Merlin’s work part of national ‘Art x Climate’ exhibit

September 21, 2023

Mia Merlin’s painting “Maria” was selected to be part of the first ever national Art x Climate exhibit. This call was created to find artwork for the National Climate Assessment (NCA), a report on climate change in the United States that is presented to congress and also made available to the public. While the NCA has always been the preeminent report on climate change in the United States, Art x Climate will add a critical new dimension: elevating the perspectives of artists, evoking reckoning and hope, and bringing more people into the climate conversation.  The artwork will be embedded in the text either as chapter headings or images within the document and it will be shared in print and digitally. The last NCA was read by more than a million people across the country and around the world, and even greater interest is expected in NCA5; Art x Climate will invite even more conversation and engagement. Merlin’s painting features a woman standing in the wreckage of her home after the devastation of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. While there is no current plan for a physical display of the artwork, they are working with the Smithsonian, the San Francisco Exploratorium, the American Geophysical Union, and others on programs that will feature the artwork digitally.