Can Art Impact Climate Change Policy? Promoting Common Sense Solutions Through Art

In this episode of Citizens Climate Radio, Elise Silvestri explores how art can strengthen climate advocacy with Carrie Ziegler, an interdisciplinary Artist, Speaker, and Community Engagement Expert. Carrie talks about her process for creating and executing the Chrysalis Project: Transforming Together, an art and climate policy project that enacted powerful change over Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the participating students, Brisa Sabel, shares her experience of the successful campaign and the  joy and inspiration it gave her. 

Peterson Toscano has a surprisingly good news story: like our responses to climate change, the format of CCR is adapting! [insert finalized details here]

Listen to Carrie Ziegler discuss the power of art storytelling in making meaningful, local climate policy.

Guest Bio: Carrie Ziegler

Carrie Ziegler harnesses the collective power of art to drive social and environmental transformation. Through her Art in Action initiatives, she collaborates with diverse entities—local governments, organizations, schools, and universities—to create multi-dimensional works that blend participant creativity with pressing societal issues. These projects inspire active engagement, bringing communities together to create lasting change. Along with the Chrysalis Project, Carrie also led the Plastic Whale Project, where students created a life-sized whale out of plastic bags. The whale played a pivotal role in successfully passing a ban on single-use plastic bags in Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, and Thurston County, Washington.

 

Based in Olympia, Washington, Carrie is recognized internationally, bringing her impactful vision to global forums, including Aotearoa (New Zealand), Ghana, France, Mexico, and Canada. She empowers Artists and Change Makers to maximize their societal impact through art, inspiring a broader movement of change driven by creativity. Complementing her hands-on work, Carrie is penning her inaugural book, Eclosion: An Artist’s Path to Power and Peace. In this work, she intertwines her memoir with a practical guide for unleashing personal and collective potential, offering a blueprint for transformative change through art—a light for a world in desperate need of inspiration.

Check out her work on her Instagram, @carriezieglerart.

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Production Team:

• Written and produced by Peterson Toscano and Elise Silvestri
• Social Media Assistance: Flannery Winchester

Music is provided by epidemicsound.com and Elise Silvestri

 

Episode Transcript

>> Elise Silvestri (00:00):
Welcome, um, to Citizens Climate Radio, your climate
change podcast. We highlight people's
stories, celebrate your successes and share
strategies for effective climate
conversations. I am your host, Eli
Silvestri and this is episode
103. This episode is
airing on Friday, April 18th,

(00:22):
2025. All right y'all, I have a great
show lined, um, up for you today. First, we're going to hear from an
environmental artist. Carrie Ziegler created a
successful community led project and through
this art project, Carrie and her community
helped pass important legislation.
Then Peterson will present a good news story about
this very podcast. Let's jump right

(00:45):
in.
What role does creativity play in your climate
advocacy? How can we be effective climate
advocates while having fun? Today you'll
be hearing from Kerry Ziegler, an amazing collaborative artist
who helps create scores of murals, sculptures and
multimedia installations. Kerry works with
students and in residencies to make art educating

(01:06):
people on important social justice topics, including
the climate crisis. Before I started working on this
podcast, I learned about Kerry on one of CCR's
episodes. If you haven't heard it yet, episode 95 is
a must listen. Episode 95 features
Rob Hopkins and Carrie Ziegler discussing the importance of
imagination and climate. Sol actor
Rob Hopkins helps us envision an exciting climate conscious

(01:28):
future.

>> Rob Hopkins (01:29):
And if we don't allow the future to
enter into people, if we don't cultivate
and nurture, uh, in people the most
profound longing for
a low carbon future, then why is anyone going to
want to do that?

>> Elise Silvestri (01:45):
Kerry talks about the Plastic Whale Project. In
the Plastic Whale Project, she co created a
32 foot long gray whale made of
plastic bags alongside 900 youth and
adults. After listening to the
episode, I got on her mailing list and followed her
work. I even ended up becoming a beta reader
for her book. Needless to say, I'm

(02:06):
invested in her artwork and mission.
Now I'm honored to present Kerri's thoughts on a more
recent project of hers, the Chrysalis
Transforming Together. Born out of the early
days of the Pandemic, the Chrysalis Project was an
influential, zoom friendly collaborative project
that inspired local climate action. Now you'll
learn more from Kerry and Brisa Sable, a student who

(02:28):
participated in the Chrysalis Project. You'll
be shocked by the impact an online art
project had on a lawmaker.

