 Welcome to this episode of Talk of the Town. I'm James Milan, and I am joined by the Arlington Commission for Arts and Cultures, Cecily Miller. As I periodically am, hi Cecily. And nobody fills our desk, like Cecily Miller, I can tell you. In this case, we are going to be talking about the Climate Futures Project. We have Rachel Oliveri, who is our school's sustainability coordinator, and three excellent interns. So they tell me, we'll find out for ourselves. She is Clara Schneider, and she is Juliet Bennett, and at the end of the table Greta Mastro. Thanks all of you guys for being here. We really appreciate it. So please, let's start. Give us a description of what it is that we're here to talk about and kind of celebrate, I would say, right? Absolutely. Yeah, this represents a year and a half of work. This is a public art project called Climate Futures, and it was actually designed by an artist named Tom Starr, who couldn't be with us today, but it's a regional project. He's doing it with a few other cities and towns and also with Mass Audubon and trustees of reservations. His concept was to create markers that are modeled on historic markers, historic trail markers, but they commemorate events that are still in our future, imagined events still in our future, that have to do with the impact of climate change on the landscape, on plants and animals, and on human beings. And so here in Arlington, we did the first youth-led version. You know that at the Arts Commission, we love to work collaboratively, and so I approached Rachel Olaveri, my wonderful partner in many things, and asked her what she thought about trying to implement Tom's vision in Arlington with young people, since she works with young people of all ages who care passionately about the environment, and she stepped up to the challenge, and I should say that the Arlington Planning Department was also one of our partners because they are actively planning for how do we protect the town and its residents from climate change. Yeah, so we started in the spring of 2021 recruiting young people, and we are delighted to have three of them here today. Yeah, Rachel, I mean, first of all, so what did you think when Cecily proposed this or asked you about it, and then how did it go once you started, you know, you decided to dive in and you got to find some people to work with, right? So how did that go? Yeah, no, I was so excited that Cecily contacted me and wanted to bring me on to this. As Cecily said, we've really collaborated on other projects together and really enjoyed that collaboration, and I'm always looking for opportunities for students to get involved in projects, especially bringing their passion for environmental protection to the town, and so this was just, I thought, a wonderful opportunity to share with students in the schools, and so yeah, it's been an amazing experience, especially getting to know these students. These are three of the 12. It was a highly competitive process that we, you know, sent out communications about this internship opportunity. Many, many students applied, and we, you know, narrowed it down to 12 excellent candidates, so it's been... That's really cool, first of all, that many, many students applied for that kind of thing. I think that that's great, and you know, I'm sure no offense to the other nine, I promise, but we clearly have the three best ones here, right? Just kidding. Sorry, Cecily. Well, I was going to say that our original plan was to have eight interns, and we got such marvelous applications that we raised money, in part from Sustainable Arlington. The folks at Sustainable Arlington really pitched in, and we were able to fund four more stipends, because this was a stipended internship. It was a summer job. It started as a summer job, and it's taken longer than we all expected. Just a little bit. Well, let's hear from you guys. Obviously, you were, you know, the target audience, but also the people who were interested in participating in this. How has it been for you? Yeah, so like for me, honestly, it was during the pandemic, and I just was really upset because I couldn't do any of the green teams I loved, because we couldn't meet, and I just wanted some way to help the environment, and then I heard about this amazing opportunity, and I was just like a thousand percent in, and I knew it was like a pretty challenging internship to get accepted for. So like I really just worked on my application because I didn't want to not have this opportunity. It was just really great to help the environment with the pandemic, still like stopping everyone else from doing that. I actually was looking for an internship in general over the summer, and then I got a notice through my, through our school, sorry, and I'm actually really glad I saw it because it was related to my interest, and it wasn't just like something out of the blue, because we recycle and compost at home, and then I just, I am really passionate about helping the environment, and because it's our world we live in, so I want it to be healthy and not polluted or anything like that. It's really nice trying to actually put my work in rather than stuff like randomly signing petitions. It's nice to see my work going into something. Yeah, for me, I really enjoy like research projects. I did National History Day throughout middle school, where I did a lot of like history-based research, and this internship appealed to me because it was an opportunity to collaborate with groups in the town and learn about everyone's different interests, and then sort of apply that in a project that would not only represent the town, but also like spearhead activism. So yeah, we've been talking about the project, but let's describe what the project entails, right? Because as you said, Tom's vision is this idea of markers, and kind of using that to project into the future, and then have those reminders all over town. This is a New England town, right? So perfect to have these markers all over the place. But how did things actually, how did you decide, hey, what's going to be on the markers, and how did that whole process work itself out? Especially because you said, I think your idea was to give as much of the agency of this to the youngsters, so to speak. I really want to compliment Rachel on that. I mean, I sadly don't get the opportunity to work all that often with young people, and when an adult works with a young person, it's so attempting to push them around, and it's almost like we're programmed to take control. And that is not what we needed to do here. This is really trying to hand the leadership over to the interns. And I want to say part of the reason that I was inspired to make this a youth-based project was how impressed I was with the student activism around the school strikes. And there were Arlington High School students who've since moved on to college who were leaders in some of the biggest school strike protests in Boston City Hall. So that idealism, that courage, that knowledge, that desire to, and it's an existential climate change is the existential problem that young people face. So to give them a pathway to mobilize people in their community to take action, that's part of what this