Art Exhibit Explores Connection Between Extreme Weather and Climate Change

October 24, 2017

The natural disasters that plagued the U.S. and Caribbean countries this fall have raised questions about the connections between extreme weather and climate change. Starting October 27 through February 26, 2018, the public can delve further into this topic through a special art exhibition at the Aquarium of the Pacific along with the institution’s other climate change programming. The exhibition Weather on Steroids: The Art of Climate Change Science from the La Jolla Historical Society will be on display in the Aquarium’s Great Hall.

Visual artists collaborated with climate scientists to create the artwork in this exhibition. Weather on Steroids explores the question of consequences, challenges, and opportunities that arise from the changing climate on our planet. The exhibition merges the artistic and scientific to create a visual dialogue about the vexing problem of climate change, explores how weather variability affects the day-to-day life of local communities, and investigates Southern California’s vulnerability to climate change. It draws on the region’s scientific expertise from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, whose La Jolla-based investigators are among those at the forefront of climate research, reflecting on humanity’s role in our changing environment and envisioning new possibilities for a sustainable future.

Weather on Steroids, which includes media from photography to sculpture, aims to show that science can serve as the inspiration for creative responses from visual artists. These artists merge subjective images with empirical observation to reveal how climate variations upset the planet’s balance with extreme weather impacts. By illuminating the reality of climate change, Weather on Steroids aspires to proactively stimulate public dialogue about one of the most important issues of our time.

Weather on Steroids: the Art of Climate Change Science is organized by the La Jolla Historical Society. Major support for this exhibition provided by Climate Education Partners (CEP), which is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)* and by The Ray Thomas Edwards Foundation, Donald G. Yeckel, Chairman. Additional support provided by IS Architecture, the Reuben H. Fleet Foundation, Samuel I. & John Henry Fox Foundation, Florence Riford Fund of the San Diego Foundation, Walter and Mary Munk, Jeffrey and Joy Kirsch, and ArtWorks San Diego. *NSF award numbers ANT-1043435 and DUE-1239797. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.