Introduction to Environmental Arts

Introduction to Environmental Arts is a three-credit, multidisciplinary course that examines the unique role Environmental Arts plays in addressing the climate crisis. However, given the intersectionality of this crisis, Introduction to Environmental Arts uses an ecological entry point to investigate tangential aspects of the climate crisis including psychological, cultural, economic, educational, and political injustices and challenges caused by what is widely (albeit imperfectly) known as the Anthropocene.

For the purposes of this course, “Environmental Arts” encompasses artwork of any genre (visual, music, dance, theatre, film, etc.) whose dominant concepts engage the environment and ecosystems, from undeveloped to built. These concepts often include any combination of the following: communicating/translating knowledge in the fields of environment-related science, technology, philosophy, and sociology; exploring systems, processes, and phenomena; encouraging relationship, empathy, and action; and shifting individual and cultural consciousness.

Accompanied by a selection of content by thought leaders spanning the arts, humanities, and sciences, students will study artists who have cultivated and critiqued the current eco-artscape (history and theory), identify potential impacts within this broad and diverse field (purpose), and create their own multi-disciplinary works of environmental art (practice) with a focus on artistic process rather than result. Through readings, recordings, artwork, writing assignments, critiques, studio practice, and engagement with the outside world itself, students will consider and respond to the challenges and potentials within questions such as: What are the impacts environmental arts are striving for, writ large? How can environmental arts contribute to moving our global community toward a more inclusive and restorative paradigm? Why are artists uniquely poised to participate in discussions about the climate crisis, and how can they do so effectively? In doing so, students will think critically about themes such as empathy, curiosity, sustainability, site-specificity, community, transformation, environmental justice, collaboration, and art-as-research.

View a Course Sample

Course Learning Objectives

Articulate definitions and values aligned with the category of Environmental Arts.
dentify notable environmental artwork, artists, and their contributions to the field of environmental arts as well as how they are cultivating, critiquing, and engaging the climate crisis writ large.
Discern types of environmental arts such as data visualization, audiation, performance, public art, art-sci collaboration, etc. – and understand that they are not mutually exclusive.
Think critically about how process, content, collaboration, and delivery can most effectively achieve an artwork’s desired level of accessibility and impact in addressing the climate crisis.
Cultivate curiosity, empathy, and connection using multimedia approaches to making environmental art.
Practice virtual, interdisciplinary relationship cultivation and project management through thoughtful engagement with the online modality—a mode of human relationships that is becoming increasingly prevalent and important in addressing the global climate crisis.

Meet the Professor

Rita Leduc is an interdisciplinary artist living in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her practice uses visual explorations of environmental ecosystems to inform conceptual and practical investigations into broader systems and relationships. In all of her work, Leduc’s process is one of examination, absorption, and participation to uncover pathways of understanding and possibility.

Many of Leduc’s current endeavors involve and are enhanced by multifaceted engagements with Oika, a project/philosophy that exists at the confluence of creativity, natural science, cosmic evolution, cognition, and spirituality. One such engagement is as Artist-in-Residence at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest for Extending Ecology with ecologist Dr. Rich Blundell and the forest itself. Additional ongoing endeavors include GROUNDWORK (an interdisciplinary research platform Leduc created in 2014), participating in The Place Collective (using art to enrich research within wider communities), and Ecotones at FSMLs (art-science collaborations at field stations).

Leduc’s work has been shown throughout the greater New York City area and beyond, including exhibitions at the Museum of the White Mountains (NH), Maria Mitchell Gallery (MA), Mount Saint Mary College (NY), Glasshouse Project (NY), Terrain Biennial (NY), Wells College (NY), Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Art (Russia), Project 59 at Governors Island (NYC), RAW (Miami), and Ortega y Gasset Projects (NYC). Past residencies include i-Park Foundation, PLAYA, Tofte Lake, Vermont Studio Center, and White Pines Bird Language Retreat. She has received support from NYFA, the Jerome Foundation, Atlas Obscura, Oika, Broto: Art+Climate+Science, the Wells College Scholar-in-Residence Program, and Rutgers University, among others. Her work has been featured on the cover of Signal House Edition (Issue 13) as well as in unpsychology magazine (“An Anthology of Warm Data” and “Other Than Human”), Artis Natura, A+E Collective, and 100days100women. She has presented and workshopped her work widely, most recently at Dartington Hall for Art.Earth’s conference, “Sentient Performativities: Thinking Alongside the Human.”

Leduc received her MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and BA from the University of Pennsylvania. She currently teaches at Ramapo College and Rutgers University.

Contact Information

Name: Rita Leduc

Title: Lecturer, Course Author

Email: Please use Canvas for all emails.

Office hours upon request

Syllabus

Intro to Environmental Art_LEDUC_10.26.23.pdf

Option 2

New Jersey Option 2 provides students with the opportunity to earn credits in a more personalized and independent manner, rather than the traditional “in-the-seat” course enrollment option. Option 2 offers alternative paths to high school credits that meet or exceed the New Jersey Student Learning Standards and are based on student interest or career goals.

While the final determination of eligibility must be made by the local school district, Rutgers Arts Online will provide documentation demonstrating that our offerings are compliant with the NJ learning standards.

If the course you are interested in is not on this list, use the Contact Us form to request more information.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

Mason Gross Arts Online welcomes all NJ residents who are rising Juniors or Seniors in High School to enroll as non-matriculated Option 2 students. Contact your school district to inquire about the application process.

WHY CHOOSE RUTGERS?

100% Online & Asynchronous
Respondus Anti –Cheating Software
Rigorous & Engaging Courses
All course faculty hold PhD, MFA, MusEd, or EdD degrees
One-to-one feedback, Support, and Office Hours in All Courses
College Credits Earned
7 (2 credit) or 14-week (3 credit) courses

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Information for Administrators
Rutgers Arts Online offers several courses that meet New Jersey’s Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) standards. The syllabi included below may be submitted to a credit or curriculum committee for approval. Additional materials are available upon request

Information for Students and Parents
Approval for Option 2 courses must be obtained through your school district. Please confer with your guidance counselors for the necessary applications and deadlines. Please note that course must be pre-approved by the district if they are to count towards the student’s high school transcript and/or for a high school’s VPA requirement.

DOCUMENTATION FOR APPROVAL

Introduction-to-Environmental-Arts.pdf