Culture as Climate-Health Infrastructure: The Role of the Arts in Addressing the Health Impacts of Climate Change, with Ian Garrett
Climate change is a public health emergency. Its impacts reach beyond physical illness to mental, social and cultural well-being. Heatwaves, floods, wildfires and air pollution drive respiratory disease, heat-related deaths and trauma. Displacement and ecological loss erode the stories, rituals and places that sustain identity and belonging. Yet climate–health responses remain focused on technical solutions and leave out the values, norms and meaning-making that shape how communities understand and act on environmental change.
In this seminar, Professor Ian Garrett presents findings from Role of the Arts and Culture in Addressing the Health Impacts of Climate Change (2026). This new policy brief is part of the WHO Regional Office for Europe's Behavioural and Cultural Insights series, developed with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab. Garrett was part of the expert consortium that produced it. The brief draws on three research streams:
- an international survey of 79 experts working across arts, health and climate (Bahr et al., Arts & Health, 2025)
- a rapid scoping review of empirical studies
- a global call for grey literature and case studies
The findings show that arts-based approaches can:
- make climate–health links tangible by turning complex science into accessible, emotionally resonant forms
- support adaptation and recovery by giving people spaces to process eco-anxiety, grief and loss
- strengthen social connection and collective problem-solving
- contribute to mitigation by shifting cultural norms and industry practices
Case studies range from theatre as disaster response in post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico, to women's tapestry work on air pollution in Delhi, to an animated film accepted as evidence in South African court rulings against offshore seismic exploration.
The research also surfaces persistent barriers: limited funding, weak intersectoral collaboration, and a lack of recognition of artists as legitimate partners in climate–health policy. Evidence on long-term health outcomes, and on low-resource and climate-vulnerable settings, is especially thin.
The talk outlines the brief's four policy considerations:
- Embed arts and culture in existing climate/health frameworks.
- Create interdisciplinary funding mechanisms.
- Invest in research and data systems that capture health and environmental co-benefits.
- Institutionalize partnerships across the culture, health and climate sectors.
It also asks what evaluation approaches would do justice to this work. Drawing on his own practice in ecoscenography and with Climate Change Theatre Action, Garrett reflects on what it means to treat culture as climate–health infrastructure, and on the risks of instrumentalizing the arts in the process.
In preparation for this seminar, Professor Garrett has recommended reading:
- Role of the arts and culture in addressing the health impacts of climate change
- The role of the arts at the intersection of climate change and public Health: findings from an international survey
Recommended readings for all seminar readings this semester
Speaker Profile
Ian Garrett is a designer, producer, educator and researcher working at the intersection of performance, sustainability and technology. He is Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University and a Dahdaleh Fellow. He directs the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA), an independent think tank on sustainability in arts and culture, and co-directs Climate Change Theatre Action (CCTA), a worldwide, distributed festival of short climate plays.
His research spans ecoscenography, site-specific and emplaced storytelling, hybrid and networked performance, and humanities approaches to AI and relational technologies. Throughout, he attends to ethical, community-grounded research-creation and to Indigenous and land-based partnerships. Through Toasterlab, he produces mixed-reality and volumetric performance. He also co-directs Venue 13 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Garrett was a member of the expert consortium behind the WHO Regional Office for Europe and Jameel Arts & Health Lab policy brief on the arts, culture and climate–health. He co-authored its supporting international survey study in Arts & Health and a rapid scoping review on arts-based climate communication, adaptation and mitigation. He is a long-standing contributing editor of the CSPA Quarterly and co-editor of collections including Lighting the Way, runner-up for the 2021 Patrick O'Neill Award.
He serves on the Culture for Climate International Advisory Panel at Griffith University, convenes the International Green Cultural Tools and Guides Group, and sits on the executive committee of York's Sensorium research centre. His honours include York's President's Sustainability Leadership Award, the Climate Art Award for CCTA, an Ontario Early Researcher Award and a York University Teaching Fellowship.
Register below and join us on Tuesday, September 29, at 1:00 p.m. ET (via Zoom or Room 519, Kaneff Tower)
RSVP
