Climate Justice & Artistic Practices
Climate Conversations speakers series brings to you its 3rd keynote panel session.
Learn from an amazing panel of artists and discover the ways artistic practices are making an impact in how we talk about climate change, implement climate action, and imagine a healthy future. Understand ways artistic practices can bring together diverse voices, stories and experiences to:
- support transformative conversations,
- support community,
- influence wider cultural conversations on climate change to advance climate justice and
- empower people to take action.
Speakers:
Chantal Chagnon is a Cree/Métis singer, drummer, artist, storyteller, actor, educator, workshop facilitator, social justice advocate and activist with roots in Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan. She shares Traditional Indigenous songs, stories, culture, history, arts, Indigenous Craftsmanship and teachings. A Two Spirit single mother of two boys and twin girls, Chagnon has been an activist for more than 25 years, advocating for marginalized voices, including Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit (MMIWG2S), Women’s Rights, Racial Inequity and Environmental Initiatives. Chagnon is passionate about building awareness and sharing understanding of Indigenous culture, spirituality, social justice and political issues.
Alana Bartol (she/her), MFA, BFA, is an artist and educator working at the intersection of art and ecology. She creates individual and collaborative site-responsive artworks that examine our relationships with the earth, the elements, and what are colonially known as “natural resources”. In 2019 and 2021, Bartol was long-listed for Canada’s Sobey Art Award representing Prairies and North. Spanning video, performance, drawing, sculpture, photography, environmental and socially engaged art, her work has been presented in in Germany, Hong Kong, Belgium, Romania, Argentina, Turkey, Colombia, Mexico, United States of America, and throughout Canada. Of mixed-European ancestry, Bartol is a white settler Canadian based in Treaty 7 Territory in Mohkínstsis/Calgary, Alberta where she teaches at Alberta University of the Arts.
Nicole Martens (she/they), is an artist and educator of Grebo, Mennonite and Celtic heritage. They are the founder of Plein Air Outdoor Arts, a nature-based art program, and co-founder of The General Store, an ongoing performative installation questioning economics. Martens makes use of pedagogy to explore relationships within self, within community, and with the more-than-human world. She gratefully recognizes the people, flora, fauna, funga and elements of Treaty 7 as her adopted home.
Moderator:
Melanie Kloetzel, MFA, PhD, is a settler performance maker, scholar and educator based in Treaty 7 territory (Moh’kinsstis/Calgary). Director of the dance theatre company kloetzel&co. and co-director of the art intervention collective TRAction that produces the Climate Art Web, Kloetzel has created films, events, workshops and encounters that have been shared in theatre spaces, alternative venues, spaces of public assembly, and online environments across four continents. Kloetzel is a professor of dance at the University of Calgary.