SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH) will partner with the Humanities Institute and UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Creative Ecologies to present “Beyond the World’s End.”
The exhibition dives into the issues behind the current climate crisis, and presents ways that art can help.
Guest curator T.J. Demos, director of the Center for Creative Ecologies, has assembled a group of work for “Beyond the World’s End.” Pieces were selected for reflecting the ecological and social injustices happening around the world, carving out radical ways to move into the future.
Artists include Amy Ballin, Laurie Palmer, Teddy Cruz & Donna Forman, Allora & Calzadilla, Krista Franklin and Newton Harrison, as well as joint pieces by the Rasquache Collective and the Super Futures Haunt Qollective.
“The exhibition is centered around the apocalyptic stories that surround us. Climate crises and ongoing acts of social injustice haunt our vision of the future,” MAH Marketing and Brand Director Ashley Holmes said in a press release. “However, for many people around the world, the idea of an apocalypse isn’t a new or distant fear. Instead, colonialism, displacement, and genocide have already impacted many communities around the world, forcing them to take on new strategies for survival.”
The exhibition is part of a year-long research and exhibition project and public lecture series directed by Demos, also named “Beyond the End of the World.” The project brings leading international thinkers and cultural practitioners to UC Santa Cruz to discuss what lies beyond “dystopian catastrophism,” and asks how people can cultivate radical futures of social justice and ecological flourishing. It was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Culture, and administered by The Humanities Institute. For more information visit beyond.ucsc.edu.
“Beyond the World’s End” opens tonight and will be on display until June 21 at the Museum of Art and History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz.
