Artistic Dialogues with the Arctic North

Environmental Change and Identity in Transition

Antonia Sohns

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040642160
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Biological Sciences

This book brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists and scholars to explore how environmental changes in the Arctic are being experienced, understood, and represented. As climate change unfolds across vast geographies and long timescales, its impacts—on identity, wellbeing, cultural resources, and ways of life—are intimate, abrupt, and deeply felt.

Across the thirteen chapters, authors from diverse regions, disciplines, and artistic practices document and respond to these shifts, offering nuanced insights into the lived realities of a warming North. From ephemeral transformations in the land to the erosion of shared memory and subsistence traditions, these creative and scholarly responses serve as powerful forms of witnessing and response. Rather than relying solely on metrics or models, this volume emphasizes sensory, emotional, and cultural knowledge, foregrounding how individuals and communities are making sense of, and responding to, ecological disruption. It offers a vital perspective on the disproportionate and uneven impacts of climate change, and the urgent need to attend to its effects at both personal and planetary scales.

This is an essential resource for scholars, students, and practitioners in environmental history, Indigenous studies, climate policy, art and visual culture, and global development, and for anyone seeking new ways to engage with environmental change through art, experience, and collaboration.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I Art as Witness
• Part II Art as Response
• Part III Artistic Practices That May Deepen Connection or Reconnect People or Communities with the Environment and Cultural Heritage
• Index