April 2022 – June 2023

‘Climate Action: Inspiring Change’ Peabody Essex Museum, April 2022 – June 2023


Saltmarsh sparrows: climate change ‘canaries’ in the salt marsh
A multi-media installation in silk and ceramics by myself and my daughter, Emma Quateman.
Using clay and silk painting, we depicted both the beauty and fragility of the Saltmarsh
sparrows in the Great Marsh. The installation was a call to action to help preserve our salt
marshes.

2023 RVCS

 

 

‘Student Explorations: the Great Marsh and Climate Change’

A collaborative project of silk paintings; 7th and 8th grade students and their science and art teachers of the River Valley Charter School, Newburyport MA; scientists from the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge; scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory and Greenbelt. The project includes a 14 minute video. Exhibited 2023 at Greenbelt as part of Essex Heritage’s Trails and Sails; Massachusetts Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center, Peabody Essex Museum, February 2024, and Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, March 2024.

 

The Once and Future Salt Marsh

An art and science Exhibit for the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, in collaboration with scientists from Plum Island Estuary: Long-Term Ecological Research. Silk paintings, photography and easy-to-understand scientific text highlight three ‘critters’ affected by climate change in the Great Marsh: the Saltmarsh sparrow; Rainbow smelt and Fiddler crab. The Exhibit opened outside at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in 2021.

http://theonceandfuturesaltmarsh.com

Climate Change Panels

TINY HOLES IN THE SALT MARSH
"The first time I saw the tiny holes created by fiddle crabs in the salt marsh, my curiosity was piqued.
Why are warming waters bringing these creatures here?"
- Susan Quateman -
SaltMarsesilks_4panel

Climate Cabaret, Gloucester Stage Company, November 2018

SQ & LB Artist Collaboration were invited to exhibit our climate artworks in the lobby of Gloucester Stage Company before and after the highly successful Climate Cabaret, in support of 350.org. Installation included videos and silk paintings.

Gloucester Stage Climate Cabaret

Sea Level Rise

I look at the effects of sea level rise on iconic landscapes, buildings and statues of Essex County and Boston. Montages of silk paintings and photography illustrate the ‘drowning’ that results from sea level rise and storm surge.

 

SQ w TTOR3
 

 

Climate Change and Salem Maritime National Historic Site (SMNHS)

 

An exhibit of silk paintings, photography and scientific text written in collaboration with National Park Service climate scientists. Funding provided by National Park Service.

Resilient Landscapes

The Resilient Quarry Landscape of Cape Ann
Produced for Quarry Dance 5, Windhover Center for Performing Arts, Kleimola Reservation, July 2016.
Funding provided by Applied Materials, Essex County Greenbelt Association, and Essex County Ecology Center.

 

www.resilientlandscape.com

Susan Kleimola painting

Impact of Climate Change on the Great Marsh

Outdoor exhibit illustrating impacts of climate change on the Great Marsh was shown at Essex County Greenbelt Association, Cox Reservation, Essex MA; Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary, Rowley, MA and Crane Estate Art Show, Ipswich, MA in 2016. Also exhibited at the Great Marsh Symposium, Essex MA, November 2018.
Funding provided by the Essex Heritage Partnership Grant Program.

Narrow Edge, Expansive View

Silk paintings of the marsh, red knots and horseshoe crabs were included in a 2016 exhibit to illustrate Deborah Cramer’s award-winning book ‘The Narrow Edge: a Tiny Bird, An Ancient Crab and an Epic Journey’. Cedar Tree Gallery, Essex, MA.

On Seeing

March 2015 exhibit with Ten Pound Studio, at Flatrocks Gallery, Gloucester, MA.
‘On Seeing a Granite Landscape.’

All the Rocks We Cannot See: Thoreau and the Changing Landscape of Dogtown’

Presented at the Annual Gathering of the Thoreau Society in Concord, MA, June 2018.

An artistic reflection on the landscape observations of Henry David Thoreau’s September 1858 visit to Dogtown in the center of Gloucester, MA. We compare the environment of Dogtown in Thoreau’s time, when there were long, boulder-stewn vistas to the ocean, and ask how today’s landscape of brambles hiding the granite boulders, with no vistas, has been affected by accelerated climate change.