This week I have had the pleasure of meeting with new interests in the sustainability competence mindset map project, as well as updates on inspiring ideas in the Impact Network for Regenerative Futures (IN4RF) that are evolving well. We have been talking with Dr. Linda Pommer and her colleague Dr. Anders Rebling at the Department of Applied Physics and Electronics at Umeå University. After listening to a webinar where I was invited to present the sustainability competence mindset map project, Linda and Anders reached out for a chat about the tool and how they could use it.
They are working to develop their sustainability education, with a new course starting soon, and are working to integrate sustainability across programs.The department is putting great effort into how to communicate the sustainability competencies with their students. It was great to hear about how the competencies, as a capacity-building mindset, are a natural fit in this discipline, and we look forward to learning about the experiences had by teachers and students as we take this journey together. The sustainability competence mindset map will follow students as they progress through the programs and help teachers and students facilitate their learning experience.
Also, Ashley Gillis, a student at Arcadia University, Canada, gave an update on her seed project about creating an evolving art installation that helps to inspire others to get engaged with transformation work. As Ashley and I discussed her idea I was inspired myself to connect and hope to provide space where students can join this adventure with a space for an online art gallery. We will present the project as it progresses, here on the site, and showcase student work across all universities. Ashley explains:
“My thought process for this (seed) is to focus on the topic of revive, regrowth and growing from “nothing”. I am leaning towards a flower life timeline but with reused materials. Ideally I would be showing the life cycle of a dandelion as it is seen as a weed by some, and a hope for summer by others. The flower tends to multiply my sending seeds in every direction like I would hope the sustainability project does.”
I have had the great pleasure witnessing how art can help facilitate the learning experience for business students, and had a fantastically insighful class this year. It’s encouraging to see students enaged in the arts on campus seed project and are planing for wonderfully ideas.
At the end of the tour, the students visit the Art Museum and this year had a wonderful display of “Åtta grader / Samtida konst om skogen” (Eight degrees / Contemporary art about the forest). Many students found the installation inspiring. Student of internatinal business and economics at Umeå Univeristy Matilda Johansson pointed out
“The movements of each artwork provoke the thought of how we perceive movement in time; this aligns with the thought of sustainability and how what we do now affects what happens later.”
Reflecting on the vandalism and misrepresentation that ‘sustainability‘ has had in the media, Matilda points out
“When opening my phone and scrolling on social media I often find videos or photos of climate activists in acts of desperation throwing paint and food on art. Understanding that their goal is to provoke a reaction, the activists’ methods have become more extreme because they consider their message so important that it stands above the destruction they are currently causing. My thoughts go to the waste said activists are creating with their protests which in anguish is destroying historical arts. Art which is being unintentionally vandalized in the name of sustainability, wrongfully giving it a bad reputation”.
While, personally, I agree with Matilda and my thoughts about destroying a Van Gogh are initially —no, you have gone too far—the controversy ignites dialogue and inspiration. How far is too far? How could you represent the sustainability dialogue from your campus through art? Could your campus showcase insights from local to global experiences? How can you plant seeds to inspire sustainable transformations?
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