ImaginingFutures — Esther Mathieu Art

Imagining

Futures

As a Mellon Community Engagement Fellow at the University of Utah, I spent two years working in partnership with ASSIST Community Design Center on projects centering climate justice and design. Imagining Futures explored a climate-adaptive and universally-designed future as a place healed from contemporary structures and invested deeply in community.

I recruited and led a team of 10 local artists in an exploration of climate justice, community, and universal design. Our work culminated in an artist’s book and community event and launched a wider discussion in the Salt Lake City art and environmental communities about the generative space created at the intersection of art and climate.

I hope in the future there is collective movement in the direction of mending, of tending. Perhaps the priorities of our values can change, existing rhythmically rather than extractively. Maybe in the future, we can be together on purpose.

Caro Nilsson
Which means, to me, we can only have faith in what is uncertain. Thankfully, progress isn’t linear. Maybe it’s cyclical.

Dale Enggass
I imagine a future where all homes, both for humans and creatures, are honored and given weight. The native animals and plants that live in Utah are often overlooked and deserve more thought, care, and attention, as without them, we could not be here.

Piper Leishman
My imagined future includes robust, accessible public transit and bike infrastructure. Like practitioners of disability justice, my imagined future is one in which value is understood as inherent and entirely decoupled from productivity. Like this book project, my imagined future is overflowing with art and care.

Natalie Slater

Item 1 of 4

Imagining

Futures

I hope in the future there is collective movement in the direction of mending, of tending. Perhaps the priorities of our values can change, existing rhythmically rather than extractively. Maybe in the future, we can be together on purpose.