Climate Art 101
In this course we'll learn how to use art as a tool to simplify topics in climate change. The Winter Cohort starts January 20, 2025. It's a 6 week, virtual course
- Build creative habits through making art everyday for 30 days
- 10 recorded climate art workshops
- 5 guided creativity meditations
- Access to a community of climate creatives
- Monthly Community Calls even after the 6 weeks to share work, get feedback, and set creative goals
- Exercises to use art to decrease climate anxiety
The course is asynchronous and recorded. The next cohort starts January 20.
How it Works
-
Daily Art Challenges + Habit Building
The core of this program is a "Creative 30 Challenge". You will make 30 minutes of art everyday for 30 days. There are guided art prompts for each day of the challenge or you can use your own ideas.
-
Virtual, 6 Week Course
In this self-paced course, there are recordings and hands-on activities to help you find your creative superpowers and learn how to communicate about climate change.
The first month we focus on making a variety of climate art daily. Next, there is a 2 week capstone project to make your own climate stripes.
-
Community of Climate Creatives
We have monthly check-in calls to share your work, get feedback, and set creative goals. Join a private Slack group to connect with other creatives in climate. You get access to monthly Community Calls even after the course ends.
-
Creativity Meditations + Climate Art Workshops
Access 5 recorded meditations to tap into your creativity and envision your future self. Plus 10 recorded climate art workshops on topics like Clean Energy, Solarpunk, and Electrifying Your Home.
Climate Change Has a Storytelling Problem
My favorite quote is “the role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible” by Toni Cade Bambara. I believe that artists have a magical power to help us imagine a world we want to live in. This course is a space for you to explore ways to tell new stories of climate solutions and inspire climate action through art.
Art as a learning tool
Art is a fantastic way to learn about climate change and communicate what you learn in a playful way. I conduct research through reading articles and books, listening to podcasts on relevant topics, reviewing graphs of climate science, and then applying what I learned through a physical experience of painting.
This holistic approach of learning allows me to absorb new information a fun and incredibly effective way. This course will give you to the tools to do the same.
You will learn how to make infographics, visualize data, and translate complex topics into simple images.
Please note: This is not a live course, it is recorded with daily and weekly activities.
Weekly Curriculum
Welcome to Climate Art 101
The heart of this course is the 30x30 challenge
The 30x30 challenge is a daily creativity practice that will last the first month of the course. It includes doing 10 minutes meditation, 10 minutes of journaling + 10 minutes of art each day for 30 days.
Capstone Project
After you finish your 30 days, there are 2 weeks for the capstone project. This is a dedicated 2 week period for you to take what you have learned from the curriculum, 30x30 challenge, reflections, and meditations and turn it into one special project.
It can be a song, a poem, a painting, a group collaboration. It’s up to you. It’s something that you take some time to create a theme and thesis around and fine tune a little bit more than your daily practice.
Creativity Meditations
Enjoy 5 creativity meditations
- Visualizing your future creative self
- Remembering your past creative experiences
- Designing your safe creative space
- Picturing yourself in a large climate movement
- Finding your creative intuition
Week 1- Climate Art Case Studies
Find inspiration from case studies around examples of:
- Collaborating with nature to make compelling art
- Music for climate action
- Crafting for climate Communication
- Podcasts for visions of the future we want to live in
- Micro-documentaries and storytelling for a better future
- How to use comedy and satire to spark climate conversations
- Climate optimism for storytelling
- Timelapse art for short-form video
- Photography for visual storytelling and building empathy
- Poetry and climate science
Week 2- Best Practices for Climate Communications
We'll talk about how climate has a storytelling problem, learn how to think about your audience, and how to make statistics relatable. This week we will also learn how to use social media for climate storytelling.
Week 3 - The Joy of Learning through Making Art
You'll learn the tools of the (climate art) trade, my personal research process and how to reconnect with your own creative joy.
Week 4 - Art for Climate Anxiety
We'll cover the benefits of art for mental health, how to use art to process big feelings. There will be activities such as mindful walking in nature and learn how to use art for activism.
Week 5 - Capstone Project
Celebrate the completion of your 30 days of art and begin a 2 week capstone project
Week 6 - Action Plan for the Future
Visualize your future and make a 1 month action plan. Submit your capstone project and your Climate Stripes project
Climate Art Workshops
Self-paced climate art workshops covering topics like clean energy.
What can happen in 6 weeks?
-
Become a better communicator
Progress is better than perfection. You will learn from best practices and study new ways to use art to communicate about climate. Even better, you will implement them.
-
Unlock your creativity
Making art for 30 days is a powerful way to channel your creativity. Find your own creative style through a daily art practice. You will leave feeling proud of what you have created in just 6 weeks.
-
Make creative friends in climate
Get lifetime access to growing community of climate creatives. Meet other folks like yourself who want to find ways to channel their art into the climate space.
Find your Creative Style
The Creative 30 Challenge pushes you to explore different topics and artistic mediums. This allows you to discover your own unique style of climate art.
Please note: The curriculum is self-paced. It is recorded with daily and weekly activities. There are live Community Calls the first two weeks and the final week of the class.
Make Solutions-Oriented Art
During Week 2 of the course, we make art inspired by Project Drawdown's top 100 climate solutions. This is a great way to further deepen your climate knowledge and create art that helps imagine the world we want to thrive in. All the art-prompts, activities, and meditations teach you techniques to make art that will tell stories of a brighter future.
Take Your Climate Communications to the Next Level
I share my 4-step formula to creating climate art. This process has been developed after studying case studies and seeing patterns about how my most viral paintings succeed.
FAQ
Do I need to be an artist? No! You can come as you are and choose any medium to explore (drawing, writing, poetry, painting, music). No art experience required.
How much time will it take each week? I recommend 6 hours a week. There's 30 minutes a day of creativity practice plus community calls, meditations, reflection prompts, and workshops.
When does it start? The next cohort starts January 20! The program is self-paced so it may take you a bit longer than 6 weeks and that's totally okay as well.
Why am I teaching this?
I believe art is a climate solution. It is a powerful tool to communicate effectively, connect with the human emotions in each of us, and inspire climate action.
I feel incredibly grateful I get to combine my love of art, education, and climate science into a meaningful business.
While working at a climate startup, I decided to make a watercolor a day for 100 days for fun. I began by making little doodles, then eventually found a focus on making paintings about climate solutions.
As I shared on social media daily, I grew thousands of followers these first few months. I began getting requests for commissions and private art workshops. I decided to quit my job and go full time on art 4 months after I picked up a paint brush.
2.5 years later, I have 20K followers across my social media platforms and my climate art has reached over 3 million people. I’ve worked with clients like Harvard, the Department of Energy, Sunrun, My Climate Journey, and The Climate Museum. I just published a coloring book about clean energy called Electrify Everything.
Before working in climate, I co-founded a kids coding program. I learned how to translate a complex topic like computer science into something that an 10 year old can understand. I've been able to take those same skills and apply them to climate science. I like to make art that is as accessible for a 5 year old as it is to a 50 year old.
This course is a toolkit to help tap into the creativity that lies within you. Inspired by my own 100 day art challenge, together we will make art for 30 days. In these 6 weeks you will discover how to make compelling art as a tool for climate storytelling. I can’t wait to see what you create!
-Nicole
I want this class to be accessible for all. If finances are a challenge, just email nicolegkelner@gmail.com.
