Summary
As the impacts of climate change accelerate, it is becoming increasingly clear that those least responsible for the crisis are also those most likely to be the hardest hit. The concept of climate justice sheds light on the multiple ways climate change reinforces existing injustices, especially those related to race, class, gender, geography, colonial history, and the relation between humans and other life forms. Art and artistic research can open up new ways of understanding the intersectional dimensions of this crisis so that people feel empowered to act. They can help to imagine other ways of being in the world and foster meaningful dialogue and collaborative practices across disciplinary, geographical, and cultural borders. JUST ART will galvanise emerging work at the intersection of artistic research and climate justice and catalyse new creative collaborations within and beyond the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It will bring together artists, researchers, campaigners and communities in rural and urban regions across the Kingdom – from Aruba to Brabant, from the Wadden Islands to Twente, and from the polders to Curaçao – to address injustices and take urgent action together to shape more just futures.
The project is led by the University of Groningen and connects ten higher education institutions with 40 societal partners to amplify marginalised voices, illuminate systemic injustices, and cultivate new strategies for more just forms of climate action. University of Twente (KiTeS) leads one of the work packages focusing specifically on “Just Futures”. Together with parters in the region - ArtEZ University of the Arts, Tetem and Rijksmuseum Twenthe – we will explore and reimagine rural-urban relationships and patterns that can unlock transformations towards climate just futures. Engaging with art activism and digital culture, we will develop artistic and creative modes of engagement that provoke debate and reflection on alternative rurban futures, while generating new situated and experiential narratives that challenge the status quo.
Partners
The JUST ART project is funded by NWA-ORC: https://www.nwo.nl/en/news/fourteen-consortia-receive-funding-in-the-nwa-orc-round-2024
Project duration: January 2026 – December 2031
