Setting the Stage for Climate Change is a temporary public art installation in Morningside Park, sited on a landing near the top of the staircase at 116th Street. Environmental artist Susan Stair designed the sculpture to reinvent the area of the park as an amphitheater for arts and cultural programming.
Unveiling set for August 25th from 4:00 to 7:00pm in Morningside Park, enter at 116th Street and Morningside Drive.
Setting the Stage for Climate Change is made almost entirely of repurposed materials including the interior structure and platform that are constructed from repurposed wood cut from pickle barrels. The visible surfaces feature plastic laundry bottles, single use plastics, and detritus that are melted and joined, suggesting mitigations to the climate crisis by preserving forests, reducing plastic consumption, and repurposing materials in unexpected ways.
Susan Stair: Setting the Stage for Climate Change
With two of Stairs recent temporary public art installations, Ascending the Mountain, 2021, Marcus Garvey Park, and Roots on Fire, 2019, Harlem Art Park, Stair utilized existing decorative fencing to hang mural sized low reliefsculptures made with mosaics, gold leaf, smalti tiles and clay impressions of nearby trees. These works were installed as large scale landscapes that presented informative narratives about the environment, identifying trees as a vital resource to combat climate change.
Stair stays on topic with Setting the Stage for Climate Change, incorporating a new visual language and expanding her use of materials to include repurposed plastics, wood, and fragments of some of her previous works.
The artist experimented with new techniques, like fusing plastics that she researched over the past year while developing the idea for this ambitious project. Setting the Stage for Climate Change on its own is a free-standing sculpture. By siting it on the elevated terrace surrounded by stone walls and staircases it becomes a backdrop for an amphitheater encouraging others to perform and activate the space.
Partnering with Art Lives Here and the Friends of Morningside Park the artist will organize a series of free events throughout the one year that the piece will be on exhibit. They have plans for a “Trashion Show”, a fashion show of garments made from detritus. Design workshops are being held at the nearby Dwyer Cultural Center to inspire ideas and demonstrate techniques of sewing and manipulating plastics to be worn on the runway by participants. The partners will also host an afternoon of chess matches played on a giant Chess Game created with single use plastics by Artist Elizabeth McAlpin and a performance of Capucine Bourcart’s, The Blanket.
About the artist ~ Susan Stair (b. 1954 Philadelphia, PA) has exhibited in Asia and the U.S. including her solo exhibition “The Wood Wide Web” at Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Summit NJ, and dual exhibitions of ceramic works with Ezequiel Taveres, JVS Project Space and with Jose Soto at Living with Art, New York, NY. Exhibitions in Asia include Galleria Duemilla, US Embassy in Manila, The Fringe Gallery in Hong Kong and the Tokyo Design Center, Japan. Stair has produced four temporary public art installations in New York City Parks since 2016. Her permanent installations include “By the Water”, 2009 a commission with the NYC Department of Education which is permanently installed at PS 189x in the Bronx. She was also commissioned by Parkadon Development Corporation to create “Returning to the River”, 2018 installed in the lobby of 70 West, an affordable home ownership condominium in Harlem.
About Art Lives Here ~ Art Lives Here is a non-profit arts organization that supports cultural equity by creating opportunities for under-recognized Women, LGBTQIA+, AAPI, and BIPOC artists and provides access to art in communities that are often excluded by bringing meaningful public art installations, exhibitions, performances, and educational programming to people where they live.
Art Lives Here develops programming by thinking outside of the box to shift perceptions and conversations, believing that a thriving arts community is good for society and has the power to positively impact change by exploring issues beyond the sound bite.
About Friends of Morningside Park ~ Friends of Morningside Park is a volunteer led organization founded in 1981. Their mission and purpose are to be a catalyst for the rehabilitation and maintenance of Morningside Park in accordance with the ideals of its original designers Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux and its well-deserved status as a Scenic Landmark of New York City.
Friends of Morningside Park organizes an array of programming which over the years has included arts and cultural festivals, a farmers’ market, film screenings, public art installations, performances, sports tournaments, community gatherings and volunteer stewardship of the park.
About NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program ~ For nearly 60 years, NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program has brought contemporary public artworks to the city’s parks, making New York City one of the world’s largest open-air galleries. The agency has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, NYC Parks has collaborated with arts organizations and artists to produce more than 3,000 public artworks by 1,500 notable and emerging artists in more than 200 parks. For more information, please visit nyc.gov/parks/art.
Setting the Stage for Climate Change is funded in part by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Community Engagement Grant with public funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional funding provided by the Friends of Morningside Park.
Setting the Stage for Climate Change is organized by Art Lives Here, chief curator Connie Lee as part of the organization’s project development program which works collaboratively with artists for approximately two years to develop public art projects.
Susan Stair: Setting the Stage for Climate Change will be on view from August 25, 2023 to August 8, 2024 in Morningside Park at the 116th Street stairway in Harlem. An unveiling will be held on August 25th from 4:00 to 7:00pm. Enter the Park at 116th Street and Morningside Drive.
The installation consists of stainless steel mesh, recycled wood (cut pickle barrels) repurposed plastics, mosaics, and clay impressions of tree bark. It measures 8′ H x 16′ W x 3′ D.
Stay tuned for the Trashion Fashion Show date!
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