Art in Dialogue: Art and Climate Change with Eurhi Jones

Lehigh University's Art & Climate Change First Year Seminar visiting artist lecture series discusses the intersection between art and climate change and the important role of contemporary visual artists' creative practice. The events are sponsored by Art Architecture and Design, College of Arts and Sciences, Earth & Environmental Science, and Lehigh University Art Galleries.

This event is part of LUAG's Art in Dialogue, a series of interdisciplinary conversations between members of the university and the wider community - reflecting the ways in which their work is dynamically engaged with other fields of inquiry.

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Eurhi Jones (she/her) is a Korean/Welsh-American multimedia artist who primarily makes public art related to the natural environment. She is committed to combining art and activism to address the climate crisis.

Since 1999, she has been creating community murals for gardens, playgrounds, libraries, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Please Touch Museum, the Philadelphia Airport, the Asian Arts Initiative, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society the Philadelphia Water Department and the School Districts of Philadelphia and Lower Merion and the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation.

This year, she is the lead artist for a large-scale climate justice mural with the Climate Justice Initiative of Mural Arts Philadelphia, collaborating with local artists, environmental activists, and indigenous advocates. Images of her work can be seen in an interactive exhibition about the climate crisis at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, DC.

In addition to murals, Eurhi works in a variety of media, making paintings, embroidery and sculpture, usually from repurposed materials. Natural phenomena, biology, sustainability and interconnectedness inspire her work. She is a gardener, working in her community to raise awareness about native plants. And is currently learning how to be an urban tree advocate through the Tree Tenders program.

Eurhi is an experienced peer counselor and has long been a part of the environmental action group Sustaining All Life, which creates space for shared storytelling about climate grief and hope to ignite action.

Eurhi holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She grew up in Swarthmore, PA, and now lives in the town of Belmont Hills, PA with her husband, artist David McShane and children Tommy and Pearl.

For more info please visit Eurhi's website.