ECOLOGICAL CITY – Art & Climate Solutions Action Project
Cultivating community connection, culture, resilience and environmental action.
Join us creating what is possible for a sustainable future!
Earth Celebrations applies the inspirational power of the arts to build community, collaboration and action for ecological and social change
Earth Celebrations’ ECOLOGICAL CITY- Procession for Climate Solutions
SATURDAY MAY 14, 2022 – 11am – 5pm
(rain date Sunday May 15)
An urban ecological pilgrimage featuring a spectacular procession with 20 sustainability site performances celebrating climate solution initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood, and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.
GARDENS TO WATERFRONT – Lower East Side NYC
visual art – costumes – giant puppets – performance – music – dance – poetry
BECOME A CLIMATE SOLUTION – VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Dance a spectacular climate costume, help with puppets and assist as a marshal.
SIGN-UP EVENTBRITE
ROUTE & PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE 2022
Route & Performance Schedule Link
Download: Volunteer Sign Up Flyer
Download: Ecological City 2022 Flyer
Earth Celebrations in partnership with – Lungs (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens), Elizabeth Street Garden, Green Map, Loisaida Inc. Center, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Solar One, Waterfront Alliance, East River Park Coalition, East River Alliance, East River Park Action, Friends of Corlears Hook Park, Goles, University Settlement, The Children’s Workshop School (PS361M), Henry Street Settlement, Boys and Girls Republic, Jacob Riis Cornerstone, East Village Community School, Stuyvesant High School, Bard High School, The Earth School (PS364), Sixth Street Community Center, Arts Loisaida, Clemente Center, Lower East Side Girls Club, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Theater for the New City, East Village Community Coalition, Educational Alliance, Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, Mos Collective, Gaia Institute, Moving for Life/Studio 55C, Global Water Dances, Grace Exhibition Space, FABnyc, Earth Matters-NYU, Office of Sustainability-NYU and New York University.
This program is made possible with support from Con Edison, Howard Bayne Fund, Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, W Trust, Joseph Robert Foundation, Bluestein Family Foundation, KPG Funds, New York State 74th Assembly District-Member Harvey Epstein, private foundations, individuals and with public funds from Creative Engagement, a regrant program supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by LMCC.
ECOLOGICAL CITY engages community through cultural strategies to learn, explore and take action on climate solution initiatives to mitigate climate change impacts of flooding, carbon pollution and the consequences of sea-level rise throughout the network of community gardens, neighborhood and East River Park waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.
ECOLOGICAL CITY PROMO VIDEO
ECOLOGICAL CITY: Cultural & Climate Solutions Action Project applies the inspirational power of the arts to build community, diverse sector collaboration and action on climate solution and ecological sustainability initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.
Through cultural strategies Ecological City reconnects people to each other and the natural world within their neighborhood and builds emotional connection, engagement and action on climate solutions, an urban sustainable ecosystem and the importance of local efforts to city and global climate challenges.
PROGRAMS
EARTH CELEBRATIONS PROGRAMS | FALL 2021 – SPRING 2022
CLIMATE SOLUTION COSTUMES @ LUNGS Harvest Arts Procession
Sunday October 3rd @ 4-6pm
@ 5pm – Procession from La Plaza Cultural Garden to 6th & B Garden
NATURAL DYE & ECO-PRINTING WORKSHOP
Earth Celebrations with LMCC – The Take Care Series
Saturday, October 16, 2021 @ 1- 4pm | Lower Manhattan Cultural Council – Arts Center at Governors Island
Create colorful prints with natural elements that don’t harm the environment and celebrate nature’s abundance of color this fall. Learn the basics of natural dying and eco-printing fabric with natural pigments. Earth Celebrations artist Michele Brody will engage participants to work with silk and natural fabrics to dye and print with natural pigments such as indigo, fall leaves, fruits and flowers. Flowers and leaves are used to create a contact print releasing their shape and natural color into the fabric.
MORE INFO & SIGN UP (Free! RSVP limited)
ARTISTS & SUSTAINABILITY 2022 — ARTISTS OPEN CALL
ART & CLIMATE – ECOLOGICAL CITY
CLIMATE SOLUTIONS PANEL DISCUSSION Zoom
Ecological City Planning Meeting
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 | Wednesday, February 9, 2022 from 6:15 – 8:00pm on Zoom
Discuss sustainability and share ideas for physically-distanced adaptations of visual art, performance, dance, music and poetry for Ecological City’s Pageant.
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SIGN UP ON EVENTBRITE (FREE – LIMITED) TO RECEIVE ZOOM LINK
ECOLOGICAL CITY – ART & CLIMATE SOLUTIONS WORKSHOP
March 5 – May 11, 2022
Wednesdays 6:30pm – 9:30pm | costume with artist Michele Brody
Saturdays 12pm – 4pm | puppet with artist Lucrecia Novoa
BIO-ARTS – Mycelium Sculpture & Kombucha Leather Art Workshops (TBC)
@ Earth Celebrations – Sixth Street Community Center – 638 E. 6th St (btw. Aves B & C)–
Collaborate creating visual art celebrating sustainability initiatives for Ecological City: Art & Climate Solutions Pageant.
