This piece is composed of many - most! - illustrations to date for various Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, the ICRC | International Committee of the Red Cross delegations and HQ, the Climate Centre, and the IFRC, arranged like a quilt from cooler to warmer. It was such a joy to see interconnections between the different stories and communities featured in these little shapes. The installation was created for the Design Museum London in conjunction with an anticipatory action convening and was made possible by my fabulous colleague Catalina Jaime Sanchez.
Guerrilla art gallery at the Russian Embassy
This guerrilla art gallery at the perimeter of the Russian Embassy in Washington DC was an attempt to bring outrage out of the screens and as close to the perpetrators as possible.
This effort was inspired by Yo-Yo Ma’s solitary performance in this same spot a few days earlier, and the art was inspired by Eastern European folkloric motifs and symbols, as well as Ukrainian children’s art being created in bomb shelters and basements.
Virtual Water Gallery with Pat Cheechoo and Matawa Water Futures
The Virtual Water Gallery is a GWF-funded science and art pilot project that aims to provide a safe, inclusive and collaborative space for fully open discussions between scientists, artists, and the general public, to explore past, present and future water-related (scientific) challenges. As part of this pilot project, 11-13 Canada-based artists connected with teams of GWF scientists to co-explore specific water-related challenges. These collaborations led to the creation of art pieces by the artists (with a variety of art media) to be exhibited online through a Virtual Water Gallery in Spring 2021. Afterwards, the Virtual Water Gallery will be online for all to see and interact with, with the hope is that these art pieces open up discussions about pressing water related challenges to a wider audience via the gallery space.
I collaborated with Patrick Cheechoo, who is Moose River Cree from Constance Lake First Nation, on two art pieces dedicated to the principles of “braiding” together traditional Indigenous knowledge with western science.
Mentions:
The Virtual Water Gallery: Art as a catalyst for transforming knowledge and behaviour in water and climate Arnal L, Schuster-Wallace C (2025) The Virtual Water Gallery: Art as a catalyst for transforming knowledge and behaviour in water and climate. PLOS Climate 4(4): e0000398.
Laurier researchers combine science with art for Global Water Futures virtual gallery
Long termism conversation series
I facilitated and visually captured three conversations centered on humanitarian and environmental challenges through the lens of philosopher Roman Krznaric’s longtermism. The conversations were with improvisational theater teacher and professor Barb Tint, meteorologist Eric Holthaus, public health expert Michael Adekunle Charles, youth leader Dainalyn Swaby, social-ecological systems scholar Rhoda Malgas, and Roman Krznaric himself. Held in the early months of the pandemic, these dialogues aimed to foster connection and collective imagination at a time of deep uncertainty by inviting participants to envision futures rooted in care, justice, and long-term thinking.
Frederick Douglass Bicentennial mural in Anacostia, DC, USA
This mural came together as a community effort on the eve of the Frederick Douglass bicentennial on a corner just down the street from the Frederick Douglass House in Anacostia, DC. It was cocreated with local students and community members and unveiled to the neighborhood with Nettie Washington Douglass (granddaughter of Booker T. Washington and wife of Frederick Douglass III - great-grandson of Frederick Douglass) and Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. (great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington).
