Envisioning climate futures: Applying CreativeVoice as a research method in community art workshops

This article examines how artist activations can involve communities in discussions of climate futures by empowering people to envision new, future-oriented avenues for change and connect these concepts to their own lived experiences. In this study, we used CreativeVoice, a research methodology that engages participants in the creation of knowledge, asking them to document and share their experiences through artmaking. Study participants engaged with Jonathon Keats’s art through community workshops focused on local ecology in Tucson, Arizona. Participants were then invited to continue creating art to connect these themes to their daily lives. They shared their art and experiences with each other in focus groups and with their communities through an art exhibition. We share successes, challenges and future directions of this work in engaging community art and ecological futures.