project is about. So we brought sample markers, and we're all going to talk a little bit about our markers to make it concrete. But in terms of your question, do you guys want to talk about process, how you worked in teams? Yeah, and let me actually start with you, Rachel, about that because, as Cecily was saying, you know, this was your commitment to making sure that these guys were in charge as much as possible. What are the kinds of things that you did from the get-go to kind of ensure that? Yeah, well, I mean, I think, one of my favorite parts of my job is working directly with the students. And I've known most of these students, including the ones sitting here, since elementary school and middle school, because they were so actively involved in environmental activism. And so, you know, that's just been great to kind of continue that on into this project. And we are so lucky to live in Arlington, where we have close to 20 organizations already in town that are actively involved in sustainability, work. And so I always think of my role as the connector, like connecting the students to the other organizations that are happening. And so that was part of this. That's kind of what went into the markers, which I'll let them talk about more, but they were connected to a lot of these groups in Arlington and got to learn from them and do research and then kind of create these messages that they wanted to share out with the community. And you guys, as you said, this was summer work initially, a summer internship, but it's turned into a year and a half. And I know that you haven't been at it the whole time. You have some other things on your plates as well. But yeah, talk about how you were asked to take the leadership and how that worked for you. Yeah, so like to begin with, you're kind of like struggling because you are really like, you haven't really had this kind of opportunity before to really see how it feels to be a leader. But then like after a couple of weeks of the internship, I found myself like developing so many skills that like I use every day now. And honestly, because of that, I felt like I was able to continue this project. And it became not just about like completing an internship and like getting a gold star, but to like help this environment and continue this project to its capacity to like inform other people about the dangers we're going to see in the future for climate change. No, yeah, I really agree with Greta. Like I think it really helped me develop some skills with like managing things. I don't think I would have been able to like manage my schoolwork actually without a lot of the skills I developed through this, because like we've been working on a lot of things like the markers and then we have a website. And we've been working on different areas regarding those, but it's you really do need a lot of skills to manage those. And if you're not on top of it, it kind of, it's a little bit stressful, but it's really helped with learning. Yeah, as Rachel said before, we were working with a lot of different community groups. So like over the course of the internship, I met with maybe like four different groups in the community. And really what I took away from being a leader was like how to manage like other adults in that setting, how to come up with questions that would engage every involved and help them understand what the project was and what they could contribute to it and then what they could also get out of it. That's great. You know, it's interesting just in hearing a couple of answers from each one of you. I can, I already have a sense of what it was that you brought as individuals to this whole thing as well as, you know, what is some of what you took from it, which is really cool. But here's another question. And I have to say, I didn't, I didn't know I was going to ask this question and I didn't prepare anybody. So take your time if you need to. But I'm wondering, I don't know what's on the markers, although I did go to the original ceremony when the temporary ones were put up. And I did read all of them at that time. So I don't know the specifics of what's on the markers that I know you guys will talk about. I know very little of it is probably encouraging in a lot of ways, right? Because this is a grim situation that we're facing. How was that part? And here's my question. How was that part for you guys as young people who, you know, spent some time in doom and gloomland here, I would think? Yeah, it's like, it's kind of finding that right balance. Because honestly, I feel nowadays a lot of people focus on like the black and white aspects of life, like that we're all going to die or climate change doesn't exist. And I think part of this project, like purpose was showing that honestly gray line between those. And the markers show both the resiliency that people can help to stop these events and what could happen. So I feel like balancing both the hope and the doom and gloom, as you said, it was like essential to this project to inform people that it's not all bad, but we still need to do something about it. No, I completely agree about the balance. But I mean, I know, I mean, with climate change, there is a lot of tragedy. And I want people to be aware of that tragedy. But I also want people to be aware that we have solutions. And we have the ability to change things. And I don't want people to be stuck in like a pit of gloom. I want people to know that we have power and we need to work on taking our abilities and like applying them to the environment because we have so much technology, we have so much ability, and I just we need we need support. Yeah, similar to what Greta and Juliet said, climate change is like obviously a very big issue. But these markers like the main goal is really to show people that they can be resilient and show them that there are solutions and that they can be applied if they take action. Also, there was one specific marker that actually validated like sort of the anxiety people feel about climate change and how it's a really real, impressive issue. And we sort of need to accept that climate change will have consequences not only like environmental consequences, but also on like mental health and that like in populations. And that that marker was commemorated the opening of a support space for people to go to, to process their emotions, to grieve, to get support. I think the students knew that there is now a need for that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And again, that bespeaks the deep thoughtfulness with which you guys made the decisions that you made for what is going on these markers. So let's talk about them. You all have markers in front of you. Start wherever you want or with whomever you want. I have a feeling Greta is going to. Yeah, well, this is my favorite marker I have in front of me. It's Man It Man Bikeway closes permanently due to dangerous flooding. And that's May 17, 2039, which is not that far away in the future. So I chose this one because as an avid biker, I use this a lot for transportation, for getting somewhere or just for recreation. And like the Man It Man Bikeway is such like an essential part of Arlington and the surrounding towns