THE CLIMATE OF FUTURE PAST (2025-26)

Sponsors and Partners:

The Climate of Future Past is a year-long (1/2025-2/2026) public art and climate engagement project that resulted in the creation of 4 "murals" in as many communities around Washington, DC vulnerable to seasonal climate risks.  Each mural's location was carefully selected to highlight both area's exposure to a specific seasonal climate risk as well as a solution to mitigate that risk. ​​I conceived and created the project in response to my appointment as the 2025 Washington Post Four Seasons artist.   The newspaper's commission was for four murals and four accompanying written opinion columns to be featured in the newspaper at the beginning of each season in 2025 as a way to engage its readership in local climate issues.

​​Unfortunately, in September 2025, the Washington Post abruptly cancelled the commission only weeks away from the third mural and opinion.  This cancellation was the result of editorial changes spurred by the Trump administration's pressures on the newspaper's ownership to align the paper with the administration's priorities.  Later, in November 2025, I was informed that the Hirshhorn Museum had also canceled its commitment to letting me paint the project's final mural inside the museum.  

Despite the two institutional cancellations, I resolved to complete all four murals anyway because not doing so would empower censorship.

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