Earth Celebrations
Engaging Communities to Generate Ecological and Social Change through the Arts

30 years mobilizing environmental action through the arts

ECOLOGICAL CITY – Art & Climate Solutions Action Project

Cultivating community connection, culture, resilience and environmental action.

Join us creating what is possible for a sustainable future!

Earth Celebrations applies the arts to build community, collaboration and action for ecological and social change

 

ECOLOGICAL CITY engages community through cultural strategies to learn, explore and take action on climate solution initiatives to mitigate climate change impacts of flooding, carbon pollution and the consequences of sea-level rise throughout the network of community gardens, neighborhood and East River Park waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.


ECOLOGICAL CITY PROMO VIDEO


ECOLOGICAL CITY: Art & Climate Solutions Action Project applies the arts to build community, collaboration and action on climate solution initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.

Through cultural strategies Ecological City deepens connection to the natural world within the urban environment and builds engagement and action on climate solutions, an urban sustainable ecosystem and the importance of local efforts to city and global climate challenges.

Gardeners, artists, residents, youth and over 50 community partner organizations collaborate through 9 months of creative engagement, partnership building and Art & Climate Solutions Workshops, developing visual art and performances exploring local sustainability sites and their climate solution initiatives. Visual art and performance projects are presented in the culminating Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions on Saturday May 11, 2024 featuring visual art, giant puppets, costumes and with 21 sustainability site performances celebrating the Lower East Side’s urban climate solutions embedded throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront.


PROGRAMS

EARTH CELEBRATIONS PROGRAMS | FALL 2023 – SPRING 2024


NATURAL PAINT WORKSHOP @ LUNGS Gardens Harvest Arts Festival

Sunday October 8th  @ 1-3pm

@ La Plaza Cultural Garden (9th St. Ave C SW Corner) 

 

 

VOLUNTEER AND SIGN UP

ARTISTS & CLIMATE ACTION 2024 — ARTISTS OPEN CALL

ART & CLIMATE – ECOLOGICAL CITY

Artists | Dancers | Performers | Musicians | Singers | Poets
Present and collaborate with community creating artistic works exploring climate resiliency, water and ecological sustainability. Artistic works are presented in the Ecological City Art & Climate Solutions Pageant celebrating climate solution initiatives throughout the gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.
LEARN MORE – OPEN CALL

ART & CLIMATE SOLUTIONS PANEL DISCUSSION Zoom

Ecological City Planning Meeting

Thursday, November 9, 2024 | Wednesday, February 7, 2024 from 6:30 – 8:00pm on Zoom 

Discuss local climate challenges and solutions and share ideas for visual art, performance, dance, music, and poetry exploring local climate challenges and solutions.

 

SIGN UP EVENTBRITE (FREE – LIMITED) TO RECEIVE ZOOM LINK


ECOLOGICAL CITY – ART & CLIMATE SOLUTIONS WORKSHOP

Collaborate creating visual art, bio-art, costumes and giant paper-cache puppets, exploring climate solution initiatives for Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions.

March 2 – May 10, 2024
Saturdays 12pm – 4pm

Artists-in-Residence
– Puppet workshops with artist Lucrecia Novoa
– Costume/Bio-Arts with Sika Foyer

@ Sixth Street Community Center (638 E. 6th St btw. Ave B & C)

 

 

SIGN UP ON EVENTBRITE (Free Limited Tickets)

 SIGN UP PUPPET WORKSHOPS

 SIGN UP COSTUME / BIO ARTS WORKSHOPS

FREE – SIGN UP TO | LEARN MORE – WORKSHOPS

 


BIO ARTS WORKSHOPS

Participants learn to use natural bio materials for sculpture and costumes, growing mycelium (mushrooms root) into a structural bio-degradable material that is grown into molds in various forms. Learn how to make Kombucha (fermented mushroom tea) into a leathery textile that will be integrated into costumes for Ecological City.

SIGN UP COSTUME / BIO ARTS WORKSHOPS
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ecological-city-art-climate-solutions-workshop-costume-bio-arts-tickets-794511755047

FREE – SIGN UP TO REGISTER | LEARN MORE – WORKSHOPS

 


MOBILE MURAL WORKSHOPS

Urban Climate Solutions with Earth Celebrations
Artist-in-Residence Katherine Freygang

April, 2024 (TBC)

Artist Katherine Freygang engages community on a Mobile Mural through workshops in April in collaboration with Earth Celebrations’ partners Lower East Side Ecology Center, Henry Street Settlement (JRC & BGR), University Settlement and Morus. The mural will be featured in the culminating Earth Celebrations’ Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions on Saturday, May 11, 2024, featuring spectacular visual art, giant puppets, costumes and 21 site-performances celebrating climate solution initiatives throughout the community gardens and East River Park on the Lower Side.

