Art at the Heart of Environmentalism
Why Georgetown University’s Earth Commons Champions Creative Collaboration
While environmental policy and climate science typically rely on hard datasets and complex graphs, a growing body of research suggests that data alone is insufficient to drive public engagement or political consensus.
In response to this gap, at least one academic institution is turning to the creative arts as a vital bridge between scientific understanding and human action.
At Georgetown University’s Earth Commons institute, Dr. Peter Marra is championing this interdisciplinary shift by embedding artistic expression directly alongside environmental science. By integrating theater, photography, and storytelling into sustainability education, the institute aims to transcend traditional political and ideological boundaries, move climate communication beyond abstract metrics, and motivate concern for the environment.
Far beyond their aesthetic appeal, the ability of the arts to elicit powerful emotional responses is what makes them such a cultural cornerstone. They speak not just to the mind but to the spirit and body. In fact, viewing art has been shown to have an immediate and measurable impact on physiology, reducing stress and increasing excitement.
Moreover, three-quarters of Americans said they consider arts and culture personally important to them, with many stating how the arts contributed to their personal well-being and sense of creativity.
The Arts Aiding the Environment
So, what if the power of art could be harnessed to help raise awareness of environmental issues? That is exactly the mission of Georgetown’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability, otherwise known as the Earth Commons. It utilizes the arts as a way of fostering creative collaboration and encouraging storytelling to help deepen public understanding of issues like sustainability, environmental justice, and climate change.
Marra, who is director of the institute, is best known in the academic world for his pioneering research on migratory birds, biodiversity loss, climate change, and conservation biology.
In an exclusive interview with The Earth & I, Marra said weaving things like performance, film, photography, storytelling, and painting into what he does touches on something at the heart of sustainability: human beings.
“Environmental challenges,” he said, “are often presented as problems of science, technology, and policy, and of course they are. But ultimately, environmental sustainability is about people: what we value, what we care about, and what we are willing to act to protect.”
“If we want people to make the environment part of their core purpose, we have to reach them not only in their heads but in their hearts. That is what the arts can do.”
Marra explained that while science can help us understand what is happening to the planet and what we might do about it, understanding something intellectually is not always enough to inspire action—and not just action but “hope” that our actions can and do make a difference.
“That requires that we have to feel it,” he said. “The arts have an extraordinary capacity to reach that part of us—to create empathy, wonder, grief, hope, and a sense of connection to the natural world and to one another. I often put it this way: If we want people to make the environment part of their core purpose, we have to reach them not only in their heads but in their hearts. That is what the arts can do.”
The biologist’s work has included a whole selection of artistic endeavors.
Earlier this year, Georgetown hosted performances by actor Jesse Eisenberg (known for playing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network), Distinguished University Prof. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York (leader of the Democratic Party in the US Senate), and others for a special showing of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.
The university had previously joined forces with Dramaten (the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden), the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, DC, and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics for the launch of We Hear You—A Climate Archive, a global storytelling and performance project exploring youth perspectives on climate issues.
Eco-oriented Music and Photography
To anchor these initiatives long term, the Earth Commons launched its Artist-in-Residence Program, which embeds professional artists directly within the scientific institute to cocreate public works.
This collaborative framework also powers regular eco-performances, where students and local musicians perform multimedia pieces, driven by regional environmental datasets, alongside the annual Earth Commons Photography Contest, which challenges students to visually document changes in local ecosystems.
Marra said students have been highly responsive to these endeavors.
“They have jumped at opportunities to participate in climate and arts events, photography contests, performances, conversations with artists and writers, and other creative activities we have introduced,” the professor said. “What that tells me is that students genuinely want these outlets. They don’t necessarily see the same boundaries between science, policy, art, and culture that institutions sometimes create. Students are curious, and they want opportunities to express that curiosity in different ways.”
But while the need for action on the environment can inspire messaging that relies on the need for swift responses, there are schools of thought that anything perceived as overly “gloomy” can actually backfire.
A study by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University found that feelings of dread actively caused people to disengage from the message.
“Fear alone cannot solve our environmental problems or correct the path we are on,” Marra warned. “That said, unfortunately, I think fear is, for better or worse, part of the equation.”
“If people are continually told that everything is getting worse and there is little they can do about it, fear can quickly turn into despair or disengagement.”
Because the threats we face as a species are real, he opined, the science should not be “softened” simply to make people “feel better.”
“The problem is when fear becomes the only message,” Marra said. “If people are continually told that everything is getting worse and there is little they can do about it, fear can quickly turn into despair or disengagement. We need to pair urgency with a sense of possibility and agency.”
Awakening Hope
Marra said there is another piece of the puzzle where art can be influential—the power to inspire hope in the face of feelings of powerlessness.
“Art can communicate loss and even fear, but it can also evoke wonder, beauty, empathy, and hope. It can remind us not only of what we stand to lose, but why something is worth saving in the first place. I think people need both an honest understanding of what is at stake and a reason to believe that their actions can still make a difference.”
Earth Commons brings together performers, visual artists, scientists, policymakers, and students for collaborations rarely seen in any other forum.
Earth Commons brings together performers, visual artists, scientists, policymakers, and students for collaborations rarely seen in any other forum. And Marra said such collaborations have taught him that people are not always as different as they might imagine.
“In fact, bringing artists, scientists, policymakers, and students together often feels like a very natural fit,” he said. “Some of the best scientists and policymakers I know are also among the most creative people I know. Great science requires imagination—the ability to ask a question no one has asked before, see patterns, and imagine explanations or solutions that don’t yet exist. At the same time, some of the most artistic people I know approach their work not only emotionally from their gut but with enormous analytical rigor and discipline.”
The idea of harnessing the arts as a component of wider efforts to inform and educate is gaining more widespread acceptance. One study even found that the use of art in place of—or in support of—things like data graphs on issues like the environment can help cut through political polarization.
So, what tips would Marra give universities hoping to integrate the creative arts into environmental education?
“My advice would be to build creativity into the fabric of environmental education rather than treating it as a series of one-off events,” he said. “For example, environmental culture is one of four foundational pillars for our undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Environment and Sustainability curriculum. Bringing in an artist for a performance or exhibition can be wonderful, but true integration requires something deeper and more sustained.”
Over the next decade, as humanity grapples with issues around technology such as artificial intelligence, he said he hopes people will look to nature for “grounding”—for what he called something “real, tangible, and alive.”
“In much the same way,” he concluded, “I hope we will look to the arts as a way of finding and expressing our own humanity, and of understanding how that humanity intersects with the natural world.”
*Mark Smith is a journalist and author from the UK. He has written on subjects ranging from business and technology to world affairs, history, and popular culture for the Guardian, BBC, Telegraph, and magazines in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
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