Art for Rise

Artists from six continents have made artworks that people can use to #RiseforClimate. They included the Rise unifying symbols of an orange Cross for what we need to put a stop to, and a Sun for the solutions we need. You can use images from other continents, showing how truly global the movement is.

We hope these artworks will be used by local campaigners around the world to build momentum for the day of action. People can feel free to use the images for their own posters, host pop up art shows, projections, etc.

You can:

  1. Download the art and use in your own local art builds, campaign events and more.
  2. Submit your own art work. Click here. 
  3. Share how your are using the art in your own community by posting on Twitter or Instagram using #RiseForClimate

You can also download our full Arts Toolkit, which is designed to help you use arts to organize, educate, mobilize, and win positive changes. It will be updated in the coming weeks and months, so come back and check out additional how-to’s, images and ideas.

Arts Toolkit

Jhon Cortés

He is a graphic designer from the southwest of Colombia. He graduated from the University of Nariño in 2007. He works mainly in the fields of illustration, poster design and brand design. His works mostly as a freelancer and with links to governmental and private entities, such as UNHCR, AECID and the Colombian Ministries of Education and Culture. He has won distinctions for his work in poster design in Turin Italy, Buenos Aires Argentina, Bogotá Colombia and other contests and regional calls.

“The birds rise above the rest, plan and open their wings to contemplate, to reach and now to be reborn. Its flight does not end, it has always existed, the vibration of the earth sustains them and its fluttering moves everything. The chest of a bird is sheltered with colorful plumages, the chest of a coils the clouds around, the flight of a bird clears the path of the sun. Nature is self-sustaining, its processes, its changes, are succeeded to harmonize. Maybe it’s time to learn from it, learn how to fly light, how to beat the wings with the nectar of flowers, how to move filled with color and not obscuring life.”

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Chela

Chela is a Nairobi based visual artist who specializes in graffiti and fine art. Chela has gained extensive experience experimenting on the streets of Nairobi. Chela has managed to successfully train some young people on how to use art as a tool for social change.

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Mundano

Mundano is a Brazilian graffiti and street artist from São Paulo. In 2007, he began using his graffiti skills to paint “carroças,” the wooden and metal carts used by the trash collectors throughout Brazil who haul off junk and recyclables. He painted 200 carroças and in the process made these invisible superheroes visible—not only in the streets, but also in the media. The effort led to “Pimp My Carroça,” which made this initiative do-it-yourself, crowdfunded and global. It has brought in 170 trash collectors in cities around the world, teaming them up with 200 street artists and 800 volunteers.

Mundano, wrote, “To paint the cracked lake bed I used real mud from “Rio Doce”, a river directly affected by the biggest natural disaster of Brazil’s modern history, the disaster of “Mariana””

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Christi Belcourt 

Christi Belcourt is a Michif visual artist from Mânitow Sâkahikan ancestry, living in Anishinaabeg territory on the North Shore of Lake Huron, Canada. Belcourt respects the traditions & knowledge of her people, and her work often celebrates the beauty of the natural world. She is respected for her outspoken advocacy for the environment and Indigenous rights.Her art is displayed in the National Gallery of Canada, the Indian and Inuit Art Collection, and Canadian Museum of Civilization, among others. In 2014 she was named Aboriginal Arts Laureate by the Ontario Arts Council. She was awarded the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Governor General’s Innovation Award in 2016.

Belcourt says,
“No amount of money can buy back a people’s river.
No amount of money can buy back the sea.
The Trans Mountain Pipeline cannot be built.
Because we love the rivers.
Because we love the sea.
Because we love this sacred earth.
We will defend our home.
We will defend our water.

Everything I do in my life is my love for the earth and my awe of it. This wondrous planet, so full of mystery, is a paradise. Everything – the plants, insects, winds, stars, rocks, animals, us – is a giant web of pure spirit. Nothing is separate from anything else. All life, even the rocks, need to be treated with respect. The sacred laws of this world are respect and reciprocity. When we stop following them, we as a species are out of balance with the rest of the world.”

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Teleise Neemia Lesa

Teleise Neemia Lesa is a Samoan/New Zealand born artist.

Lesa says, “I wanted this artwork to show my solidarity with those in the Pacific Islands on the frontlines of Climate Change.

