In conversation with a change-maker: Guy Abrahams
Guy Abrahams is the CEO and co-founder of CLIMARTE, a climate action organisation based in Melbourne. I recently got in touch with Guy to find out a little more about his world.
CLIMARTE focuses on the creative power of the arts to inform, engage and inspire action on climate change. What can art bring to the table?
As someone who has had a lifetime of passionate professional and personal involvement in the arts, I am aware of the profound and at times emotional and empowering effect that works of art can have on individuals and communities, both local and global — be they paintings, photographs, films, theatre, dance, music, literature, or any of art’s other amazing range of forms. The arts can not only show, but indeed make us feel the very problems that we are facing. They can allow us to have a foretaste of our possible futures, both bad and good. The arts can help us to imagine what sort of society we really want, not merely what others say we should want, or what we should be prepared to accept.
Which artwork has influenced you the most? Do you create art yourself?
I’m not an artist, but I love doing things that I feel are creative. Classical Greek and Italian Renaissance art showed me the heights of humanity, while works such as Picasso’s Guernica evoked the terror and inhumanity that we can descend to, but the work that has most influenced me most… well I think to nominate one work would misleading, but abstract expressionism opened my mind to the reality and power of non-rational experience: pure emotion, colour, feeling, intuition — all that is the right side of the brain. As Bill McKibben said: “Right now the left brain really isn’t doing the trick… You don’t build movements with bar graphs. You build them, in part, with art. With painting and with music and with graffiti and with dance and with concerts and with everything that engages the right brain. Or that engages the heart, trusting that where the heart leads the head will follow.”
Long before your foray into the arts and environments, you worked as a lawyer. What inspired your shift from law to art? Do you see a specific role that law can play in helping to shape a climate-friendly future?
I practised as a lawyer in the field loosely known as arts law but felt that I really wanted to be closer to where the creative action was taking place. So when the opportunity arose to work with my mother in her art gallery, I thought I’d give it a go. I was still there 22 years later! Of course the law has an enormously important role to play in addressing environmental issues such as climate change, but it also requires community and political support to be fully effective.
You’ve recently been involved in the Visions & Pathways 2040 project, which aims to explore and articulate visions for a low carbon future in Australia. What has been your experience with the V&P 2040 project?
I was fortunate to be asked to take part in a ‘brainstorming’ session in which we got together to imagine possible futures for Melbourne. I found the experience to be stimulating and liberating — and refreshingly optimistic.
What is your vision of sustainability?
Sustainability means a good future for our planet, and for every living thing on it. It means a time when we acknowledge that our place on this planet is co-dependant on forces and natural systems that we cannot control, but with which we can live in a symbiotic rather than parasitic manner. It means a respect and empathy for each other — those of us here now, and those of us who will arrive after us.
What do you see as the greatest barrier to achieving this vision? The biggest opportunity?
The biggest challenge we face is the vested interests of fossil fuel companies who don’t want change. I believe a lot of promise lies in renewable energy. But one of the biggest opportunities for a better future is in building strength, resilience and purpose through renewed community.
What is the most important thing the youth of today should be doing right now to work towards this goal?
The most important thing you can do is speak up — it’s your future!
CLIMARTE has been in action since 2010. Your greatest success so far?
In February 2014 we held a public forum titled Art Climate Ethics: What role for the arts? at Deakin Edge, Federation Square in Melbourne. We were stunned by the incredible audience turnout (it was standing room only!) and the high level of interest and follow up. This really inspired us to continue on with producing our next big project.
Can you give a taste of what’s coming up?
We have been busy getting ready for ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015, a festival of climate change related arts and ideas that will include over 20 curated exhibitions alongside a series of keynote lectures and public forums featuring local and international guests. These stimulating events will attract a broad audience and provide a clear space for the discussion of the challenges and opportunities, impacts and solutions, arising from climate change.
ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015 will inform, engage and inspire, delivering an expansive and stimulating series of events that can help lead us towards a creative, just and sustainable future.
A final thought you wish to leave us with?
Everyone needs to be an activist!
ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015 will be staged in Melbourne from 11 April to 17 May, with further participation from museums and galleries located in greater Melbourne and regional Victoria. Visit climarte.org for more details.
