In the Summer of 2026, a group of artists will travel from Portland, Maine to the Black Ram Climate Refuge in Montana’s Yaak Valley, stopping at all the old-growth forests we can find along the way.
We invite you to come along.
Scientists have long known about the importance of these climate refuges, but communicating their significance to the public has been challenging. Sustainability issues can be paradoxical, abstract and distant from everyday life. Art addresses these feelings, making them personal and salient through stories, metaphor, imagery, and physical experiences. Artists can also be powerful emissaries for community change by bringing new ways of thinking. The Green Curtain Roadshow will bring artists to the communities of climate refuges to collaborate with artists in the local community.
Old-growth forests are important for carbon storage and biodiversity in a rapidly warming world, but local communities around these refuges as well as the greater public are not sufficiently aware of their significance and need for protection.Â
The Green Curtain Roadshow combines art and activism to raise awareness of climate refuges and advocate for their protection through a series of traveling community art events, including music, poetry readings, writing workshops and more, centered on community-based climate solutions.Â
Local musicians will be invited to come play the Black Ram guitar. Made from an illegally felled old-growth tree that took root three centuries ago in the Yaak Valley, this special instrument is spreading the word about protecting climate refuges. It has been played by notable musicians such as Jeff Bridges, James McMurtry, and Maggie Rogers.Â
The journey will generate work to be published in the inaugural issue of the Green Curtain Review, which will be launched at a public art event in Portland, Maine.
Photos by Devang Saklani and Evgeni Evgeniev
