Events

Held on the occasion of the Frankenthaler Climate Art Awards and the COAL + ICE exhibition, this panel discussion, presented in collaboration with Asia Society, will bring together figures from the arts, policy, and scientific communities to discuss how the arts can be an impetus for action against climate change.

The panel will focus on the power of artists as advocates for change and how policy makers and artists have and can collaborate effectively. Each participant will speak about their commitment to climate change work, then engage in a group discussion.

Registration Open / Free / Online / In-Person

Join us in-person in the auditorium; free, reservation required. Doors open at 2 pm; the event begins at 2:15 pm. Does not include access to special exhibitions or the permanent collection. If you can’t join us in-person, watch the livestream.

Attendees of the panel are welcome to join us for a tour before the event from 1-2 pm. Deputy Director for Academic Affairs and Special Initiatives Klaus Ottmann will lead a tour of the nature themed permanent collection galleries. Limited capacity. Includes access to special exhibitions and the permanent collection. Free for members. Register for the tour.

– Congressman Don Beyer
– Susan Meiselas, co-curator of COAL + ICE
– Clifford Ross, artist
– Felice Stadler, Vice President of Political Affairs of the Environmental Defense Fund
– Nora Halpern, independent curator and Vice President of Americans for the Arts (Moderator)

Congressman Don Beyer is serving his first term as the U.S. Representative from Virginia’s 8th District, representing Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, and parts of Fairfax County.  He serves on the House Committee on Natural Resources and is a member of the New Democrat Coalition.  He was the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1998, and was Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein under President Obama.

Rep. Beyer’s signature work as lieutenant governor included advocacy for Virginians with disabilities and ensuring protections for Virginia’s most vulnerable populations as the Commonwealth reformed its welfare system in the mid-1990s.  Rep. Beyer was Virginia’s Democratic nominee for governor in 1997.

After leaving office, Rep. Beyer spent fourteen years as Chair of Jobs for Virginia Graduates, a highly successful high school dropout prevention program, and was active for a decade on the board of the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.  As Chair of the Virginia Economic Recovery Commission, he helped pass permanent pro-business reforms and was co-founder of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

President Obama nominated Rep. Beyer to serve as Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein in 2009.  He used his position to advocate for stricter sanctions to compel Iran to begin nuclear disarmament discussions.  As Ambassador, Rep. Beyer was integral to US Department of Justice efforts to halt the abuses of Swiss bank secrecy by wealthy Americans.

Rep. Beyer has spent four decades building his family business in Northern Virginia after a summer job at a car dealership in 1974.  He is a magna cum laude graduate of Williams College with a Bachelor of Arts with the Highest Honors in Economics and was elected Phi Beta Kappa.  He was Salutatorian at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC and named a Presidential Scholar by President Lyndon Johnson.

Rep. Beyer has four children and two grandchildren. He and his wife Megan live in Alexandria, Virginia.

Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer based in New York. She is the author of Carnival Strippers (1976), Nicaragua (1981), Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (1997), Pandora’s Box (2001), Encounters with the Dani (2003) Prince Street Girls (2016), A Room Of Their Own (2017) and Tar Beach (2020).

Meiselas is well known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. Her photographs are included in North American and international collections. In 1992 she was made a MacArthur Fellow, received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), and most recently the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2019) and the first Women in Motion Award from Kering and the Rencontres d’Arles. Mediations, a survey exhibition of her work from the 1970s to present was recently exhibited at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Jeu de Paume, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo and is presently on view at the Kunst Haus Wien.

She has been the President of the Magnum Foundation since 2007, with a mission to expand diversity and creativity in documentary photography.

Clifford Ross is a multi-media artist who graduated from Yale in 1974 with a degree in art and art history. His work focuses on the beauty and sublime qualities of nature, using both realistic and abstract means—through painting, sculpture, photography, computer animation, and stained glass.

His best-known works are his Hurricane Wave photographs, captured while tethered by rope to an assistant on land. He recreated the experience using computer generated animation to make his Digital Waves, which will be exhibited at The Phillips Collection.

Long committed to issues relating to climate change, Ross has been part of the COAL + ICE project with Orville Schell from its inception, exhibiting in Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, and San Francisco.

His work has been exhibited in museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2015, MASS MoCA presented a major mid-career retrospective.

Felice Stadler has been working to advance clean air and climate policy for nearly 20 years, building partnerships to advance common-sense solutions that protect communities and the natural world. Felice currently serves as Associate Vice President, Political Affairs, at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and plays a leadership role on the organization’s natural gas team where she works to reduce the environmental impacts of oil and natural gas development. Prior working at EDF, Felice worked at the National Wildlife Federation for 15 years, including serving as Director of their Climate and Energy Program.

Nora Halpern has been an art historian, curator, and arts advocate for four decades. As Vice President of Leadership Alliances at Americans for the Arts, she oversees several programs and initiatives, including the National Arts Policy Roundtable which focuses on the intersection of art and collective action. Nora is the Founding Director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum at Pepperdine University. She co-founded Street Scenes: Project for DC, a public art program that places temporary art experiences across the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

Nora received her BA and MA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program as a Helena Rubinstein Fellow. She has written and lectured internationally on modern and contemporary art and arts policy.