CCA joins forces with Global Climate Action Summit
San Francisco, CA—In September, the city of San Francisco will host the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS)—a high-profile occasion that will bring leaders, organizations, and people together from around the world to “Take Ambition to the Next Level.” This important moment will celebrate the extraordinary achievements of states, regions, cities, and citizens with respect to climate action, while also serving as a platform to launch deeper discussions about the future. The California College of the Arts (CCA) is proud to offer a slate of GCAS affiliated events and contribute expertise regarding the intersection of environmental responsibility and the arts to these discussions.
CCA has a decades-long commitment to sustainability. The school’s unique curriculum embraces ecological practices as a core responsibility of artists and designers. Its leading faculty are dedicated to furthering environmental sustainability through their professional activity and research. Environmental issues impact all industries and a number of CCA faculty members have spent years researching and realizing new sustainability models for their respective fields.
The ethos of sustainability is also infused in the physical spaces of CCA. The college’s San Francisco main academic building is recognized as an AIA COTE Top Ten Green Building. In August 2018, the school will open a new housing facility at 75 Arkansas that is on track to receive a platinum GreenPoint rating. Additionally, the school is working with MacArthur award-winning architect Jeanne Gang to design an expansion for the college's San Francisco campus that will further CCA’s commitment to sustainable design in the 21st century.
The Center for Impact at CCA has organized the symposium Be a Superhero for Sustainable and 100% Renewable Energy: Global Strategies for Decision-Makers that will kick-off the week of GCAS. Lead by artist, writer, educator, and director JD Beltran, The Center offers the annual IMPACT awards which provides two $25,000 grants to student teams working towards excellence in social or environmental impact through the lens of art and design. This year's winners include House9, which aims to both maximize existing potential housing spaces and create new spaces for long-term use while maintaining affordability and environmental sustainability, and Hatch Workshop, a holistic live/work/thrive space in Stockton, California.
Lynda Grose, associate professor and chair of fashion design, has orchestrated the GCAS affiliated event From Field to Fashion: Apparel’s Impact on Climate Change to address the fashion industry’s role and responsibility to the planet. Grose is a leading expert on sustainability in fashion and is renowned for co-founding ESPRIT’s ecollection—the first ecologically responsible clothing line developed by a major corporation and framed an impacts approach to fashion and sustainability which became adopted industry-wide. She speaks frequently on fashion and sustainability at corporate offices, conferences, universities, museums, and will be a 2018 key speaker at the Global Fashion Conference later this fall.
Architecture faculty and co-directors Adam Marcus, Evan Jones, and Margaret Ikeda will formally launch the Architectural Ecologies Lab (AEL) with the GCAS affiliated event Constructing Architectural Ecologies. This forward-thinking lab houses several projects that leverage interdisciplinary expertise and meaningful collaborations with science and industry to develop compelling architectural strategies to address ecological challenges like sea level rise, habitat restoration, and climate change. AEL was recently recognized by Architect Magazine with a 2018 R+D Award for the Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, and the Public Sediment team (which includes AEL co-directors Marcus, Ikeda, and Jones) won an AIA California Merit Award in the Urban Design category for their Unlock Alameda Creek proposal.
CCA’s Urban Works Agency, led by architecture faculty Neeraj Bhatia and Janette Kim, will present the exhibition Equity on the Edge: Designing Climate Resilience that will be on view at the CCA Hubbell Street Galleries for the duration of the summit. The Urban Works Agency recently participated in the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge to develop innovative solutions to combat sea level rise in the San Leandro Bay Area. Bhatia, whose work resides at the intersection of politics, infrastructure and urbanism, is the founder of award-winning The Open Workshop, a multidisciplinary design workshop focused on the relationship between architecture and its territorial environment. Kim is the founding principal of the design practice All of the Above, and founding editor of ARPA Journal. Her 2015 project The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform (Princeton Architectural Press) maps the political implications of energy management in architecture.
In addition to the subject matter experts noted above, CCA has several additional faculty on staff that are contributing groundbreaking work and research to the intersection of the arts, design, and environmental sustainability.
Nathan Shedroff, associate professor of industrial design, is one of the pioneers of experience design, an approach to design that encompasses multiple senses and explores the common characteristics in all media that make experiences successful; he also works in the related fields of interaction design and information design. His book Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable (Rosenfeld Publishing, 2009) clearly explains the principles, frameworks, tools, and strategies for designers to create more sustainable solutions.
Ceramics professor and chair Nathan Lynch works closely in partnership with Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge to design and fabricate ceramic nesting modules for seabirds around the world who are at risk from habitat degradation and predation. Lynch was born and raised in Pasco, WA, an agricultural community 20 miles downriver from Hanford Nuclear Power Plant. The challenges of this environmental contradiction gave Lynch an acute sense of location and a deep passion for address political, environmental, and social issues through his art.
The college is proud to contribute these achievements, experts, and forward-thinking initiatives to the conversations surrounding the advancement of environmental sustainability through the following public programming for the Global Climate Action Summit:
Be a Superhero for Sustainable and 100% Renewable Energy: Global Strategies for Decision-Makers
Organized by The Center for Impact at CCA
When: 9am–5:30 pm with reception to follow, Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Where: CCA Nave Alcove, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA
More information on Eventbrite
From Field to Fashion: Apparel’s Impact on Climate Change
Organized by CCA Fashion Design Program and Wildlife Works
When: 6–9 pm, Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Where: CCA Nave Alcove, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA
Constructing Architectural Ecologies Keynote: Dr. Adrian Parr "Urban Clearcutting"
Organized by CCA Architectural Ecologies Lab
When: 6pm, Thursday, September 13, 2018, with reception to follow
Where: CCA Nave Alcove, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA
More information here
Constructing Architectural Ecologies Symposium
Organized by CCA Architectural Ecologies Lab
When: 9am–12:30pm, Friday, September 14, 2018, with reception to follow
Where: CCA Nave Alcove, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA
More information here
Equity on the Edge: Designing Climate Resilience
Organized by CCA Exhibitions
On view: September 4–20, 2018
Location: CCA Hubbell Street Galleries, 151 & 131 Hubbell Street, San Francisco, CA
Gallery hours: Monday–Friday, Noon–5pm; Thursday, Noon–7:30pm
Opening reception: Thursday, September 6, 2018, from 6–7:30pm
Sarah Bird: A Vision for Mapping Giants
Organized by CCA Exhibitions
On view: September 11–14, 2018
Location: CCA Nave, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA
Gallery hours: 9am–9pm daily
For the full list of Fall 2018 CCA Public Events, please click here.
For the full list of Fall 2018 CCA Public Exhibitions, please click here.
About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. Benefiting from its San Francisco Bay Area location and faculty of expert practitioners, the college prepares students for lifelong creative work by cultivating innovation, community engagement, and social and environmental responsibility. Graduates are highly sought-after by the world’s leading companies, architecture and design firms, cultural and arts organizations, and more. CCA is creating a new, expanded college campus at its current site in San Francisco, spearheaded by the award-winning architectural firm Studio Gang, and will provide more student housing than ever before.