that to like take it away is just terrible. And it's a source of public transportation that can stop us from using cars and other like gas vehicles that just on the bike path, you're just helping the climate not like sink into despair. So the idea of taking it away with the increase in storms that continue to happen is just like that thought was so terrible to me that like I felt like I needed to do something about it and let people know about this danger that could be very real very soon. Such a stark illustration. Excuse me, Cecily. I just have to jump in and say before we move on, that one, when I saw it at the Fox Library, the first iteration of this, I went over to my wife and pulled her over because that's me. I'm on that bikeway all the time. I love that place and that just pulled me up short, you know, so anyway. Yeah, well I was just going to say that this one I think falls into the category of a wake-up call, you know, which some of them are. It's like a wake-up call and it's going to go right at the entrance of the Minuteman Bikeway near the kickstand cafe right at the Minuteman Bikeway sign because that is part of the philosophy of this is that where people are standing, that is where this impact could take place. That's great. So the marker I did was a last gas-powered public bus retired bus service becomes 100% electric December 31st, 2040. So this is actually a real goal for the MBTA. I did a bit of research on this recently and considering I use public transport so much, I'm actually really really really like I cannot speak into words how much I'm glad they're doing this because I mean so many people use public transport every day and I want something that people use every day to be sustainable and better for the environment and obviously like with electric buses they've been proven to be a lot better than diesel buses and even though the goal is 2040 and that seems so far away I'm glad they're doing it in the first place. I mean you'll see companies that just aren't doing anything at all and this is great to see. Wonderful. The one I chose was Native Plant Initiative transforms 50% of Arlington lawns increasing biodiversity and oxygen production 2043 and the reason I chose this marker to share is because I feel like my personal connection to it really exemplifies one of the goals of the project which is to increase awareness. So before the project I didn't really understand why native plants were important or why invasive plants were bad. I just knew those as facts but I did a lot of research to write this marker paragraph and I learned a lot about how native plants like support biodiversity which is critical to ecosystems and invasive plants like don't serve that function and therefore are like really detrimental and researching this marker inspired me to read Nature's Best Hope which is a really wonderful book really informative and I learned a lot and got involved in multiple like native plant initiatives in the town. Well Rachel and Cecily I'm glad you guys are the ones trying to follow up these people right now. Well I just we don't have it here but I just want to say a nice pairing with the Native Plant Initiative is the Notweed Cafe right. So this was the vision of a cafe where everything that was served up was made with invasive species. So Notweed can go into muffins. There are invasive crabs right now that are really wreaking havoc on shorelines, green crabs, people eat them in Venice. Why not here? So we have a plaque for that as well. It's very cool. I'll give that as my example. Great and Rachel what have you got? Yes so I am highlighting this marker that was created by a student one of our student interns that's not here today but its student advocacy brings comprehensive climate crisis curriculum to K through 12 Arlington Public Schools in the year. Comprehensive climate crisis curriculum in the year 2026 which is very intentional that it can happen soon because as you can see from these three student interns their advocacy is pretty impressive and strong and we can make this happen very soon and this is near and dear to my heart because of the work that I do working with green teams with youth from K through 12 who are constantly trying to bring attention to the climate crisis and have told me that in school it's just here and there that they get some of this education but really not comprehensive or consistent through the grade levels and it's something that's really needed and so important. And I would mention that this is an example of sort of how things evolved through group discussion because at first the idea was well let's have it at the high school level and then why stop at high school. All right let's think about middle school and fifth and sixth grade and then sort of well yeah let's see what what could we how could we put this throughout the system and start in kindergarten. Yeah especially because I think either all three of you or certainly you know a number of you have been at this right have been involved with green teams from when you were in elementary schools so again showing the the fruits of building that kind of curriculum in from an early age that's that's a wonderful thing. But every marker represented discussion debate advocacy the 12 students broke into teams of three or four and growing out of their you know both internet research but also conversation with that activist stewardship groups that Rachel was talking about. They came up with their each team came up with I think about 10 maybe ideas maybe in some cases more and then put them all up on one jam board because we did that all through Zoom. Remember the horrifying jam boards those are over right. So and narrowed it down and we had other ideas that we we couldn't we couldn't implement just because of the constraints of our time and so we have 23 markers. Great I was going to say out of you know I'm sure that the that the competitiveness of getting the marker all the way through the the process was kind of similar to the competitiveness of getting these guys into the internship and you know something about it like I know you guys are all about collaboration rather than competition I have no doubt about that. But it is kind of cool just to realize that there was a rigorous process here in which really you tested ideas you defended those ideas you explained those ideas you understood them better yourselves as a result etc. This is this is that's the best part of learning and learning in by doing group things in a lot of ways and for such a good reason here so I do want to commend you guys very much for this project but I also know that it has led to another project which we should also talk about in the time that we have left so which of you would like to explain the knock-on project. I guess I'll go. Everybody's eyes. Yeah so I think that the mural project was the perfect like continuation of this project it was with Sophie Tuttle and we managed to make this beautiful mural that explains to residents basically the importance of native plants and how harmful invasive species can be and like the idea of emphasizing native plants was really important to me and I also really love art and being involved with art so it's really