>> Carrie Ziegler (02:38):
I started working with the Thurston Climate
Action Team, which is a local organization here in
town. But then the pandemic
happened. As we were scrambling to how to
turn all of our in person work into an online
format, I got to co create the Chrysalis
Project transforming together. We
decided to do a online series of

(03:00):
talks and events. It just started
growing and growing in my
brain. It became something much more
than a single piece. It was really
important to me that I not design it in a
vacuum all on my own. I had
ideas, but I wanted it to really
serve the community. I got a

(03:22):
number of educators together and I talked to them about
my idea and I got feedback. I invited
a number of youth climate activists that we were
working with to come and talk to me, you know, all
online. BRISA was involved in one
of those climate action clubs.

>> Brisa Sable (03:38):
I was in my senior year of high school.
At first I was super relieved when the pandemic
happened because then I didn't have to take
exams. I was also very bummed
to lose the opportunity to gather with other
students. So when
Kerry's idea for the Chrysalis Project came up, I thought
it was a great way to stay involved with climate

(04:00):
activism. During the pandemic.

>> Carrie Ziegler (04:05):
We examined that critical moment that we were in
with the triple crises of the pandemic, a racial
reckoning and the climate crisis. We
used the metaphor of what happens inside of a
chrysalis as a caterpillar transforms into a
butterfly to help us understand what we were going
through individually and a
society. Together, we

(04:28):
created these visions of what we wanted to
be when we emerged from our individual
and our societal crisality.
Participants painted pictures, they
wrote poetry, they did collage
art of futures where we would not only
survive, but thrive.

(04:49):
So during this time, Thurston county was
undergoing a process of trying
to write a Thurston Climate Mitigation
plan. This was really ambitious. And so for a
lot of politicians in our area, it was
almost like political suicide to think that they would vote for
this. So as we're in the
workshops and everybody had painted or

(05:11):
wrote their visions of the future, I then
asked them to turn their paintings over
and to write a letter to their local
elected officials. Now, in these
letters, they shared their own commitments to
climate action action. They talked about how they
were feeling in this time of, uh, such
uncertainty. And then they asked and

(05:34):
in some cases demanded that local elected
officials would take strong climate action,
that they would pass and implement the Thurston
Climate Mitigation plan.

>> Brisa Sable (05:48):
I mainly compared how,
being a senior in high school, I took a lot
of traditions for granted. It
was very startling to have that all taken away.
I compared that to our environment and
having a stable ecosystems and
weather patterns. Those are things we take for

(06:09):
granted and encouraged
the representative to not take it for
Granted to take action.

>> Carrie Ziegler (06:17):
These were powerful calls to action,
and they impacted the local elected officials
greatly. I could tell you several stories about
this, but, uh, one that I just love so much
happened during the county commissioner
meeting where they were planning to vote
on whether or not to pass and implement this climate
mitigation plan. One of the commissioners,

(06:39):
he stood up and he pulled
a letter out of his pocket.
He said that he had been carrying this letter
around for months as his guiding light.
He then read that letter as his
testimony for why they should pass and
implement the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan.

(07:01):
That letter was written by high school
climate activists. And that night,
they not only passed the Thurston Climate Mitigation
Plan, but they also declared a climate
emergency for Thurston County. And in
part due to this project, all four of our local
jurisdictions adopted the Thurston Climate Mitigation
Plan, and three of the four declared a climate

(07:24):
emergency.

>> Brisa Sable (07:27):
That was very wild to hear that, uh, my
letter had that type of reaction. Don't even
quite fully believe that I did that.

>> Peterson Toscano (07:34):
Uh.

>> Carrie Ziegler (07:39):
When I think about the world we live in, the
climate, the. We are asking
so much of people, we are asking
them in many instances, to completely change how
they relate to the earth. And we haven't
given them a vision of, uh, a future that is
better than the one they currently have. And

(08:00):
so it is the job of artists to
help people create those visions
because we need something to be fighting
for.

>> Elise Silvestri (08:21):
That was Carrie Ziegler, a collaborative artist co creating
work for social justice. Carrie's art provides bold
visions of the world that we are fighting for. And I'm so excited to
see what she does next. You can learn more about the Chrysalis
Project and Carrie's other artwork at Carrie's website,
kerryziegler.com I have these links for you in our
show notes@, uh, cclusa.org
radio.

(08:50):
Our good news story today comes from Peterson
Toscano. How are you doing,
Peterson?

>> Peterson Toscano (08:56):
Hey, great job hosting. Uh, how you
feeling?

>> Elise Silvestri (08:59):
Oh, my gosh, I'm feeling great. So excited to be on
the podcast with everyone today.

