Envisioning a gender-equal sustainable future through the arts
We are bombarded with the science and numbers of climate change, and for many people the numbers are meaningless. However, through the arts, we can connect with our feelings and emotions and cut through the numbers to better understand the problems and the possible futures we can create.
This part of the website will help us to understand our world through the arts.
Zonta invites you to use your art and passion to promote gender-equal climate action.
Climate change disproportionately impacts women and girls and has been described as a ‘women’s rights crisis’ by the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
What can we do about it? Zonta International released its Statement on Climate Change: a gender equality issue with recommendations for governments and Zontians to achieve climate justice – and has established Zonta Says NOW to gender-equal climate action to put the Statement into practice.
Zonta Says NOW is also guided by the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Commission on the Status of Women activities, and the climate-related recommendations of the U.S. Women’s Caucus at the United Nations.
The way forward is quite clear. We know what we need to do. But how do we overcome inertia? What will it take to get us out of our comfort zones to take gender-equal climate action?
We use two brain regions when we decide to take action: the neocortex, which handles logic and language, and the limbic, which deals with emotions and feelings.
Traditionally, our resources have focused on logic and language, yet the logical neocortex controls only 25% of our decisions. The emotional limbic brain is far more powerful as it is responsible for 75% of our behaviors and decisions, and this is where the virtual art gallery comes in.
The artworks in the virtual art gallery will connect with our emotions while raising awareness of gender and climate issues. Each artwork will have a description (and a story if applicable) to educate, advocate, and inspire action in our local communities, districts, and regions globally.
The first round of submissions will be limited to Zonta members (of clubs, Golden Z clubs, Z clubs and supporting members) – so that we can work through any technical challenges associated with exhibiting a wide variety of original art.
Your artworks (or photographs/videos of them) will be shown for up to one year in the Zonta Says NOW Virtual Art Gallery.
Get ready to submit your paintings, poems, photographs, videos, sculptures, quilts, music, and songs from 15 September to 15 December 2023.
Click the button below to view the Submission and Permission Form
Zonta Says NOW Virtual Art Gallery Submission and Permission Form