awesome to combine both environment and art in the mural. So talk a little bit about where is the mural that we're talking about. It's actually right by the high school. I guess I'll talk about my experience. Basically yeah we kind of chose slots to help Sophie Tuttle paint the mural itself she would do all the fancy work and it was actually really great seeing all these animals and like insects come to life because I mean I learned things like I saw a wasp and I was like I didn't even know that was native I just don't know all this information it's great seeing it there it's great seeing it right next to the high school too because then I can see it and go oh I worked on that so that's really fun to see and I'm also an amateur digital artist myself so I really admired her work and it's stunning obviously so it was it was very nice to do. Another thing we did is we wrote about all the native species featured on the mural on our website climatefeaturesarlington.org so that people could not only see the native species but also read and learn more about them. Yeah we have to put QR codes up. Yeah that's a remember another thing we have to remember it's like it's like kind of endless but in mentioning the website these three actually were responsible for building this amazing website and everyone watching this please go to climatefuturesarlington.org and you'll see a little bit about the students about their guest speakers about all the community groups that they interacted with and every marker has a couple of paragraphs written to amplify the story behind the pithy marker statement that's all on the website and we're in process now of kind of also posting this information on a regional website that Tom Starr has designed. So let me wrap up this part of our conversation by asking the three of you you are about to Juliet you are a senior and I know that the other two of you are juniors so you have been at this a long time and Juliet you're about to go off to college and good luck and have fun but how how do you see the work that you've done here fitting into a kind of line like like what you can leave to others to carry on in terms of work to be done at the high school are you thinking about that much at all or yeah I mean like there's always the green teams and groups that just dissolve once everyone goes to college but I feel like the really important thing is to leave a legacy that other people can continue to add to and that's why like it's really important to like connect with the younger people in high school about this and it's really great in high school because we have a lot of people doing that recently the Arlington High School combined green teams so that we could still have separate but they could all connect so none of them would dissolve and it's just important to keep those green teams involved I think I definitely agree with Greta and one also one thing about the mural that it's so close to the high school I just hope it inspires other people I mean obviously they'll send a mural and go wow that's amazing because I mean how could you know but um I hope they're curious about why on earth it was put there and then I hope that it'll it'll lead them to either our project or something else and they'll be inspired to do sustainable stuff in the future yeah there will also be multiple markers near and around the high school so hopefully people will see them when walking to school and just around the town so these three wonderful interns will you know they'll be moving on to great other things in the next couple of years you'll be here for a little while we hope that Rachel um what do you how do you see things kind of developing from here or building on this yeah well I have a lot of optimism about this because since I work with a lot of the younger students I see their interest their passion for this and I feel like they these students are inspiring to them in role models and I'm going to share about this project I'll share the website I'll share our pictures you know we can do field trips to look at the markers um so I think there are a lot of younger students that will be inspired and we'll continue this work for years to come all right well I'll give you the last word here but I just want to say thank you very much to all of you for being here this was really fun for me and educational which is the best combination so thanks any last words well so to speak I guess a personal thing I would say is that your question is interesting you know how these interns see their legacy with Arlington high school how this might be continued but what I am actually most excited about is to see how they go on now I want to know where they are in four years I want them to get in touch with me when they get into college I want to hear how this affects their lives going forward because I really feel in in in varied ways I mean they're they're going to follow paths that will that will impact the way that we live in the future and it's been an honor and pleasure working with them and getting to know them so well I can hear the emotion in your voice and I also share how inspiring it is for us adults to be able to work with young people a lot of the time and you guys should always recognize that okay all right well with that thank you all for being here I will just wrap up this segment there will be other conversations to come on this topic we hope that you will join us for those as well but we're glad that you were here I think our guests all of them once again I'm not going to go through everybody's name once more but we really do appreciate their time and yours as well this has been talk of the town in ACAC update and beyond I would say and we will I'm James Blaine we will see you next time thank you James thank you thank you thanks hello everyone welcome back to this kind of special edition of talk of the town with a focus on Arlington's commission for arts and culture and specifically the project climate futures project that we have been discussing with various participants in that project and now in an important addition to that conversation I am going to talk to Tom star Tom is both the artist behind the project and a professor of design at northeastern university so we had to catch Tom via zoom but we are very glad to have his company Tom thanks so much for joining us I'm glad to be here really do appreciate it so as I said you are the creative mind behind this project and just very curious about what the gestation of it is how did how did this come about because and I also know that that this is the Arlington iteration of a project that is more regional or broader at least in concept and in implementation so just talk to us talk us through the creative process a little bit please okay I'm happy to yeah so this is a larger project it's intended to be regional in nature and I was you know compelled to try to grapple with climate change and the way you know people don't seem to grasp it or want to grapple with it fully and considering it's such a big issue so you know being a university professor I'm in a kind of interesting position where you know design can be applied to many different things and you know we are in a position to kind of create