Former Vice President Al Gore, blues singer Martha Redbone and Swedish teenage environmentalist Greta Thunberg are among the names highlighting a wide-ranging climate change program that starts next week at the District’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The free “Coal + Ice” program centers on a 30,000-square-foot exhibit of images from eight photographers, which the Center said in a press release will be “visualizing the climate crisis” and will run from March 15 to April 22. Mr. Gore, Ms. Redbone and others will lead an accompanying educational series of eight events on climate change in the Center’s indoor and outdoor spaces during the exhibition.
Brendan Padgett, Kennedy Center director of public relations, said in an email Friday that funding for the programming comes entirely from the Asia Society, a nonprofit that philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III founded in 1956. The center does not divulge the cost of its programming, he added.
“As art has always done, Coal + Ice is a piece of contemporary art that gives visitors a new window through which to reflect upon an issue of national and international importance,” Mr. Padgett said.
The Asia Society did not respond to requests for comment.
The Kennedy Center receives funds annually from Congress to pay for building repairs and maintenance but draws from private foundations to pay for its programming.
Ms. Thunberg, 19, will not appear personally at a March 18 “evening of climate storytelling with emerging artists and climate leaders,” but has granted permission to use her well-known April 2019 speech in which she asked both houses of the British Parliament: “Can you hear me?”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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