OPEN TODAY: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.

Educator Open House “Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis”

Event
A collage of images, on left a group of smiling people at tables, on right an artwork depicting a tree in the wind.

Sun., Nov. 10, 2024, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

Cost: $25 (includes lunch and admission to The Huntington). This program is for K–12 educators. Advance registration is required.

Educators

Education and Visitor Center, Smith Board Room

Tickets
Explore the impact of industrialization and globalization on our environment through art and literature with Huntington curators and learn how to connect the content to your K–12 classroom.
Lectures

Journey back in time to everyday life in the 19th century and explore the impact of industrialization and globalization on our environment. Hear from curator Kristen Anthony about the history of the climate crisis and how it connects to today and from curators Melinda McCurdy and Karla Nielsen about clouds from art and literature.

This workshop aligns with our Cloud Journal activity.

Program Schedule

9:45 a.m. Check-in opens at Admission
10 a.m. Introduction with Education staff
10:15 a.m. Kristen Anthony, assistant curator for special projects at The Huntington
11 a.m. Melinda McCurdy, curator of British art, and Karla Nielsen, senior curator of literary collections at The Huntington
11:45 a.m. Curriculum connections with Education staff
12:15 p.m. Lunch
12:45 p.m. Time on your own to explore the exhibition “Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis”

More professional development programming for educators

If you have any accessibility needs, please email learning coordinator Kristin Brisbois at kbrisbois@huntington.org. 

A group of people sit and interact a circular table.
A group of people sit at tables watching a presentation.
Two people sit and talk at a table.
An engraving of an open plain with wisps of clouds above.
A smiling person with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a gray sweater.
A smiling person with shoulder-length blond hair, wearing glasses and a magenta-colored jacket.
A group of people sit and interact a circular table.
A group of people sit at tables watching a presentation.
Two people sit and talk at a table.
An engraving of an open plain with wisps of clouds above.
A smiling person with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a gray sweater.
A smiling person with shoulder-length blond hair, wearing glasses and a magenta-colored jacket.

Thomas Forster (British, 1789–1860), Researches about Atmospheric Phaenomena, 1815, colored engraving in printed book, 9 1/16 x 5 3/4 in. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 

Karla Ann Merino Nielsen, Senior Curator of Literary Collections. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Melinda McCurdy, Curator of British Art. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

About the Speakers

Kristen Anthony is the assistant curator for special projects at The Huntington. An award-winning speaker and researcher, she is devoted to furthering public knowledge of key environmental issues and their history. Her research interests are in art and visual history, as well as cultural, environmental, oceanic, coastal, and maritime history.

Melinda McCurdy, curator of British art at The Huntington, received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She curates exhibitions and writes and lectures on historical British and European art from an interdisciplinary perspective, examining the political and social forces that shape visual culture of the past. Much of her work at The Huntington has focused on its world-renowned collection of 18th-century British portraiture, including Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy. McCurdy is a firm believer in the relevance of the humanities beyond academia, and many of her projects emphasize the meanings and continuities of the historical in contemporary life.

Karla Nielsen, senior curator of literary collections at The Huntington, stewards the Library’s archival and print holdings in literature, publishing, journalism, and the performing arts. Before joining The Huntington in 2018, Nielsen worked as curator of literature in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University, where she had an affiliate appointment in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. She obtained her doctorate in comparative literature (Spanish, Latin, Arabic) from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MSLIS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has worked as an editor for academic and small press publishers, experience that continues to inform her scholarly interests in publishing studies, the interrelatedness of literary form and material format, visual poetics, and the long history of the novel. At The Huntington, she curated the exhibitions “Mapping Fiction” in 2022 and “Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis” in 2024.

A black and white image of a smoke cloud rising from the ground with a person walking away.

Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis

Sept. 14, 2024–Jan. 6, 2025 | “Storm Cloud” analyzes the impact of industrialization and a globalized economy on everyday life from 1780 to 1930, as charted by scientists, artists, and writers, and contextualizes the current climate crisis within this historical framework.

About “Storm Cloud”

The exhibition has been made possible with support from Getty through its PST ART: Art & Science Collideinitiative.

Southern California’s landmark arts event, PST ART, returned in September 2024 with more than 70 exhibitions from museums and other institutions across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty.For more information, visit PST ART: Art & Science Collide