Earlier this year, UW-Madison alumnae Helen Klebesadel and Mary Kay Neumann announced that their collaboration, “The Flowers are Burning … Oceans a Rising: An Art and Climate Justice Exhibition,” would be shown in Middleton beginning April 16 as part of the Nelson Institute’s Earth Day @ 50 – Arts Initiative.
Now, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition is available digitally. Their message of interconnectedness is more urgent than ever, the artists explain, “as we move towards a new normal, focusing on making positive changes. As we address flaws in our public health networks and economies, we can’t forget to pay attention to how our actions affect nature, and how in turn that affects all of us.”
Both artists are graduates of the School of Education, with Klebesadel receiving her BA in 1985 and MFA in 1989 from the Art Department, and Neumann receiving her BS in 1983 from the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education.
The exhibit features “incandescent” watercolor paintings that bring images of the ocean and express stories that are being lived underwater. This chapter is a part of their ongoing project to ask audiences to engage with contemporary environmental problems.
The online version of Klebesadel and Neumann’s exhibit can be accessed via their website, which also provides education, resources, art/science collaborations, activism, and hope for facing increasing threats to the climate.