Underwater: Broward
THE UNDERWATER: BROWARD is the latest edition of this campaign to enhance community engagement on climate change through art and has been jointly funded by the Community Foundation of Broward, and Broward County's Cultural Division, and Resilient Environment Department.
Through this initiative, 10 Broward County Public schools received climate art workshops in February and March of 2024, engaging an estimated 1,000 students. Public art installations illustrating the site's ground elevation were completed as part of the project, and there were several community engagement events open to all Broward residents and visitors.
In coordination with Broward County Resilient Environment Department and Broward Cultural Division, the projects used data-driven art to systematically reveal vulnerability to rising seas and mobilize residents to demand that government equitably plan for a future impacted by climate change.
“By mapping the impending crisis, I make the invisible visible. Block by block, house by house, neighbor by neighbor, I want to make the future impact of sea level rise something impossible to ignore. “I hope to engage my neighbors as problem solvers who will learn and work together now to better prepare themselves and their heirs for the chaos to come.”
XAVIER CORTADA
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The project's scope included artist-led workshops across ten public schools during 2024, where students and teachers research their elevation and create elevation markers. Xavier Cortada also lead a `Townhall' event, during which participants learned of their community's vulnerability to sea level rise and climate change.
An event was hosted by the African- American Research Library and Cultural Center, where 100 of the participant residents will receive personalized elevation markers. The Underwater Elevation Markers are yard signs that announce a home's elevation above sea level in an effort to catalyze conversation and action around the climate crisis.
Participants of The Underwater are encouraged to discover the elevation of their home and paint or draw that number on their blank yard sign (pictured right). Once residents place these elevationmarked signs in their front yard, curiosity from neighbors, friends, and family is instantly sparked as the meaning of the number is unknown to anyone not familiar with the project.
