How can art and science inform each other to communicate compelling information about the climate crisis? This series of talks brings together climate scientists and artists to discuss their practices, communities, and narratives around climate change.

John Vea is an Ōtautahi Christchurch based artist who works with sculpture, video and performance art. Vea examines narratives of labour, migration and gentrification that exist within Te Moana Nui a Kiwa. By enacting stories that have been collected through everyday interactions with people, he offers a humorous and powerful counterpoint to the Western meta-narrative. Vea’s work has been recently exhibited at Christchurch Art Gallery (2025); Busan Biennale (2024); Gus Fisher Gallery (2023); 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2019); Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2018); Dunedin Public Art Gallery (2018); and the Honolulu Biennale (2017). Vea completed his Ph.D. at Auckland University of Technology in 2021 and is currently a Lecturer at University of Canterbury.

Adelle Thomas is a distinguished senior scientist in climate analytics and a senior fellow at the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Centre of the University of The Bahamas, and has been elected to Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

Sandy Morrison is a professor in Waikato University’s Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies and a member of the Scientific committee of the World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP). She is a coordinating lead author of the Australian climate adaptation chapter for the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC ) and her research in Climate Change, Sustainability, Adult Education and Indigenous Development informs her leadership roles including for example as Vision Mātauranga Lead for the Deep South National Science Challenge and as Vision Mātauranga Co lead for the Antarctic Science Platform.