new ways to use utilize design and my area is graphic and information design so communicating through words and images right to make things convincing and clear and you know I thought well you know maybe there aren't enough design resources being put toward this issue of climate change and so I wrote a proposal that and basically explained that I would be trying to work with local scientists who are dealing with climate change issues on a local level because we hear so much about it globally or nationally and to see if I could help communicate to local communities individuals you know what the ramifications of climate change might be you know on a more personal level you know closer to hon so so in doing that I you know I investigated you know what some of the issues are with the resistance to accepting climate change and I think it's changed a bit in the last five years since I you know originally wrote the proposal you know in part because of being confronted by droughts and you know different phenomena that we you know fire a lot of fires and things like that but but nevertheless there seem to be research seemed to show that there are psychological gaps present in you know in this concept of climate change that we're getting in the way of people embracing it and so one of these was the concept of actual spatial distance in other words if we see melting ice sheets in Greenland you know or something happening in Siberia or the South Pole you know these things don't resonate with us in the same way as if it was something nearby and so the basic concept was that I would try to create landmarks signs of some sort that would be installed in the area in in various places in New England where it could be where it was projected by scientific studies that something would change in that place due to climate change so in some cases it could be something that actually already happened like the Mother's Day flood of a few years ago which now people kind of realized had something to do with you know climate change was behind that so it can be things like that or the 2018 you know winter storm where things flooded along the coast in Boston but it also can be things that science is projecting to happen you know much more in the future and and that's where you know the concept really kind of got interesting because at first I thought you know I would be landmarking perhaps places where an unusual unusually high high tide had reached and and I was inspired by this by markers that I've seen specifically there's a memorable one in Providence I used to teach there and I came across it one day on the back of a downtown building along the river and you know it's about chest high and it marks the height of the water at the hurricane of 1938 I was like wow that is that's something you know if you read about it in the in a book or something that's one thing but just stand right there and see it was really something and so I thought well that would be that would be good and as I looked into how to you know implement this I found that there weren't that many situations where as dire as you know let's say tidal flooding might be coming with climate change that it was it was hard to predict you know just how high these things would be or it was more like how far the water would reach inland rather than a particular height and it became a little bit difficult to see how I would create a marker for that if it would be in the ground and people have to look down at it if it if it was on a pole then people assume well that pole is the height of it but no that's not what I mean I mean you know the distance so you know I went through a lot of thought processes about how that this might happen and and so the other psychological gap that I was grappling with was the concept of time so that you know a lot of climate change effects say what would it be you know a two-foot rise by 2050 at the sea level and so you know 2050 you know it sounds pretty far away it's not really we're already in 222 but but still it doesn't seem immediate so you know at at some point I realized that I have to make that time distance more compelling and so like with the marker for the hurricane of 1938 there I noticed around New England there are many tercentennial markers one right near where I live in fact that states very specifically that from this spot this very spot the wagon trains left for Ohio to move settlements into the Midwest and I always find these things really interesting because I call to mind you know things you read in history books they never really thought too much about and then you're suddenly you're in that spot and so um I thought well what if we could turn this around and you know and refer to these things that are going to be in the future as if we were looking at them from the 22nd century and and and that seemed to suddenly you know get a lot of people's attention when they see these dates from another time yeah I have to say it's a wonderful actual description that you just gave whether you realize it or not of the many steps of in the creative process as you try and take what starts as an idea and you're a designer you need to turn that into something palpable something real and something compelling in this case you really you know that's an important piece of this yeah and for you to arrive through these kind of two steps forward one step back or whatever however you want to see it you know just just really needing it didn't come to you whole by any means right uh but instead uh you know again helping us see how you would get from that original conception to the point where you realize ah historical markers you know from a vantage point in the future that will tie us in in the specific ways you're talking about that will deal with the time element and also with the kind of like this this makes it much more palpable doesn't it when somebody is sitting at a bus stop or something looks up and sees this this historical marker about something that could happen in the future that is both plausible and and and quite often you know daunting to say the least or scary or dramatic etc yeah well the other thing is you know that it does is it makes something that seems like it could happen to something that did happen you know obviously your mind has to make that leap but in writing the language for these things and kind of you know trying to adopt the persona of the people who write the the tercentennial plaques that we see you know writing them in the past tense about the future you know does it seems like a trick but you know it really is dramatic and and it makes it seem you know much more definite than you know a scientific projection is you know based on a lot of facts it's not like really like even a forecast you know the the weather is much more fickle and you know I'm I'm sure projections can be off but I think most climate change projections have been off in the wrong way and that the fact is coming sooner right so you know I feel like any errors are you know not going to be you know a problem right yes and and so let's let's talk about the specifics of this iteration here in Arlington which I don't know exactly what's going on in the other communities in which you