Lessons in Trust, Inclusivity, and Collective Action From Arts & Climate CA: SF Bay Area

In July 2024, CAST joined Arts & Climate CA —a statewide research initiative launching first in the San Francisco Bay Area. Led by a team of consultants with Emerald Cities Collaborative and guided by advisors from the Center for Cultural Power, Stanford Arts, and SPUR, the project explored how climate change is impacting the arts and culture sector and what resilience can look like for those most vulnerable to its effects.

The project began with a needs assessment focused on 50 small, BIPOC-led and -serving organizations, collectives, and artists. The goal was to surface the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of overlapping climate, housing, and economic crises—and to translate those insights into strategies for resilience, decarbonization, and access to public resources.

CAST played a key role as a community connector—curating and leading outreach to more than 200 local arts and culture leaders, which helped shape the final cohort of 50 participants. This collective input informed two cornerstone events: an online art-and-climate mixer in October 2024 and an in-person World Cafe summit in January 2025. The summit’s learnings were later synthesized and shared during a March 2025 public webinar, outlining actionable pathways for cultural resilience in the Bay Area.

Our Community Engagement Manager Patricia (PAZ) Zamora spoke with Marcy Hinand, Lead Consultant for Arts & Climate CA, about the lessons learned in this collaboration, the summit’s impact in the Bay Area, and how future regional gatherings throughout the state have been informed by this initial experience.

Establishing Trust

Marcy Hinand: We thought, at the beginning of this project, that it was about facilities because we had discovered all this decarbonization money at the state of California and the federal level. We knew the decarbonization funds existed and CAST had expertise in facilities. My thought was let’s bring art and cultural facilities together with the decarbonization funds. CAST was a trusted community partner…We needed somebody who was in the community, knew, and was working with these artists regularly.

Patricia (PAZ) Zamora: Trust is a two-way street. Thankfully, we were value-aligned with the consulting team to ensure it was clear what the benefit was to participate in the interview process. This was not an extractive process of getting the information, but rather how the wisdom and experience across generations, disciplines, cultures, and communities inform us and each other in real time in the creation of the World Cafe Summit that will deepen the work among frontline folks in the Bay.

Practicing Radical Hospitality

Hinand: I was describing to a potential funder and she was like, “I am getting the vibe from this that you know you went in, open enough to realize that you might be hearing things and learning things that were very different from what you assumed when you created this project.”

Zamora: Yes, we didn’t know what to expect from our initial outreach either, especially to groups that were probably wondering why CAST was tapping them about the climate crisis. We expected folks to be skeptical, so keeping an open mind and allowing space for assumptions to be heard and then contextualized for greater understanding was essential to establishing a foundation of trust. We centered a process on the inclusivity of perspectives, even when many of those we reached out to had doubts about why they were being interviewed.

A repeated thread was “I don’t do climate work. Why interview me?” “I’m in survival mode, my electricity is going up, my community is struggling.” Our response was that’s exactly why you need to be part of the interview process, to share your truth, perspective as an artist or cultural worker, collective, or org. These comments were the basis of the reality of climate change in communities heavily impacted by other multiplier effects such as racism, poverty, health disparities, environmental issues, and more.

Hinand: We tried to bend over backward to think about the World Cafe and consult with people at different steps along the way. We were taking care of those relationships…we want this to be something that people feel like they are creating, and you know they are advancing work that they want to be advancing, not like we’re showing up with our work and expecting them to advance our work. After the event, we had more than 14 people email and compliment us on the inclusiveness of the World Cafe, the community building, the way people felt heard…people who hadn’t had anything to do with the project before that, feeling like they were welcomed in the space…that was a big collaborative effort. It was all the people that you initially brought on board. It was the outreach that came from CAST.

Zamora: Every step along the way of this project, starting with the curation of the interview list, the online mixer, and the in-person World Cafe, was a practice in what you call “radical hospitality.” It means in every project CAST partners in, we go deep and wide in including those voices not always included at the table.  This is something we do with as much care as we can because this work is not transactional. We know trust and our inherent interconnection as an art, cultural, and community ecosystem matter.

