by: Michael French, UC Davis College of Letters & Science
The intersection between climate change and art history opens new pathways for understanding how visual and material culture mediates human relationships to the natural world. The 2026 Templeton Colloquium in Art History at UC Davis — “Art History and Climate Change” —- examines how historical and contemporary depictions of nature illuminate aesthetic practices, register environmental knowledge, and respond to ecological stress.
The colloquium will be held at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art on Friday, March 6 at 4 p.m. with a reception to follow. The event is free and open to the public.
This year’s event has been organized and moderated by John F. López, Associate Professor of Art History, Architecture of the Ancient Americas, Latin America, and Europe, and History of Urbanism, Cartography, and the Environment, UC Davis.
“Far from being a luxury of elite culture, art history is an essential tool for imagining alternative ecological futures,” said López
This year’s speakers — Alan C. Braddock, Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art History, Environmental Humanities and American Studies. William and Mary; and Andrew Patrizio, Professor of Scottish Visual Culture, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, — examine how art history is key for understanding and addressing climate change.
In “Art and the Climate of Industrial Meat,” Braddock examines an emerging body of creative work by artists who have begun to direct attention at the meat industry as an agent of climate violence using diverse media, historical references, and other aesthetic strategies. In “Looking for Love in Chaos Terrains,” Patrizio draws on a small set of contemporary art practices that speak to the theme of global climate change: Ilana Halperin’s Chaos Terrain (2023); Hanna Tuulikki’s Love (Warbler Remix) (2025) and Elizabeth Ogilvie’s Out of Ice (2014-).
Co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, the colloquium is made possible through an endowment established by Alan Templeton (B.A., art history and psychology, ‘82). The Templeton Colloquium brings distinguished speakers to campus for a conversation on vital debates and topics in art history for both scholars and a general audience.
The Department of Art and Art History is part of the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis.
