‘Whole earth?’ using an exhibition to raise sustainability awareness at a UK University

Despite mounting evidence of global environmental stress, many educationalists appear to be discounting warnings of ecological collapse from scientists, futurists and community leaders. One way of promoting sustainability awareness may be to combine cognitive reasoning with emotional awareness.

This article considers the complex dynamics relating to attitudinal and behavioural institutional change by exploring the impact of a large-scale exhibition called ‘Whole Earth?’ on the staff and students at a UK university over a 15-month period.

The exhibition contained a wide range of powerful visual images and drew on a famous protest song to frame its wider message. Although there were a variety of responses, the exhibition had the overall effect of raising the profile of sustainability across the university. Could initiatives of this kind, which are open-ended in character and which harness the arts to engender an emotional response, offer a model which could be used more widely?