Join one of our COAL + ICE Climate Action Partners, Melting Metropolis, this June for a free embodied mark-making “walkshop” in the city, exploring our sensory experience of summer with environmental artists & historians.

Discover how, why, when and where heat moves through the city, what an urban heat island is and how our bodies are impacted by it. Be inspired by the history and climate of New York as we create experimental artworks in ink, pencil and chalk to express embodied memories of summer. Drawing Heat is a walking tour led by artist Bryony Ella and historian Dr Kara Schlichting of Melting Metropolis, an international research project looking at the history of heat in the city. Join one of their free guided walkshops around Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan to see heat in the city with new eyes, and ears, and maybe also with a new nose! Drawing Heat will be a playful, embodied experience bringing art and history together to rediscover the city.  

LOCATIONS

JUNE 1: Queens, Meeting at Queens Public Library at Long Island City, 37-44 21st Street

JUNE 7 + 8: Manhattan, meeting at Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue

JUNE 15: Brooklyn, meeting outside Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway

All materials provided and no art experience or historical knowledge of New York is necessary! This is an outdoor activity suitable for adults (14yrs+) who are comfortable walking / standing for up to 1 hour at a time. We will be walking a maximum of 1.25 miles per workshop and the majority of our time will be spent outside under shade. However as these are  walking workshops please do ensure you feel able to participate. We will provide water and picnic blankets. No pets, please (not everyone is comfortable with dogs).

Register to participate in a free walkshop here. Manhattan walkshop participants will be granted free admission to COAL + ICE June 7 and 8.

This program is presented as part of the COAL + ICE exhibition and series of programs at Asia Society, Feb. 13-Aug. 11, 2024, designed to provoke thought and action on climate change.

About our COAL + ICE Climate Action Partner Melting Metropolis:

Based at the University of Liverpool, UK, and Queens College, New York, Melting Metropolis is a Wellcome-funded project exploring how Londoners, New Yorkers and Parisians have thought and felt about heat and its impact on their health.

ABOUT OUR RESEARCH

Urban heat raises a host of health problems. Heatwaves, exacerbated by urban heat islands, are torrid manifestations of how high temperatures disrupt city life, bringing issues of climate injustice into stark relief. Yet extreme temperatures are only one aspect of the ever-evolving relationship between urban heat and health, one that has some positive features, such as summer festivals or swimming outdoors.

Melting Metropolis brings together a team of scholars, a community engagement manager, and a research artist to understand better the past and present of urban heat and health. With a focus on sensory, community, and cultural experiences in postwar London, New York, and Paris, we investigate how city dwellers have experienced heat and sought to mitigate its impact on their health and well-being. We aim to move beyond the widespread focus on “climate resilience” to uncover the multiple responses to urban heat and health during an era of climate breakdown. 

Learn more at meltingmetropolis.com