Tara DePorte on envisioning enticing futures and meaningful climate opportunities

The Heart Gallery Podcast

A recurring theme on the podcast is the climate crisis and the ways in which artists are addressing it in their work. Whether they're focused on showing ways forward for society, making the issue more concrete for individuals and specific communities, or inviting people sideways into the issue through art that is focused on elements of celebration, curiosity, care. If you listen to the podcast often, you know the last one is my personal favorite type. Some of the past episodes with these themes include conversations with Taylor Freesolo Rees, Alisa Petrosova, John Kazior, and Rohan Chakravarty, and more recently Christi Belcourt and Justin Cook.

Tara DePorte is the guest on the podcast today. She is Executive Director of the Human Impacts Institute, which is building a global cultural movement around climate action. In addition to leading HHI, Tara is also well versed as an artist in climate policy and science spaces. In that way, she and I have quite a bit in common, which is a rare thing. Art is entering climate spaces more and more, but it still feels serendipitous to connect with others who have similar approaches, so I’m thrilled to be talking to her.

Tara is so clear-sighted about the challenges of climate communication and climate art. I loved talking to her, and have thought a lot about her ideas and advice since we talked. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as did.
Homework from Tara: "I think it's nice to make homework fun so that people will then do it. I would say find one group in your community that you're really excited about that is doing work on climate in some way. And climate does not have to be in their title or the description of their mission. It can be a community garden. It can be something that's helping give girls, children, access to education. It can be many different ways to engage. Connect with them, learn about them, and find a way to be a part of it by coming back to that idea of "give who you are". So have it be something that you're going to look forward to doing, that you could bring your kids to do as well, like making a community mural.
It's easy to feel alone in the world in general these days. In order to come back to a place of empathy and creation and inspiration, we really need to acknowledge how important community is in our lives. And I can speak on behalf of myself; I need to acknowledge how important community is in my life. I think the same thing goes for climate action, is going out and doing it on our own not only doesn't have as much of an impact, but it's hard to keep going because it is easy to get burned out or to not feel like we're making enough of a difference. So start that climate community, find that climate community."

Mentioned:
- The City Tree, by Shira Boss, illustrated by Lorena Alvarez
- The New Humanitarian podcast episode on sci fi
Connect:
- Human Impacts Institute website
- Human Impacts Institute instagram
- Tara's Art Portfolio
- The Heart Gallery instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer