a little bit of something we can make a difference. The show is really about trying to inspire people to talk and look and think.”

Envisioning Tomorrow: Climate Stories from the Art Collection is at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University until June 8, Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm. Free entry.