FREE – SIGN UP TO REGISTER | LEARN MORE – WORKSHOPS
BIO ARTS WORKSHOP
Wednesdays in March, 6:30 – 9:30pm (TBC)
@ Earth Celebrations – Sixth Street Community Center – 638 E. 6th St (btw. Aves B & C)
Participants learn to use natural bio materials for sculpture and costumes, growing mycelium (mushrooms root) into a structural bio-degradable material that is grown into molds in various forms. Learn how to make Kombucha (fermented mushroom tea) into a leathery textile that will be integrated into costumes for Ecological City.
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FREE – SIGN UP TO REGISTER | LEARN MORE – WORKSHOPS
MEMORY MURAL
LES Sustainable Ecosystem with Earth Celebrations’ Artist-in-Reside
The Mobile Mural and Climate Mandala Banners will be featured in the culminating Earth Celebrations’ Ecological City: Art & Climate Solutions Pageant on Saturday, May 14, 2022 featuring spectacular visual art, giant puppets, costumes and 20 site-performances celebrating climate resiliency and ecological sustainability initiatives throughout the community gardens and East River Park waterfront park on the Lower Side.
ART & ECOLOGY YOUTH WORKSHOPS
Earth Celebrations artists collaborate with community partner groups, schools and organizations to create arts projects exploring sustainability and climate solution initiatives. Artworks developed are presented in the culminating Ecological City: Art & Climate Solutions Pageant. To participate or engage your group to join, contact us!
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PUBLIC CULTURAL ACTION
Ecological City Art & Climate Solutions Pageant
Saturday, May 14, 2022 | 11am – 5pm (rain date Sunday, May 15) | Gardens to Waterfront – Lower East Side, NYC
The pageant is a physically distanced presentation with 20 live & virtual performances and outdoor visual art exhibitions celebrating climate solution initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.
Become a #ClimateSolution | LEARN MORE – ECOLOGICAL CITY
VOLUNTEER – SIGN UP to wear a spectacular climate solution costume, assist with visuals, puppets and as marshals.
Creative Placemaking | Climate Art | Environmental Action | Community Engagement | Climate Solutions | Artistic Activism | Cultural Organizing | Collaborative Arts | Environmental Justice | Ecological Art | Sustainability | Climate Action
MISSION–Earth Celebrations is a non-profit organization, founded by social action artist Felicia Young in 1991 on the Lower East Side of New York City, to engage communities to generate ecological and social change through the arts.
Earth Celebrations’ arts programs mobilize environmental action on climate change, coastal resiliency, river-waterfront restoration, water quality, species and habitat conservation, waste management and the preservation of community gardens, parks, and a healthy urban environment. Over the past 30 years we have pioneered creative strategies applying the arts, community engagement, partnership building to achieve ecological, policy and social change. Our collaborative arts projects cultivate diverse sector engagement bringing together environmental organizations, academic and cultural institutions, municipalities, government agencies, schools, community centers, artists and local residents to work together, mobilize action, develop solutions and achieve common goals.| LEARN MORE – EARTH CELEBRATIONS
Environmental & Arts Programs – Creative Climate Actions | Ecological Art, Performance, Pageants/Processions, Festivals & Events | Public Cultural Action | Arts & Sustainability Workshops | Ecological Artist Residencies | Civic Engagement – Urban Planning & Policy |Community Engagement Sessions | Educational Ecological Arts Curriculum Development | Art & Ecology Exhibitions | Film-Slideshow Screenings | Panel Discussions & Conferences | Environmental Advocacy Initiatives | Coalition-Partnership Building | LEARN MORE – PROGRAMS
RECENT PRESS
RECENT INTERVIEWS WITH EARTH CELEBRATIONS DIRECTOR, Felicia Young
Read interview with Felicia Young, Director of Earth Celebrations and of the Ecological City Project, where she discusses 30 years of cultural organizing projects that generate ecological and social change.
Read the FULL INTERVIEW
Read the FULL INTERVIEW
LEARN MORE – EARTH CELEBRATIONS FOUNDER FELICIA YOUNG
PROGRAM HISTORY – ARTS MOBILIZING ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION
LEARN MORE – EARTH CELEBRATIONS HISTORY
VAIGAI RIVER RESTORATION PROJECT – Madurai, South India
Photo Credit: The Hindu
Earth Celebrations applies its strategies of arts, community engagement, and environmental action, now in a global context to mobilize an international and collaborative effort to restore the Vaigai River in Madurai, South India that is in a severe crisis due to pollution, waste dumping, and the drying effects of climate change.
LEARN MORE – VAIGAI RIVER RESTORATION
HUDSON RIVER PAGEANT – River Restoration Project
Hudson River Restoration Pageant (2009-2012) engaged residents, youth, students, schools and local river, environmental, cultural and community organizations in a creative collaboration and culminating performance action to connect community with restoration and revitalization efforts of the Hudson River Estuary and waterfront in Lower Manhattan. LEARN MORE – HUDSON RIVER PAGEANT
Documentary by Fredrik Lassenius & Karen Brucker. Watch here or click for YouTube.
SAVE OUR GARDENS – Procession and Preservation Project
Save our Gardens Social Action Art & Preservation Project (1991-2005) engaged broad-based participation of community gardeners, artists, residents, youth, community, cultural and environmental organizations, schools, churches, colleges, city officials, activists, celebrities, academics, attorneys, and inspired individuals, mobilizing a grass-roots coalition and effort which led to the preservation of hundreds of community gardens on the Lower East Side and throughout New York City.