Life takes unpredictable paths. After working as a lawyer I changed career and had the good fortune to become Director of Christine Abrahams Gallery. There I was privileged to see the immeasurable contribution the arts makes to our cultural, intellectual and emotional well being.

Two inspiring decades later I completed a Master of Environment degree at the University of Melbourne focusing on the science, policy and politics of climate change. It didn’t take long before I realised climate change was a problem unlike any we’d faced before – it encompasses the whole planet, its impacts have consequences for all life on Earth, and its effects will be felt for generations to come.

Today it’s apparent climate change is happening faster and impacting more severely than predicted. In Australia we’re experiencing unprecedented fires, floods, droughts and storms. Communities are being ravaged multiple times in a single year. The Great Barrier Reef is bleaching, our forests are burning, species are heading for extinction, and our coastlines are being eroded and inundated. We’re now experiencing the very real effects of the climate emergency.

Throughout history the arts have played a major role in recording and reflecting the state of our world. Artists’ personal, unique, aesthetic responses can be a catalyst for change, and a call to action and hope.

The arts can not only show us, but indeed they can make us feel the very problems we’re facing. The arts can help us imagine the sort of society we really want, not merely what others say we should want, or what we should be prepared to accept. Of course, by itself, imagining a sustainable, efficient, flourishing, society will not make it happen. But that vision is vital to guide and motivate our actions and the arts can be a powerful tool in illustrating, communicating and narrating that vision.

In 2010 I co-founded the not for profit organisation CLIMARTE - an initiator, educator and a catalyst for artists and arts organisations, which are increasingly engaged in climate-related and socially engaged projects. CLIMARTE produced the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE festivals which were held to great acclaim in 2015, 2017 and 2019, and in 2021 the CLIMARTE Gallery was opened - a permanent venue for exhibitions and programs that seek to address the reality of the climate emergency. CLIMARTE continues to focus on inspiring and giving hope to communities so that their actions on climate change can and do make a difference.

We must learn to see all life on this planet as part of one interrelated system. We must ensure that our actions don’t destabilise or destroy the processes on which life depends. We must use our actions and influence to create the world we want - a just world where all living things can flourish.