As New York gears up for a full schedule of events during Climate Week (21-28 September), art organisations are hosting timely environmental exhibitions and programmes. While many initiatives will take place inside museums and galleries, one project by the artist Maya Lin with the non-profit Art 2030 is bringing art directly to the public with large-scale posters at the United Nations Headquarters Plaza and JCDecaux-owned displays in bus shelters around the city. Titled What If?, the activation poses probing questions on environmental issues, along with galvanising answers to spark curiosity, hope and a sense of responsibility for the future.

What If? is on view until 28 September across the bus shelters, with additional installations (14-28 September) at the UN, greeting leaders and decision-makers as they attend the 80th United Nations General Assembly (22-30 September). What If? expands on Lin’s What is Missing?project and foundation of the same name that explores environmental issues through multimedia, science-based artworks.

“What If? imagines possibilities and asks questions, hoping that art may get us to rethink the grave dangers we face,” Lin tells The Art Newspaper.

A poster from Maya Lin’s What If? campaign with Art 2030 that will appear at the United Nations Headquarters Plaza and on JCDecaux-owned bus shelters throughout the city this month Courtesy Maya Lin and Art 2030

The 20 posters offer a range of approaches to climate action. In one, cost comparisons illustrate that the approximately $171bn in additional funding needed to protect lands and waters is less than a third of the estimated $613bn spent globally on space exploration. “I am hoping to give people a sense of scale, that it would not take that much money to mitigate climate change and that we actually are spending the money it would take every year in our everyday lives—so it is not an impossibly high amount,” she says.

Other posters explore nature-based solutions to restore biodiversity, as well as the potential emissions reductions that could be achieved through best practices in building, transit and energy efficiency.

“I hope What If? leaves people feeling curious, empowered and hopeful,” says Luise Faurschou, a curator, former gallerist, and the founder and chief executive of Art 2030. “It’s about recognising both the urgency of the issues we face and the fact that solutions are within reach. Most importantly, I want people to see that individual as well as collective actions truly matter.”

Tom Toro’s cartoon for The New Yorker, for which the public can suggest alternative captions Courtesy of Tom Toro and The New Yorker

Joining What If? are additional exhibitions and activations across the city. At the Nest Climate Campus—the official Climate Week partner at the Javits Center—the Climate Museum is presenting a new mural by the artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya with imagery intended to inspire intergenerational collective action. The museum is also organising panels and programming throughout the week and has launched a caption contest for Tom Toro’s New Yorker cartoon featuring bedraggled survivors in an apocalyptic setting, which was published in 2012 after Hurricane Sandy. The contest runs through 28 September.

Dire-orama

At the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), visitors can experience several programmes throughout Climate Week and will find new didactics for eight of the museum’s beloved dioramas of 20th century habitats. On view 19 to 29 September, the interventions will include information on how climate change threatens the flora and fauna in each habitat.

“The intervention will not permanently alter these iconic exhibits, but it does use them to pilot a new approach in which we visualise how our planet and its biodiversity are being diminished by climate change,” says Sean M. Decatur, AMNH’s president. In one diorama, visitors can play an interactive game to remove plastic from the ocean and protect the dolphins and tuna. In another, text and harrowing images alongside the walrus diorama reveal how habitat loss leads to overcrowding and competition for resources.

The featuring the dolphin and tuna diorama at the American Museum of Natural History with a temporary interactive feature for Climate Week Credit: Alvaro Keding, © American Museum of Natural History

In the Bronx, the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is celebrating Climate Week with a 5km run on 21 September, as well as panels on 24 September exploring issues from environmental threats in the Amazon to climate resilience and potential solutions. The Climate Week activities are part of the NYBG’s Nurturing Nature Initiative to establish a global network of botanical gardens that harnesses these sites’ potential to further biodiversity and revitalise the environment.

Also leveraging its role in the city’s arts ecosystems is the South Street Seaport Museum, which is organising a range of programmes, including a half-day conference on 22 September in partnership with Plastic Odyssey, a non-profit expedition to clean the ocean. Called The Ocean Awakens, the event will take place aboard the Wavertree, a tall ship built in 1885, bringing together leaders across industries to discuss issues related to ocean health and protection.

A short ferry ride away on Governors Island, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s (LMCC) Works on Water Triennialexhibition is taking place until 26 October. Inside LMCC’s The Arts Center and in public spaces across the island, the third edition of the triennial uses the topic and material of water to explore creative responses to the climate crisis. Included in the show is interdisciplinary artist Sarah Cameron Sunde’s 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea (2013-2022), a video made in response to Hurricane Sandy. It features footage from the artist’s participatory performance in which she and volunteers stood in bodies of water across the world for a full tidal cycle, documenting how the levels change.