are also pursuing this project but I know that here you have worked in collaboration with a number of high school students as well as you know the public art infrastructure we have already here in Arlington but high school climate activists have been a big part of this project with you here in Arlington and I was struck in talking to the some of the students who were involved you know I really wondered how was it for young people to live in with this kind of like doom and gloom aspect of climate change that that's how it feels to us and we you know we we recognize more and more all the time what kind of a psychological burden this is on our younger generations who are you know really struggling with this recognizing that this is their world the the future and that things look so grim and their response to me I thought was really interesting and I wonder what you think about this and also as a way of asking you just how what it was like to work with high schoolers in this case I asked I posed the question to them you know was this depressing in a sense you know to spend your time this way and they pointed out and then I looked at the markers and realized of course they were right that many of them many of the markers themselves are are citing something that would give one hope citing something about the resilience with which we can collectively meet this challenge and they you know they they you know basically opened my eyes to the fact that hey we don't have to just assume that the worst is going to happen we also can commemorate uh from a future perspective as you were just uh saying uh we can commemorate the right steps that we can take and in so doing again foster hope I would assume but let me let me as a let me use that as an entree to ask you about what your experience has been like here yeah well let me just say that the the first communities that I that I worked with um you know I I worked simply myself with the planning boards or the select boards the town managers and you know and that that was good and it kind of shaped you know how the framework of the project and and in fact that led to more um some more optimistic messages because what I found out was that the um you know the response to climate change and the planning and about adaptations and uh mitigating fossil fuels and things like that you know was really being taken seriously on the local level by almost every community certainly every community I work with and that was you know very impressive and so there was a good reason to you know have those kind of messages so you know I had that as a background but the the big difference in Arlington is that instead of um the messages being kind of you know conceptualized or driven by myself or other grown-ups who managed to get us where we are now that you know the students were able to take the lead and you know we helped them speak to you know various members of the community in different different organizations and committees at the town government level and um and things like that to you know to get a real understanding of what was going on um but the you know they were able to come up with the the point of view and the topics that they wanted to cover that meant something to them um and and that's what's been really great and in fact they came up with many more possibilities than I had come up with any other community and and that that's been really impressive and and I think well they they didn't I didn't discuss with them about whether it was depressing or not this whole topic but they're there we did get a tremendous response to the call for participation um so there were many students who wanted to participate and participate in this project and I think you know I think the thing is it's not the project that might have been depressing anyway it's it's the topic right excuse me so I think I think this has been on their mind and now they're able to actually do something about it that could have an effect yeah they think that they echoed that same sentiment when I was speaking with them and clearly you know as a former high school teacher for many years myself I know that giving young people especially high schoolers uh teenagers a sense that they that we both respect what they have to say and think um but also that they have something to contribute something that they that they can do as you were just saying uh really makes a huge difference and is a extremely powerful motivator and clearly that was the case with these very impressive Arlington high school students that were involved in the project yeah they are very impressive and you know that goes beyond the messages on the plaques themselves which very terse it doesn't mean they're simple I mean it's not easy to get the thoughts you want down to we have a character count of like 118 or something that fits on the plaque but then for all their research you know the the plaques each have a QR code that connects to more information and they wrote these long essays about the research they had found and all backed up with um additional uh links to their sources and I found them very impressive yeah it really is it's a wonderful project in on a number of different uh in a number of different aspects um and uh you know again I'm just I'm honored in a sense to be able to speak to all of you who have been making it happen um let me ask you uh before letting you go just to share a little bit I've just asked you about working with the young younger folks but what what get especially because you're coming from a place in which you are as you said had you've been working with a number of different communities you've been you were initially impressed um and have been continued and have continued to be impressed by what the leadership in those communities is doing about this uh this issue etc um so how does Arlington fit in with that whole thing what kind of you know how well are we doing um would you would you estimate and um you know in in this in in the same way yeah I mean it seems like it's uh in Arlington it's being taken seriously and planning for the future um just as in in the other communities I I dealt with so um it's hard to you know rank them but I think right they're basically equivalent that said you know there's some unique situations with each community and that's why even though this um this project right now is evolving out over about 15 different communities um one in New Hampshire and the majority along the the north shore of Massachusetts and will probably be doing Cambridge in addition to Arlington but you know Cambridge and Arlington both have those issues with the river and um they really are ever damn I mean there are unique situations um that come to bear on each community um by the same external forces you know and uh you know here in Arlington I think one of the things we take great pride in um as we consider ourselves as a community is the it has been embodied in this project in some way which is our commitment to activism community activism um in the sense that we need to take responsibility for our our community and our actions um and then secondly is this celebration a constant celebration of public art um in our space here in Arlington and because