>> Peterson Toscano (09:03):
I feel like my work is finished here. I could just hand this over
to you or somebody else.
And actually, that's partly what my good news is
about. We who do climate work know
a lot about adaptation.
When there's a big storm, we try
to prepare ahead of time. And for me, in my

(09:23):
own life, I've actually gotten involved with a
lot of disaster relief work. I am now
a volunteer with the American Red Cross,
and I have been Trained to respond to local,
regional and national disasters. I
have training to help run a shelter and
provide feeding and even provide spiritual
care for folks who have been

(09:46):
displaced because of an extreme weather
event or another disaster.
Locally, we mostly respond to fires, and
recently I was, uh, on a team
of people who responded to a
multifamily complex fire that
displaced people in 30 units.
Half of them needed emergency housing. So in

(10:08):
a church, we set up a shelter with the
cots and we had food brought in. And
it was kind of amazing to be part of that
community. Folks were obviously suffering and
going through a lot, but to provide some
comfort, food, a clean, warm place
to stay, that was really important. I'm

(10:28):
loving that work so
much. With
podcasting, we also
adapt, and we've adapted this podcast
through the years to add all kinds of things and change
things. And the political landscape has
changed considerably this year
compared to last year with the election of Donald

(10:50):
Trump and a, ah, Congress that
is majority Republican. And as a result,
Citizens Climate Lobby has been adapting to the
new political landscape by
providing volunteers with a
laser focus on our policy
initiatives. And in keeping in line
with that, this podcast is going

(11:12):
to shift
to more specific information
about US Climate policy.
In a way, we're trying to equip our
volunteers with as much clear
information that they need to be
effective in reaching out to their

(11:35):
lawmakers. And I have to confess
that that part of the work is not my
strength. I, uh, love policy. I find it really
interesting, but I'm such a big picture person.
So I've been talking to the folks at ccl
and we've decided to switch things up
a little bit. There might be just

(11:56):
a pause of a month or two, and then the
show will be back with a new sound and a
new host and a
regular guest, Dana
Nuccitelli, who does the Nerd Corner. And some
folks, they love the Nerd Corner. M There's a
whole huge discussion that goes
on over at CCL Community where people just

(12:17):
go deep into the weeds of
climate policy. And it makes my head spin. I'm like,
can you just tell me a story? No, no. We need to talk
about the facts. So Dana's gonna come and break it down
for people like me
who don't get it and for NER who
get it, Elise, and want more.

(12:38):
I am going to carry on producing, which
is actually one of my growing loves. I
love sort of the behind the scenes. It's been
so great working with you and
providing training and helping you do that
work. So I'll be doing that with the new host who is
to be announced. And I will
make sure that the quality of the production is good, the

(13:00):
recordings are good. You may hear my voice
every now and then, but mostly
I'm going to be in the background, which,
you know, I'm an introvert. I kind of like that space.
Well, I say that I'm also involved with lots of
other podcasts, so if you actually do still want to hear
my voice, I host Quakers Today

(13:21):
podcast, which is a monthly program, a, uh,
companion podcast to Friends Publishing
Corporation. And I also have my own
podcast, which is called Bubble and Squeak. You
can find these along with all kinds of
other links over at my website,
petersontoscano.com if you
want to not just hear me, but actually see me, as long

(13:44):
as it still lasts. I have a very active
TikTok account with over
100,000 followers, which is
a bit unreal to think that potentially that many people
are listening to me. It does not make me any more
responsible in what I say. I have to say. It's very silly. Um,
so if you want that, that's there. But the good news
is this podcast has

(14:06):
got some legs on it. We've been going since
2016. We kind of started this
project and it just keeps going. We're at episode
103 and I can just sit back
and let folks like Elise take the wheel.
So I'm going to pass it back to you, Elise. Thank you so much
for having me on the show. First time

(14:26):
guest, uh, longtime
host, uh, and I pass it back to you. Thanks. And you're doing
a fabulous job.

>> Elise Silvestri (14:34):
Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much, Peterson. It has been such
a joy learning from you and having the
opportunity to hang out on the podcast.
Without further ado, thank you for joining Me
for episode 103 of CitizensClimate
Radio. If you like what you hear and you
want to support the work we do, visit
citizensclimateducation.org to

(14:56):
learn how you can make a tax deductible
contribution. Citizens Climate Radio
is written and produced by me, Elise Silvestri and
Peterson Toscano. The music on today's
show comes from me, Elise Silvestri and
epidemicsound.com
visit
cclusa.orgradio to see our show notes

(15:17):
and find links to our guests here at,
uh, Citizens Climate Education. We want you to be
effective in the climate work you do. So we
provide training, local group meetings and many
resources. They're all designed to help
you build the confidence and skills to pursue
climate solutions. Find out

(15:37):
how you can learn, grow and connect with others
who are engaged in meaningful work.
Visit cclusa.org
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(16:00):
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