About
We're a consortium of climate arts and culture organizations leveraging our collective power to imagine transformative and regenerative futures.
The science is irrefutable. Before we're able to pass legislation and change the system, we need to evolve our culture and dream as big as we can.
That's where we come in. The Imaginarium is cultivating a community for climate storytellers of all mediums to convene and collaborate, while providing space for learning, exhibition, and engagement with the public.
We're germinating a regenerative culture and sowing seeds for collective liberation. Join the Imaginarium at our center for the arts in New York City!
Mission
The world needs a cultural movement to confront the climate crisis with radical imagination. The Climate Imaginarium is a collaborative public space run by a consortium of arts and culture organizations. What began as a conversation between Columbia University, Grist, and Johns Hopkins University has expanded into a network between the most influential institutions involved with climate storytelling in writing, film, theater, music, art, and design.
Through this consortium, we’re working together to develop four core programs:
⓵ a community center for climate artists and storytellers to convene and collaborate,
⓶ a production studio to adapt, incubate, develop, produce, and publish climate stories across a range of narrative media, ⓷ a laboratory to inform interdisciplinary pedagogy and research for translating stories into solutions, and ⓸ a collaborative space for learning, performance, exhibition, and engagement with the public.
We're bringing these programs together with a center for the arts on Governors Island in New York City, adjacent to where a new center for climate solutions is in development. Our center for the arts will complement the center for climate solutions with a community house, theater, galleries, and spaces for exhibitions, performances, film screenings, and events.
Vision
The Imaginarium promotes climate literacy and climate justice through social connection, while exploring the synergies between science and storytelling.
Our vision is to present a myriad of opportunities for climate artists and storytellers to amplify their reach, visibility, and impact, while uplifting voices from every community to reimagine hopeful and regenerative futures.
Dreaming of a better future gives us a blueprint to build the world we want to live in. Imagination is limitless, and a better future is possible if we dare to dream.
Imagining Futures
We're tapped into artistic, literary, and cultural movements that inspire hope in moments of climate calamity. We uplift and disseminate speculative stories of justice and resilience through our studio, while imagining novel climate solutions for the real world in our laboratory that originate within the creative worlds of climate fiction, theater, art, film, and design.
Uplifting Communities
We're cultivating resilient communities, while honoring our roots in storytelling, art, science, and justice. Our programming engages the public with exhibitions, performances, film screenings, and events, while our community center offers a space for climate storytellers to convene and collaborate together. These synergies are integral to a regenerative future.
The Climate Imaginarium grew out of the Climate Imaginations Network, an initiative of the Earth Networks program at the Columbia Climate School. We are grateful for the ongoing support of the Climate School and its Office of Interdisciplinary Engagement.