LEARN MORE- MEMORY MURAL


ART & ECOLOGY YOUTH WORKSHOPS

Earth Celebrations artists collaborate with community partner groups, schools and organizations to create arts projects exploring sustainability and climate solution initiatives. Artworks developed are presented in the culminating Ecological City: Art & Climate Solutions Pageant. To participate or engage your group to join, contact us!

LEARN MORE – ECOLOGICAL CITY


PUBLIC CULTURAL ACTION

Ecological City – Procession for Climate Solutions

Saturday, May 11, 2024 | 11am – 5pm (rain date Sunday, May 12) | Gardens to Waterfront – Lower East Side, NYC

The theatrical pageant, co-created by the Lower East Side community, artists, gardeners and residents, features a spectacular procession of visual art, giant puppet and costumes with 21 site performances exploring climate solution initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City.

Become a #ClimateSolution | LEARN MORE – ECOLOGICAL CITY| VOLUNTEER SIGN UP  to wear a spectacular climate solution costume, assist with visuals, puppets and as marshals.

 

 

 

 

 


Creative Placemaking | Climate Art | Environmental Action | Community Engagement | Climate Solutions | Artistic Activism | Cultural Organizing | Collaborative Arts | Environmental Justice | Ecological Art | Sustainability | Climate Action

MISSION–Earth Celebrations is a non-profit organization, founded by artist Felicia Young in 1991 on the Lower East Side of New York City, to engage communities to generate ecological and social change through the arts. 

Earth Celebrations’ arts programs mobilize environmental action on climate change, river-waterfront restoration, water quality, species and habitat conservation, waste management and the preservation of community gardens, parks, and a healthy urban environment.  Over the past 32 years we have developed innovative cultural strategies applying the arts, to engage our Lower East Side community to address, amplify and develop solutions to environmental and climate challenges impacting the neighborhood. Our collaborative arts projects cultivate diverse sector engagement bringing together environmental organizations, academic and cultural institutions, municipalities, government agencies, schools, community centers, artists and local residents to work together, achieve common goals, and generate ecological, policy and social change.| LEARN MORE – EARTH CELEBRATIONS

Environmental & Arts Programs – Creative Climate Actions | Ecological Art, Performance, Pageants/Processions & Events | Public Cultural Action | Educational Art & Climate Solution Workshops | Ecological Artist Residencies | Youth Climate Leadership Internships | Civic Engagement – Urban Planning & Policy | Educational Environmental & Arts Curriculum Development | Exhibitions | Video-Media Projects | Film-Slideshow Screenings | Panel Discussions & Conferences | Environmental Advocacy Initiatives | Coalition-Partnership Building | LEARN MORE – PROGRAMS


RECENT PRESS

ECOLOGICAL CITY PRESS 


RECENT INTERVIEWS WITH EARTH CELEBRATIONS DIRECTOR, Felicia Young

 


Read interview with Felicia Young, Director of Earth Celebrations and of the Ecological City Project, where she discusses 30 years of cultural organizing projects that generate ecological and social change.

Read the FULL INTERVIEW


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Read the FULL INTERVIEW

LEARN MORE – EARTH CELEBRATIONS FOUNDER FELICIA YOUNG


PROGRAM HISTORY – ARTS MOBILIZING ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION

LEARN MORE – EARTH CELEBRATIONS HISTORY


VAIGAI RIVER RESTORATION PROJECT – Madurai, South India

Photo Credit: The Hindu

Earth Celebrations applies its strategies of arts, community engagement, and environmental action, now in a global context to mobilize an international and collaborative effort to restore the Vaigai River in Madurai, South India that is in a severe crisis due to pollution, waste dumping, and the drying effects of climate change.

LEARN MORE – VAIGAI RIVER RESTORATION


HUDSON RIVER PAGEANT – River Restoration Project

Hudson River Restoration Pageant (2009-2012) engaged residents, youth, students, schools and local river, environmental, cultural and community organizations in a creative collaboration and culminating performance action to connect community with restoration and revitalization efforts of the Hudson River Estuary and waterfront in Lower Manhattan. LEARN MORE – HUDSON RIVER PAGEANT

Documentary by Fredrik Lassenius & Karen Brucker. Watch here or click for YouTube.


SAVE OUR GARDENS – Procession and Preservation Project

gardens

Save our Gardens Social Action Art & Preservation Project (1991-2005) engaged broad-based participation of community gardeners, artists, residents, youth, community, cultural and environmental organizations, schools, churches, colleges, city officials, activists, celebrities, academics, attorneys, and inspired individuals, mobilizing a grass-roots coalition and effort which led to the preservation of hundreds of community gardens on the Lower East Side and throughout New York City.

LEARN MORE – SAVE OUR GARDENS