Climate Emergency

NAVA recognises that the climate emergency is an issue of deep importance to many of our Members. NAVA's small team of staff feel that now is the time for urgent and meaningful climate action and have been joining artists and our art sector colleagues in roundtable discussions and on the streets as part of recent strikes and other actions.

Climate action rally at Sydney's Town Hall

Artist, Adam Norton with his NO COAL sign at the NSW is Burning, Sydney is Choking – Climate Emergency Rally! 11 December 2019, Sydney Town Hall. Photo by Penelope Benton.

Bushfire Relief

Among fires and dust storms, floods and water shortages, injuries and deaths, and loss of wildlife at an incomprehensible scale, our new decade is already demanding courageous responses that overcome old ways of thinking to remake our world. If there’s one thing that the failures of leadership have shown us at this horrific time, it’s that new models are needed for new times. 

In the midst of our climate emergency, artists and artsworkers have looked out for one another and raised millions, even while losing a great deal themselves – and in far too many cases, that’s meant losing everything. With thanks to the generosity of so many artists and organisations who’ve donated their work and their time, we’ve compiled this no doubt incomplete list of all the art auctions and fundraisers happening all over Australia. Enormous thanks and big respect to all of you. 

Artists' Benevolent Fund

In response to our devastating summer that has touched so many, including the work and livelihoods of many artists, Art Month Sydney and the National Association for the Visual Arts are inviting donations to reinstate an Artists’ Benevolent Fund so that Australian artists can be offered some assistance in times of crisis as a result of fire, flood, serious illness, major accident or some other unexpected catastrophe.

Artists respond to the climate crisis

NAVA asked several artists whose work deals directly and indirectly with the climate crisis to share their thoughts and ideas for our sector.

Podcast: Latai Taumoepeau

In this podcast, Latai Taumoepeau speaks with NAVA’s Professional Development Coordinator, Justine Youssef, about her practice relative to climate justice and the environmental, ethical and political effects of climate change in the Pacific region. Further to this Latai, shares ideas on how the art sector can transform the conversation around climate change and translate it into action.

Latai Taumoepeau is a contemporary Punake — a body-centred performance artist whose powerful artistic practice tells the stories of her homelands, the Island Kingdom of Tonga, and her birthplace of the Eora Nation, Sydney. Working in durational performance and documenting it through photographs, she addresses issues of race, class and the female body. In her recent practice, Taumoepeau explores the effects of climate change in the Pacific, probing existing power structures and the looming possibility of dispossession that many island communities face.

The Centre for Sustainable Practices in the Arts

Quick tips and other initiatives for improving the energy efficiency of small-to-medium museums and galleries. An initiative of Museums & Galleries Queensland developed in partnership with Museums & Galleries of New South Wales, Regional and Public Galleries Association of New South Wales and Regional Galleries Association of Queensland.