We’re very excited to announce that Dorothea Braemer, Timothy Frerichs, and the Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology will receive Global Warming Art Project grants to fund three projects produced in response to the rising dangers of global warming and climate change.
Our Global Warming Art Project grant program, which is in its second year of operation, administers funding to three artists or arts organizations in the spring and fall of every year. The program is funded by Ben Perrone and the Environment/Maze project donors.
About the Grantees and their Projects
Dorothea Braemer is the daughter of two biologists and has been addressing environmental concerns in her art throughout her entire career. Her project, “Solar Global Warming Oracle,” consists of creating a three-foot globe with solar panels and a window through which viewers can peer inside. Visitors will select from a panel of about 10 choices, each presenting a common climate change concern or fear, such as “It is too late,” “I feel guilty about my lifestyle,” or “I as an individual can make no difference.” Once selected, a video will play that addresses the particular concern with a personal message offering perspective, support, and resources. The tenor of all video messages will be that “you” are not alone, and that political activism and individual behavioral change can create positive social change, despite mainstream media’s tendency to silence or under-report stories of this nature. Dorothea’s previous environmental art projects include “Random Notes of Ragpicker Woman,” “Earl Butz,” “Tree House,” “Searching for Paradise,” and more. She currently serves as an assistant professor in media production in Buffalo State’s Communications Department.
Timothy Frerichs has been engaging with issues of human interaction and impact on the natural world for the last 25 years as a professional artist. His project, “Navigation: Lake Erie – Great Lakes,” consists of creating a traveling exhibition and installation with accompanying workshops and lectures that address how climate change is impacting the Great Lakes, and in particular, Lake Erie. The installation will consist of a group of varying-sized works on paper alongside a video and artist book, and the accompanying workshops lectures and workshops will include direct approaches to address and counter these impacts and changes. The exhibition will be hosted at venues along Lake Erie and, potentially, at other Great Lakes sites.
The Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology (BCAT) has provided arts-focused educational opportunities in an environment of hope and discovery for the Buffalo community since 2014. BCAT partners with Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Arts Center to offer The Buffalo Youth Media Institute (BYMI), a youth arts program that targets under-served high schools and provides teenagers with access to media production equipment and instruction. Together, the group is creating “Global Groove: Environmental Edition,” a student-led film documentary that explores the future effects of global warming through the eyes of the next generation inheriting this crisis. Viewers will experience vignettes involving future environmental disasters, interviews with climate and environmental justice leaders, and “future commercials” that creatively address the effects of environmental degradation caused by global warming. Visuals will be selected from television and the internet and will be included to appeal to audiences with diverse opinions about environmental issues, and through playful yet meaningful techniques, the filmmakers will engage viewers in critique about how technology can solve issues rather than exacerbate problems.
Photo of Timothy Frerichs: David Moog, Burchfield Penney Art Center
