Climate Change Inspires Fear & Hope & Student Art

In one half of the poster, a bright blue, clear sky shines down on wildflowers and healthy animals surrounded by lush trees and a flowing stream. In the other half, the stream and the field are filled with litter. The world has caught fire, emitting deathly pollutants

That was an art piece by fifteen-year-old Aaliyah Jones and seven of her peers displayed at Common Ground High School — all of whom sought to share both their optimism and their fears around a climate change-impacted future.

The environmental-themed charter school in West Rock displayed its annual Core 10 Climate Change Exhibition Wednesday morning. First launched about six years ago, the exhibition is part of the school’s four-year curriculum focused on student-led advocacy and research on climate change and climate justice.

The tenth grade projects are integrated into their Science, English, Art, and Social Studies courses. 

During the climate change unit, students learned the science, policy, and politics of climate change; explored how climate change impacts vulnerable groups; read Octavia Butler’s novel The Parable of the Sower; and explored how visual arts and poetry can be used to raise awareness around climate change.

Some students also traveled to Hartford in March to testify on a climate change bill moving through the General Assembly. Students met with state legislators, lobbyists, staffers, and advocates to understand their role in the change-making process. They also took a climate change bus and walking tour of New Haven to learn about how entrepreneurs, government officials, and community members are responding to climate change. 

The school’s units each culminate in an exhibition or performance. During the most recent unit, students created and performed interactive plays about social and environmental justice issues in New Haven, with partners from the Elm Shakespeare Company.

The students’ work is shared with families, each other, and students from other schools around the city. On Wednesday a dozen seventh- and eighth-graders from Elm City Montessori were given tours of the exhibit and learned about the work of Common Ground’s tenth grade. 

The exhibit was hosted in Common Ground’s multipurpose room in its Springside Avenue building. The room was filled with student work displaying fearful but hopeful stories like that of Jones, whose large group poster painting showed ​“how the world should be” versus ​“how it may end up.”

The message written at the center of the piece: ​“We need to save what we have.” 

Jones described doing the Core 10 projects as overwhelming and scary because it gave her a lot to think about. But it also made her optimistic because she was able to learn about the work that’s happening to protect the planet. 

Jones hopes to be a scientist and advocate after high school to help address how pollution affects health. She also hopes to incorporate her love for art into her work. 

Sophomore Heaven McCrea, 16, transferred to Common Ground this year from Cooperative Arts High Schoo. She said the Core 10 project confirmed she made the right decision. 

“People of color tend to not know about climate change things because we are constantly left in the dark for everything,” McCrea said. 

McCrea’s research and the work she presented Wednesday ​“healed me,” she said. 

The duo agree that climate change should be part of every school’s curriculum not only because its effects are fast approaching, but also because young people care about it when they know about it. 

“Sure I’m sad about this, but I’m turning that into passion and action,” McCrea said. ​“I feel like nothing is ever truly set in stone. We have a chance to save what we have.” 

Students also made posters, poems, art, lego displays, and sculptures to demonstrate their learning about climate change and present solutions to address specific issues like fast fashion and growing landfills. 

Click here, here, and here to see some students perform their poems.

Sophomore Sapphire O’Brien researched air pollution for one class and created a poster about a nonprofit idea called ​“Polluted Murals.” The organization would be tasked with painting murals in vulnerable parts of cities that tell about the dangers of air pollution using Graphedstone’s lime colored, sustainable Co2-absorbing paint to clean the air and spread knowledge while doing so. 

Students’ projects emphasized the effects of deforestation, wildfires, and animal extinction while using repurposed kids toys and recycled art materials. 

Some students read their poems aloud with the visiting groups to tell their personal stories about the impacts of climate change. 

Other nonprofit ideas were Save The Damned, a program that would build community gardens around New Haven; Thermo-Haven, a fund that would distribute money to residents and neighborhoods to get solar panels and invest in creating green spaces and building community pools; and The New Generation, an organization that would provide experience-based education to youth in schools and empower kids to take action. 

During a tour with seventh- and eighth-grade Elm City Montessori students, sophomore Aubrey Bido told the students, ​“This helped me to embrace the fact that not everything is trash.”

Around 11:30 a.m, Common Ground ninth graders paid a visit to the exhibit to see firsthand what they will be tasked with next year. 

Bido said giving the student tours made her proud to be at a school that allows its students to demonstrate their work and lead exhibits.

Bido added after a tour that the exhibit and tours ​“showed me about how much I know what I’m doing.”

First year teachers at Common Ground Arianna Alamo, who teaches art, and Sarah Field, who teaches environmental science, said they are proud of their students. ​“We want our students to know how smart they are and capable they are,” Field said. 

The Core 10 projects helped students step into leadership roles, collaborate, and have effective discussions in classes they added. 

Alamo recalled one student telling her their project made them feel like a true artist ​“who has power and uses their voice to make change.”

Field added that the projects also helped get disengaged students involved in class work by prioritizing their interests and ideas.