Note to Correspondents

ART EXHIBIT ON ENVIRONMENT OPENS AT UNITED NATIONS

 

“Art, Attitudes and Environment”, an international art exhibition showcasing artworks created by seven extraordinary artists/activists, will open with a ceremony and reception in the South Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby on Thursday, 8 May, at 6 p.m. and will remain on display until 1 June.

The exhibit will be formally opened by Eric Falt, Director of the Outreach Division of the Department of Public Information.  Statements will also be made by Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, and Mia Hanak, Founding Executive Director of the Natural World Museum.

Featured in this exhibit are artists Noor Al-Bastaki (Bahrain), El Anatsui (Ghana), Subhankar Banerjee (India), Catherine Chalmers (United States), Ichi Ikeda (Japan), Cecilia Paredes (Peru) and Philippe Pastor (Monaco).  Curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg, the exhibit “aims to demonstrate to the public that utilizing art as an inspiration based approach in evoking an emotional connection between humankind and nature can raise environmental awareness, foster environmental values, and inspire reverence and concern for the Earth”.

The artists, whose works draw attention to the environment, will join experts from the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Environment Programme and Invenergy, LLC, in the sixth Unlearning Intolerance seminar “Art Changing Attitudes toward the Environment”, to be held at the United Nations on the same day.  The United Nations Department of Public Information launched the Unlearning Intolerance series in 2004.  For more information on the seminar and the artists, visit www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/tolerance/.

This art exhibition is organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information, in cooperation with the Natural World Museum (NWM) and the United Nations Environment Programme joint initiative Art for the Environment.  NWM is a mobile and global cultural institution that presents art through innovative programmes to inspire and engage the public in environmental awareness and action.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, please contact Jan Arnesen at tel.:  +1 212 963 8531, e-mail:  arnesen@un.org; or Liza Wichmann at tel.:  +1 212 963 0089, e-mail: wichmann@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record