In this conversation between JD Beltran, Founder and former Director of the Center for Impact at the California College of the Arts, and Gordon Knox, President of the San Francisco Art Institute, the question was posed: how can art institutions support artistic investigations of climate change, catastrophe, and activism in the Anthropocene? How do we encourage artists to address these subjects directly, didactically, or poetically? What do we think artistic efforts can or should do in this moment of climate crisis?

This conversation was co-sponsored by the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture and held on the occasion of the brilliant exhibition by Joan Jonas, They Come to Us without a Word.