My artwork represents the regions of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. Traditional motifs from different Pacific Island cultures were used to create a single unique symbol. This was inspired by the traditional elements and principles of the Siapo, Ngatu, Masi, Tapa and the traditional Samoan Tatau (Pe’a).

There is a wealth of knowledge that has been passed down through generations of our ancestors living in harmony with nature. Through traditional indigenous practices our ancestors have taught us to respect the land and ocean. The symbols in this artwork represent powerful connections between our people, the ocean and our lands. The artwork symbolizes our hope to live in harmony with our lands and oceans.”

At the centre of this image is a “Kikonang”, the iKirbati word for the coconut leaf windmill. It is the symbol of Pacific Pawa and a representation of the 100% renewable energy future the Pacific Climate Warriors are striving to build in the Pacific.

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Daniela Paes Leão

Daniela Paes Leão is a Portuguese artist, currently living in the Netherlands.

Leao works across film, photography, drawing, performance, print and new media, exploring and trying to get to the core of a present issue, often political or social. Her practice involves collaboration, working with communities and across different disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and political sciences.

Her work has been exhibited internationally at the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennial, Guimarães – European Capital of Cultural 2012, Tate Britain (London), the South London Gallery (London), Cube Project Space (Taipei), Miami Art Fair (Miami) and W139 (Amsterdam) among others.

Leao says: “I work on series of drawings that visualise future possible worlds, that are desirable that we want to be in but we’re not yet there. I decided to make a drawing where people are celebrating the end of the fossil fuel age, they have flags, and those flags have elements from nature.

She is part of Fossil Free Culture, a collective of artists, activists, researchers and critics working at the intersection of art and climate activism.

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John Hillary Balyejusa

Balyejusa is a Ugandan poet and cinematographer.

Balyejusa is most comfortable with his cameras shooting nature and documentaries.

He has worked on various Eco Conservation projects including the #Sign4Climate photoshoot with Miss Tourism Uganda 2015, the #TenGreenChoices photoshoot with the Girls For Climate movement in Kampala and he is now the official photographer and producer for the @GirlsForClimate movement.

Balyejusa says:
“This image is an opportunity for me to expose the danger that fossil fuels pose to our agricultural society. Mary Lynus Naddunga who features in the image is a member of the GirlsForClimate movement, a nature enthusiast and agriculturalist. She represents the hundreds of African women whose agricultural production has been jeopardized by a constantly changing climate. I hope this image reflects the state of pollution from fossils fuel on the continent and the plight of African farmers.

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Ari Aminuddin, Indonesia

Aminuddin is an Indonesian artist, and member of Taring Padi, a collective of woodcut artists that was found in 1999 after the fall of the New Order Era in Indonesia.

Most of his work is done collectively and never represents only one name.

The Taring Padi art involves information that corrects false history, made by Soeharto, the second president of Indonesia, about the massacre on communists in 1965.

Aminuddin has joined several important environmental focused festivals and grass root workshops like Festival Mata Air, Switchcamp and the movement of the farmers and fisherman of Batang, Central Java, against the appearance of a coal fired power plant on their land.

Aminuddin’s daily job is working at a interior design company owned by a radical feminist sculptor, Dolorosa Sinaga, in Jakarta.

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  • You can also download the JPEG and Photoshop versions of all of these posters here.

Guides & Downloads

To win change and protect our communities and our planet all we really have is our voices, our bodies and the things we make with our hands together. How can we most powerfully develop and use our bodies and our voices and the art and images we make with our hands?

Building arts into your campaign can:

  • ENGAGE PEOPLE: It’s a great way to involve people.
  • BUILD MOMENTUM: Making art, rehearsing songs/chants/music and movement or theater can build excitement, visibility and even media–your own or even mainstream media.
  • BUILD CAPACITY: Being able to create and mobilize the arts is an essential part of any campaign, mobilization and movement building.
  • TELL OUR STORY: We can use the arts to powerfully tell our stories, raise our visibility and voices, inspire others and each other, and to build a culture and movements of resistance to win stronger communities and a better world.

Find out more. Download the full Arts Toolkit

 

Arts Toolkit

Art in Action

Art Being Created Around the World. Post on Instagram and tag #RiseForClimate or upload below
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