Environment and action on climate

Through our research, teaching and outreach initiatives we promote the core values of social and environmental justice at Newcastle University.

Our staff expertise in environmental research is internationally recognised. The agency of visual art as an agent of change is a core area of research for Uta Kögelsberger and Neil Bromwich. Questions of sustainability of creative practices in the context of the studio is central to our research, as is demonstrated by Katie Cuddon, Andrew Burton and Wolfgang Weileder. Olga Smith’s research advances eco-pedagogy in teaching art history, and spans the themes of plant ecologies and landscape in contemporary art.

The department hosts regular research events to support this vibrant research:

Future Climates: Artists and Curators respond to the Climate Crisis

A series of talks developed in collaboration between Art Monthly journal and Prof Uta Kögelsberger at Newcastle University. The series brings together international artists, curators and writers to reflect on how cultural practices can respond to the climate crisis and its complex, societal, political, economic, and historical entanglements. See Uta Kogelberger's research here. 

Art and Ecology

Research seminar series led by Dr Olga Smith offers a platform for engagement with research in history of art at a time when the discipline is undergoing change in response to the issues of urgent significance, including, crucially, environmental breakdown. Invited international and UK-based scholars bring to Newcastle research at the frontline of disciplinary change.

The Green Finger Forum, established in 2021 by Prof. Irene Brown, is an innovative teaching platform that uses the department’s onsite garden as a laboratory supporting the integration of land practices (gardening, foraging, cooking) with pedagogic and artistic practices.