And the inspiration for it all? Frederick Law Olmsted, the visionary landscape architect who sought to help individuals develop a personal connection to nature.
“Olmsted designed 100 years into the future and what we see at the Arboretum is what he imagined, a beautiful library of trees,” Israel said. “But I would like people to think of it not just as a library, but as a living lab. The Arboretum is deeply involved and doing extremely important work with climate change, how our landscape will be altered, and how to manage it.”
It was the beauty of Olmsted’s park, designed in the late 1870s, that inspired Israel to help individuals, communities, schools, and organizations consider climate change solutions tangibly and concretely. She originally named her organization “The Energy Necklace Project” as an homage to Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace, a 1,100-acre chain of parks through Brookline and Boston, of which the Arboretum is a part.
Through workshops and scalable public art, including installations and sculpture made from reclaimed materials — office supplies, fabric, and even chopsticks — Israel teaches about climate issues in an innovative and fun way, inviting participants to make personal commitments to manageable, sustainability solutions.
“When I first realized there wasn’t a feeling of climate urgency, no feeling of it being personal, people weren’t connecting with the data, it occurred to me that this is a cultural and emotional problem,” Israel said. “So I thought, ‘What if we have public art to help people get more interested in the conversation about climate and help make a metaphoric connection by putting the art across the landscape?’”
Susan Israel worked with Taylor Chung and Jane Chan at Renaissance College Hong Kong to install "Rising Waters" in this secondary school in Hong Kong, 2019.
Photo by Susan Israel
“Rising Waters” is the largest of Israel’s site-based, ephemeral installations, and she uses it in her workshop to show people where water levels will be in 10, 20, and 50 years if no action is taken on climate change. There are more than 20 installations in and around Boston, from the East Boston Shipyard and Marina and multiple MBTA stations to the Provincetown ferry dock. Israel has also done installations on the Peace Boat for UN World Ocean Day, at the UN World Oceans Conference, Earth Day Texas, the San Blas islands of Panama, and in Hong Kong.
In “Creative Climate Commitment,” a collaborative workshop at the Arboretum as part of Climate Preparedness Week, on Saturday, Israel will lead small teams to create climate-inspired sculptures, which will stay at the Arboretum. She will also share ways people can take their actions on sustainability to the next level.
“How do we move forward in ways that are achievable? I want to keep the dialogue on action, staying focused on what makes us feel empowered, to think about climate solutions in a visceral way,” Israel said. “It’s about using creative exercises, not expertise, to feel less frightened by the data, and more empowered about solutions, accomplishment and community.”
