Sarah Healy

Navigating Climate Tipping Points: Art Education and the Anthropocene

Sarah Healy

With Kathryn Coleman – Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia

Abstract:

This presentation examines art education as a critical site for cultivating ecological awareness in the Anthropocene, informed by SWISP Lab’s “Hacking the Anthropocene” (HAK.io) project. Unlike our associated manifesto workshop, this paper provides a theoretical and practical analysis of art education’s unique role in engaging young people with climate challenges. Aligned with the InSEA Congress themes, we consider how art education bridges “Unexpected Territories” and navigates “Shifting Grounds” in unknown climate futures. The Anthropocene – though scientifically contested – offers a valuable orientation for preparing future teachers to address environmental crises. Collaborating with Science Gallery International, SWISP Lab’s participatory research centres youth voices through creative expressions that capture “tipping points”: personal realisations of socio-ecological change, crisis, or collapse. These critical moments embody the “unexpected territories” and “shifting grounds” art education must traverse while revealing how climate change is interwoven with everyday experiences. We share stories, Zines and protest badges from HAK.io participants, highlighting how art education enables students to confront social and ecological challenges both individually and collectively. This approach, extending beyond traditional curricula, offers students a space to process climate anxieties and envision reparative futures. Through art-based methods, we build capacity and promote climate justice. We argue this requires a radical shift in teacher education, emphasizing intergenerational responsibility and response-ability. Art education, as a “territory for education through art,” provides vital, transformative pathways to empower youth as agents of change in the Anthropocene, resonating with InSEA’s mission of inclusive and forward-thinking art pedagogy.