this project has combined those two things so compellingly uh I just wanted to ask you for your thoughts about that well yeah I mean I think that that's another unique situation here that um you know I haven't had in other communities where the um the you know Arlington Commission of Arts and Culture um you know working with Cecily to kind of spearhead this and somebody who knows the public art landscape within the town you know that's a really big help and knows who you have to speak to to get permissions and things like that um and then but that in combination with um you know Rachel who manages the green team at the high school you know was really uh you know a perfect combination uh to bring both the art and students together um and so it was a tremendous amount of work in other words you know they had to do a lot of this to create the program for the students and you know I obviously participated in those things but without that framework you know the it wouldn't have worked if it was just you know myself and a few students you know wouldn't have been the same the same thing and I would have um I probably wouldn't have covered the same ground that that they did um and um you know I think that's that's made it a really great community project absolutely and speaking of which uh let's close by by noting that I'm talking to you in the middle of November and the markers that are the basically the the representation of this project here in town have begun to go up I understand that's right in fact uh just this morning we're working with uh uh people from DPW to put them up and that's been really great that we've had a cooperation from uh you know the people who you know lead DPW to you know kind of give us the framework in which they would or the structure they would like to uh to see as we put them up you know not just in any old place and that they wanted to um to help us install them in certain places where they go on you know municipal light pictures or things like that and so we work with two gentlemen this morning who are just terrific and helping us get them up all at their correct height and facing the right way and securely fastened and you know and they had they had busy days I'm sure this was you know a completely extra thing for them to do so yep well let me let me uh just close by noting this we've talking about you know climate change is the issue here as we've been discussing and I know we are just coming out again of a period of about a week or week and a half here in early November which felt a lot more like August to most of us right and I know very few people who uh could simply just in an unambiguous way or unambivalent way enjoy that without thinking hmm there's something a little bit wrong about all this I imagine you shared that sentiment but uh by the same token you were discussing before we went on air that oftentimes as you are making your projects happen out in the uh in the spaces in which you do that's happening in the spring and summer and nice weather etc so the fact that we are have just recently uh November has kicked in in earnest in these last few days and looks like it will remain with us for the rest of this month and on you know I just want to commiserate with you for the fact that we are returning to normal as you are continuing to get these markers up I know that by uh you know by December early December mid December something like that most or all of the 23 markers will be up around town and uh I wish you very good luck for your own part in uh in doing the work to do that because you will be dealing with November weather right that's right yeah thank you well we're happy to do it so all right I thank you so much for your time any last thoughts Tom anything that you wanted to say and we didn't have to give you a chance to well no just thank you for you know devoting the program to this project because uh you know it's really terrific to get the word out for people to understand if they see these things what's behind it and um yeah you know it just helps helps the whole effort really so well I would imagine you take at least a small if and if not more than that measure of pride in knowing that this idea in your head is turning into these kinds of forms in the different communities that you're working with so I do congratulate and thank you for that because I do think our communities will be richer for it well thank you very much for saying that I appreciate it you bet I have been speaking to tom star tom is as I mentioned the artist behind the climate futures project here in town uh you will be seeing uh all around town uh the markers that we've been referring to um and he is also a professor of design at northeastern so um tom best of luck uh with everything with this project and others in the future thanks so much for taking your time here today thank you james all right and that will wrap this section of uh this special episode of talk of the town up again i'm james melanne i've been speaking to tom star appreciate his time and yours as well for joining us thanks so much we'll see you next time hi everyone welcome back i'm james melanne and i am we are having this special talk of the town episode that's devoted to a couple of the projects that our arlington commission for arts and culture acac uh is involved in and uh that as with most things that they're involved in really good for the community so i want to talk about it some more with sessily miller one of the prime engines as we know of the acac um and we are also joined uh by beth lock a familiar face to many of you from our chamber of commerce i have to say maybe viewers would be saying hmm beth i know her chamber of commerce yes and sessily the okay you are at acac you are the kind of kings of collaborator kings we you know you are you are leaders of the leaders of collaboration right um and just kind of making those connections and making things happen explain this one for us yeah well so we just talked a lot about a year and a half long collaboration that's wrapping up this is a collaboration that we're getting ready to launch um and it's uh it's to bring more murals to arlington we just talked about the great success of the native plant and pollinator mural and building on that success we applied for a grant we in this case being the arlington commission for arts and culture the arlington chamber of commerce and the arlington center for the arts um we applied for a transformative growth grant from the town and received funding to first have a kind of a town-wide community planning effort and then to implement one to three murals and i should say that beth was instrumental in our pulling off the native plant and pollinator mural because our initial um site although the store owner was thrilled at the idea of a mural the building owner in the end said no so yeah and that you stepped in i imagine right stepped in um it was happy to do so and um i had a couple of ideas of possible sites and made a couple of calls and made some connections for sessily and one of them turned out being successful and the mural is where it is today and i think that's it's a fabulous location um it really is central to town the fact that it's so close to