Nicole Jackson

Nicole Jackson is the founder of Embodied Earth, an interdisciplinary arts organization that brings together artists, choreographers, performers, and researchers to investigate the climate crisis through artistic disciplines and practice. She graduated from Columbia University in 2023 and has centered her work around making art to motivate and inspire people to combat climate change. 

Nicole Jackson 

She/her

Founder of Embodied Earth 

Flatbush, Brooklyn 

Could you talk about your work with Embodied Earth and how you decided to choose art as a way to address the climate crisis?

Embodied Earth came out of a paper I wrote for Art Humanities [a core curriculum course at Columbia], where we were asked to create our ideal gallery show. I wrote a paper on 10 eco-feminist artists, putting their work in conversation with one another. So that's where the original idea came from: just thinking about how to express climate change, climate anxiety, climate optimism, climate hope, artistically. Art, for me, not just visual art, is one of the most powerful ways to foster human connection, create empathy, and elicit really powerful emotions. So I wrote the Art Hum paper, and then a couple months later, I connected with Kasey BroekemaBrechma, she's the founder of Project III, which is a performing arts nonprofit. So I told her about my ideas, and she was really interested in collaborating, and that was myfirst Embodied Earth partnership. 

We put together our first show this past September, and we brought together climate researcher, Allison Su, choreographer, Makks Gross, and visual artist, Nicki Koning, to create an immersive performance that responded to a specific natural site in New York. They did their performance in Frank White Memorial Garden, which is a community garden in Harlem stewarded by The Brotherhood Sister Sol. The fact that it was site-specific brought New Yorkers who may not consider themselves as living in proximity to the environment into this natural space. I hope to activate performers, musicians, all types of artists to do that work, to harness those emotions, to move audiences toward climate action through a creative lens. 

What originally drew you to the climate space? 

Having strong personal attachments to natural spaces is what makes me really invested in the environment. Two that really come to mind are: Lake Michigan, because I went to high school in Wisconsin [and] spent some of my pandemic time there, too. You stand on the coast and you look out into the vastness of the lake and it's just such a peaceful place of reflection. I have so many memories of walking around with loved ones. The other one is the Black Sea. My grandparents lived very close to the Black Sea, so I would visit them every summer and go to the beach, go swimming there, and that's a place that reminds me of my childhood and my family.

What scares you the most about the climate crisis?

The climate crisis is deeply intertwined with inequity. As it worsens, it will further drive conflict and injustice. 

What's your favorite thing about what you do at Embodied Earth?

Hearing that we've introduced our audiences to new spaces, and bringing them closer to their community and the environment as a result of our projects, has been really, really special. People are at the center of this work, and getting to engage with so many different wonderful people has been really, really generative. 

What was the process of putting together your first show? Did you face any challenges and how did you overcome them? 

Our first project went through multiple iterations in its first year. We also were, from a more administrative side, doing a lot of logistical and administrative work of getting an organization up off the ground. 

After that, we started looking for, we call them a pod – that's that group of the researcher, the choreographer, and the artist. So we started that search process, and I think in maybe July or August, we had all our offers out, and then their project together was like a very whirlwind experience. They worked together for literally six weeks, and then they had to put up a 30-minute performance. 

Do you have any advice for people who are looking to start their own project or initiative?

Everyone probably already wants to work with you! When I first started this work, I was surprised to receive very eager and enthusiastic responses to project and collaboration proposals. My advice is to send that cold email. Just reach out, make connections, because people are probably already really excited about what you're doing, and they want to build with you, to collaborate with you, to help you. Go for it and put nervousness and anxiety aside and just do it.

Do you think being in New York makes it easier to do your work? Does it offer any specific benefits or resources?

You get the best of both worlds, because you have all the environmental work that's going on here that's so rich and lively, and then you have the whole New York art scene, which is unmatched. So it's like the perfect Venn diagram.

Do you have plans to do more projects in the future?

Yeah, definitely. Since our first project in September, we collaborated with Sasha Fishman, an incredible artist, and the RETI Center, an amazing environmental and marine organization in Red Hook. We brought a group of around 40 people out to RETI Center’s beautiful barge to learn about seaweed species in New York’s waterways, and create bioplastics together. Our latest project was on January 30. We collaborated with IMPULSE Magazine and Patagonia Brooklyn to host a panel discussion with Sasha Fishman, Whitney McGuire, Supermrin, and Will Chan. The panelists did an incredible job discussing the art world’s role in climate, and shared incredible resources and insights on how artists and art professionals can contribute their skills and talents to climate work. 

Do you have any mentors or inspirations in the climate field? 

Absolutely!  Paige West, Vanessa Edgar Jones, Marissa Solomon, J.C. Salyer, Robin Nagle, Whitney McGuire, Laura Lupton, Max Liboiron, Artists Commit, Gallery Climate Coalition, and so many more.