2025 | Ripples of Change: Science-art communication of global issues, local impacts, and community efforts

IGC Capstone Project | Interfaces of Global Change

Ripples of Change: Science-art communication of global issues, local impacts, and community efforts

Student Members:

• Harrison Miles, Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
• Maria Popescu, Biological Sciences
• Gabrielle Ripa, Plant and Environmental Sciences
• Ellie Timmins, Biological Sciences 

Faculty Mentors:

• Dr. Bryan Brown, Fish and Wildlife Conservation
• Dr. Mitch Miller, Visual Arts

For this project, fellows invited artists to contribute to an immersive exhibit that highlighted the power of individuals and communities in addressing global change. While environmental challenges such as climate change, invasive species, and pollution impact ecosystems on a large scale, this exhibit focused on the people and organizations making a difference—those restoring habitats, advocating for environmental justice, and building a more sustainable future.

Through an art exhibit at "Steppin’ Out," they showcased the resilience, creativity, and dedication of those working to protect our environment, from grassroots efforts in Blacksburg to global movements driving change.

They worked with faculty mentors Bryan Brown and Mitch Miller to create a request for proposals to be distributed to Virginia Tech students. The RFP broadly focused on issues of global change, including invasive species, disease, and climate change, but allowed artists flexibility to create pieces relating to their specific interests. Additionally, they showed global change issues on a gradient from the global scale to the local scale and artists placed their work within that continuum.

The exhibit also included information about actionable steps people can take locally. Working with local organizations like Master Naturalists, Master Gardeners, and Southwest Virginia Native Plant Society, as well as university organizations like the Invasive Species Collaborative (ISC) and Ecological and Biocultural and Ecological Restoration Initiative (BERI), they provided information to the public.

All profits from art sales went to Live Work Eat Grow whose mission is to “cultivate vibrant communities by fostering local food, farms and gardens, creating jobs and growing small businesses, supporting an affordable home for all, and gathering friends and neighbors.”