the high school where the kids you know the the kids are every day and they see it it was fun to see one of them mentioning she enjoys you know seeing it every day as she um goes to school so um that that was a great process and you know the chamber has the same um mission to to collaborate and connect with as many different types of organizations we don't just work with businesses we represent businesses but we work with all types of organizations so um i also sit as a commissioner on the erlington commission for us in culture and so i i hear a lot about you know everything that's going on there and um i think i mean i know there's great benefit to the business community um with the with the activities of that group yeah and this is an example of a project that can contribute to the economic vitality of the town yeah explain what there's no question about that i mean um you know the uh beautification for lack of another word is a is real um uh subject of interest to us in terms of trying to attract new businesses to town it makes it could be art can be plantings can be um you know the maintenance of storefronts anything that makes um the town look more alive and interesting is good for attracting new businesses to town and helping the businesses that are here we don't just want to attract new businesses we want to have super successful businesses you know who are already established here so um i i it's the perfect connection as far as i'm concerned and uh it really there there's there's a there's a a vision i imagine in which these murals and having them you know increasing and increasing numbers around town can be in themselves and an attraction for people to want to come for people to tell story wondering what is going on in this one educating themselves around uh you know large issues like the climate or specific things more specific to arlington etc all of it kind of peaks interest within the community but also for those who might want to visit i would think yeah i agree i agree absolutely we have um a lot of things in this town that attract visitors i mean this sounds like another really fruitful collaboration and people may be interested in knowing how they can you know help this these things happen or do you guys have suggestions we have um two ways that we're inviting the community to contribute to making this a success one is a real quick survey um where we're asking people to tell us what kind of themes they're interested in to nominate walls uh maybe in their neighborhood or near where they work or something they walk by or bike by on the bike way be our eyes you know identify places that would be exciting to have a mural so there's a link to that quick survey and it really won't take long on arts arlington you can get to it from the main page or from a drop down menu of um our signature programs and then the second is we're inviting people to participate in a community advisory uh committee and um it's not a heavy time commitment it's essentially participating in three in-person meetings where we will talk about how do we decide on a site like if we can only do one to three murals our funding in this round is limited um how do we choose you know should we go for the biggest wall we can find should we distribute small murals throughout a neighborhood and you can walk from one to another um so should they be in the cultural district should they be in a part of town where there's no arts and culture right now uh so that's that's one kind of bundle of questions and we want to hear what people think um secondly uh artist selection process do we want to focus on local artists boston artists new england artists could we have someone internationally would that be exciting for people in arlington to have an artist visit from another country to paint a mural um and the third is what are some models of community engagement we actually wrote into our grants stipends for young people we want to have um just as you heard about the climate futures mural the students were invaluable assistants to so sophie tuttle who did the design so we would love to once again have youth apprentices but maybe there's a mural that a whole neighborhood comes to a painting day you know and um all ages families whatever i mean the the project that we've worked on in arlington heights where families paint storefront windows has been super popular and yeah yeah and do you i mean let me just ask you his last last question beth do you how do you see you know uh arlington businesses responding to this initiative for instance because likely or possibly a store owner is going to be who either desperately wants such a mural around them or you know how do you see that playing out with i think there's a lot of interest um just just in initial conversations i think some of some of the key locations around town that might might be obvious um you know we've talked to property owners and there's interest um and also from business owners you know there's you have to engage both the business owner and the property owner the business owner may not be the property they may be leasing so um there are a couple of different parties that have to be involved but i think um now that there are a couple of significant murals the interest is going to continue to grow and i i want to say that um both the sites that i've been involved with and that would be za in east arlington um uh we did a mural there as part of actually the brt the bus rapid transit um initiative to improve bus service and this pollinator mural in both cases the building owners michelle kasey um who was who we work with on the pollinator mural and um the owners of za uh for the earlier mural which was by james weinberg both were really supportive to the artists having a lot of freedom um which was great you know i mean definitely um there was dialogue but there was a a lot of trust between the building owner and these very accomplished artists who did these murals so i um hope that we'll you know we'll be able to build on that um track record and um give artists um a lot of freedom but at the same time there may we may want to have more community input as to themes and um how how what ideas are expressed in a mural um yeah i love the fact that you brought up the word trust there because that seems to be really at the core of you know the collaboration you guys are talking about right here um the potential store owners property owners etc who could be involved with this etc and the community at large who you're from whom you're seeking this input i mean there is that sense that we can trust each other to do these things uh collaboratively in good spirit and responsibly um and truly trying to come up with a product that everyone is happy with yeah yeah that what they want to get their photo taken next every fair enough reserve your spot now okay um i want to thank beth lock for joining us and of course sessily miller who has been here throughout um this is a special episode of talk of the town uh again focusing on the uh arlington commission for arts and cultures collaborations and projects with different parts of the community um thanks so much to you as well for joining us i'm james melatt we will see you next time