Reframing Climate Resilience

The World Cafe Summit marked a critical milestone in redefining sustainability for cultural communities facing the climate crisis—not only in terms of physical space, but also in relational infrastructure, community capacity, and collective mental health.

As Lauren de la Parra, strategy consultant at Culture Climate Strategy and an organizing member of Art + Climate Action reflected, “A theme from the summit that really stuck with me was the power of reframing.” She noted that many arts and culture organizations already consider themselves “dual-mission,” addressing both cultural and social needs—often without naming their work as climate resilience. Lauren added, “The theme of understanding and articulating the work we are already doing in new ways—and particularly ways that are integral to climate resilience—felt very powerful. It felt like a lot of momentum was built to keep furthering the movement, and I left with a strong motivation to continue to connect and collaborate around next steps.”

“The relational work of developing community cohesion is often underappreciated, but it’s absolutely the backbone of sustained long-term success when it comes to climate and community resilience.”
—Lauren de la Parra, Culture Climate Strategy

Rather than seeing arts and culture as tools to fight climate change, participants were invited to consider engaging with arts and culture through advocacy and stewardship as a way to heal the climate. It’s a shift in mindset that recognizes the leadership and lived experience within cultural communities, and the critical role of relationship-building in driving long-term climate and community resilience.

The Artist’s Role in a Shifting Climate

The World Cafe helped spark important questions: How do arts and culture leaders redefine their role in a world where climate disruption is no longer a distant threat but a lived reality? And what does climate resilience really look like in creative practice?

Jodi Lomask, Founder and Artistic Director of Capacitor and a member of the Arts & Climate CA working group, shared how the Summit affirmed a growing sense of community among climate-engaged artists:

“I began my journey with Capacitor in 1997. By 1999, I was inviting scientists into the dance studio. In 2007, the ecologists I worked with were environmentalists—they knew too much not to be.

That set me on a path of using my art to draw attention to environmental movements: forests, oceans, pollinators, climate change. Now it feels like a crucial part of my work. We need a cultural shift that elevates wild nature—acknowledging how little we know and how much we have to learn.”

“The climate summit made it clear I’m not alone. There are allies and collaborators. But I also want to defend the role of the artist as a free thinker—not a mouthpiece for a pre-set agenda. The artist’s role is to feel deeply and express what they see. If we’re not genuinely moved, the work won’t be excellent or serve its highest purpose.”
—Jodi Lomask, Capacitor

Her reflection speaks to a broader theme that emerged throughout the process: that artists must be part of climate resilience strategies not simply as messengers or partners—but as generative thinkers and co-leaders of this movement.

What’s Next for Arts & Climate CA?

In May 2025, the Arts & Climate CA initiative takes a significant step forward as it expands to Los Angeles, partnering with La Plaza de Cultura y Artes and LA Commons — two organizations deeply rooted in cultural preservation and community engagement. But the path forward is complicated by a shifting political and funding climate.

“Many in the community are extremely worried about losing their 501c3 because climate change is not acceptable to the current administration,” says Hinand.

For La Plaza, already deeply involved in immigration work, the timing is difficult. As Hinand describes it, “La Plaza is a place of refuge and on the front lines of immigration work. They have a whole set of work they need to do with their community right now, and that’s impacting their ability to focus on climate change.” Recognizing these realities, the Arts & Climate CA team approached the conversation with care. “We said, you know, if it’s not the right time for your organization, we understand because you have other important work.”

But the response from La Plaza was clear—and deeply moving. They responded simply saying it’s never the right time for climate change, but we can’t ignore this.

That kind of courage and clarity, even in the face of crisis, is what drives the next chapter of Arts & Climate CA.

Art & Climate CA Resources

The following is a selection of resources the Arts & Climate CA research team identified during the Bay Area assessment phase of the project. While not comprehensive, it represents a snapshot in time of resources active as of March 2025. Click here for the full list.