Climate Museum Opens New Exhibition, THE END OF FOSSIL FUEL, in New York City Melding Art, Learning, and Activism

The show examines the fossil fuel industry’s racism and deception and how we can move together toward climate justice

New York, NY – October 9, 2023 – The Climate Museum, the first museum in the nation dedicated to climate change, has opened its latest exhibition in SoHo, THE END OF FOSSIL FUEL. Located at 105 Wooster Street in Manhattan, the show features exhibits that educate visitors about the fossil fuel industry and the intertwined histories of inequality and the climate crisis, and that invite visitors to connect and take action.

 

The exhibition’s lead artist is R. Gregory Christie, a celebrated illustrator who is an NAACP Image Award winner, a six-time Coretta Scott King Honor recipient, and a Caldecott Honor winner. The show features Christie’s 45-foot mural Making Tomorrow, which envisions the struggle for, and transition to, climate justice.

 

In addition to the artwork by Christie, the exhibition includes:

  • A series of exhibits that dive into the origins of the fossil fuel industry and its creation and exploitation of racially defined sacrifice zones and aggressive use of deception, on one hand, and inspiring subjects like the remarkable history of the environmental and climate justice movement and the existence of a (currently silent) supermajority for climate justice in the US, on the other;

  • Interactive maps of New York City, the U.S., and the world visualizing the connections between the climate crisis and social inequality;

  • A sticker wall where visitors commit to specific climate actions—creating a vibrant community-built installation that builds collective momentum for addressing both the climate crisis and the inequalities with which it is bound up;

  • A station where visitors can write postcards that the Museum mails and reflections they share on a large visitor reflection wall;

  • A children’s activity station with books about climate justice and materials to draw an imagined future; and

  • A reading corner for adults with a selection of books and articles on the climate crisis, the fossil fuel industry, and the climate justice movement.

“This exhibition explores how the fossil fuel industry manages to keep making a killing off of killing us, and what we can do about it,” said Miranda Massie, Founder and Director of the Climate Museum. “We can’t address the crisis of climate change without also addressing the deep-seated social and racial inequities that underpin it. This exhibition encompasses both the hard truths that we must confront, as well as the astonishing victories won by climate justice communities and leaders fighting for social equality and clean energy together.”

“I hope that my work for this exhibition can help visitors see the connections between our society’s social justice crisis and the ecological and climate crisis, get involved in ongoing work to move us forward, and envision the bright future we can all share,” said muralist R. Gregory Christie  “It was inspiring to collaborate with the Museum team on this commission.”

 

“Climate art like Greg’s remarkable mural inspires powerful emotional reactions in visitors. We’ve repeatedly seen the power of the arts as a pathway into climate engagement. Making Tomorrow opens visitors up to reflect, connect, and take action on climate, satisfying an intense, mostly unmet public appetite,” Massie added.

The exhibition opened on October 7, 2023 and will welcome visitors through April 25, 2024. Admission is free and open to the public, between the hours of 1pm to 6pm, Wednesday through Sunday. During the run of the show, the Museum will also present free public programs, youth programs, community events, and more.

The Climate Museum has presented public programs and exhibitions since 2018 and recently launched an initiative to scale up to a year-round, transit-accessible location. Its last exhibition in SoHo, which concluded in April 2023, examined and debunked the myth of our society’s indifference toward the climate crisis, debuting David Opdyke’s postcard mural Someday, all this, which offered a bracing commentary on the impact of the climate crisis on the American landscape, both real and imagined. It also included a climate action incubator where visitors could share their reflections on research about the myth of American climate indifference, a sticker wall, and a station to send postcards to public officials to encourage them to take action on the climate crisis.

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About The Climate Museum 

The Climate Museum is the first museum in the United States dedicated to climate change. The Museum mobilizes the power of arts and cultural programming to invite visitors into climate engagement and agency and to transform our public culture for action at scale. The Museum offers free, interdisciplinary, participatory programs that connect constituents to a culture for climate action with a focus on justice, including exhibitions and installations, pop-ups, youth programs, interactive dialogue events, performances, workshops, and more.

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