Driving climate conversations with art

Art provides an increasingly useful vector to communicate the complexities and impacts of human-driven climate change. In Building E38 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a series of artwork from printmaker and glass artist Shani McLane aims to do just that. Featured in the suite shared by the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab, MITOS and the Environmental Solutions Initiative, Shani's work showcases the importance of the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway where more than one million copies of seeds are stored to provide provide a backup gene bank and secure the global food supply. The works were inspired by an expedition to Svalbard in 2015 and creates depictions and interpretations of seeds to encourage the viewer to look more deeply into the foundation for sustainable life on Earth. The series on display is a reminder that everyone has a part to play in respecting life’s fragile balance and protecting our home for future generations.