#1 Tell truths: arts, science & engagement

This pathway is about declaring and communicating with people. You might provide evidence, invite diverse voices in, or use creativity to convey and explore truths.

Find more about the emergency and the truths you might tell.

a group of artist handle a huge grass banner

family sit in front of grass installation at Tate Modern

two figures in wetsuits raise their hands

audience experiencing an art installation

painted face submerged in oil on a dark background

Involve people in expressing their truths

Arts and culture can profoundly highlight our own truths and help us see from other perspectives. Truth-telling is best when done in participatory ways, creating space for dialogue and acknowledging that there is no single truth but shared truths can be agreed from different experiences.

Tell particular stories

You might want to use your creativity and influence to make a bold statement of truth-telling about the Earth crisis. Consider focusing on a particular aspect of the crisis rather than generalising too much. You might want to highlight hidden truths, for example, the experiences of people first and worst affected. Or you might try to help people understand connections between consumption, climate change, biodiversity, conflict and migration.

Show the invisible

Arts, especially when using digital technology can make the invisible more visible, for example, raising awareness of air quality or future possible impacts.

Educate for eco-capacities

Creative education programmes can help to nurture forgiveness, by enabling truth-telling and dialogue between people with different experiences. This educational work needs to be designed to develop people’s ecological capacities, in multiple ways.

Creative approaches to declaration

Rather than, or as well as, writing a standard text or press release you could:

Hold a participatory event to generate a visual or performed manifesto
Create placards or banners to take on a walk or display on a building
Hold a ceremony, perhaps to plant trees or make pledges together.
Make wearable art with key messages
Add labels to products to explain your declaration

See more ideas for creative activism

Inspiration and Resources

Truth-telling resources

The 7 most epic climate documentaries
4 ways An Inconvenient Truth changed people’s lives
10 myths about climate change
Many more links to resources on climate science

More resources from CDE
More inspiration from CDE

Education projects

Environmental involvement for young people
The Great Imagining, a public education project creating a paradigm shift in humans
Listening Project report: How culture & creative learning might respond to the Earth crisis
Ecoversities: learners and communities reclaiming diverse knowledges, relationships and imaginations to design new approaches to higher education
Universities engaging with culture and climate e.g. University of Exeter’s Climate Matters anthology and
Museums for Future campaign supporting youth climate strikers