Art, Change, and the Global Environment

As threats to the global environment become ever more urgent, visual artists are increasingly addressing issues such as climate change, depleting resources, recycling, pollution, political tension, and social identity. In this course we will explore the rich and tenuous relationship among art, change, and the global environment by focusing on recent creative developments in Africa and India. We will work with a visiting exhibition, "Environment and Object: Recent African Art" at the Middlebury College Museum of Art, and will consider artistic developments in India aimed at rehabilitating the environment while affecting social change.