Northern Spark 2015 Guided Bike Tour. Photo: Shawn Orton

As a response to the intense global conversations on climate change now taking place in Paris at the COP21 talks, and around the world, we ask an important question: what is the role of art and culture in what some have called Year One of the climate revolution?

To explore this question, Northern Lights.mn announces a full year of artists addressing global climate change: Northern Spark 2016, June 11, through Northern Spark 2017, June 10. These two incredible nights of art focused on Earth’s changing environment will be connected by a year of interactive projects, events and workshops exploring climate challenges and solutions in sites across the Twin Cities.

Northern Spark 2016 and Northern Spark 2017 are an urgent, exciting, artistic call-and-response to global climate change. Our year of climate change programming begins by delving into issues such as the future of food, new relationships to non-human species, and radical river ecologies, and culminates in 2017 in the biggest Northern Spark yet, with innovative, interactive art projects filling the landscape along the Green Line from Minneapolis to St. Paul.

With a year-long commitment to focus on climate change, Northern Lights.mn brings excitement, inspiration and creativity to an issue that can at times feel impossible to solve. Our work has always been to bring people together to experience awe-inspiring art projects. With climate change as our focus, we’re working to knit together project collaborations between artists, activists, scientists, neighborhoods and environmental organizations that will last beyond Northern Spark’s 8 hours. And we’re bringing artists’ voices and visions for climate change solutions into public space, where we can all benefit from the new ideas and energy they can give us.