After Dark: Climate Journeys

Tickets: https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/after-dark-climate-journeys

After Dark: Climate Journeys

Climate change is a complex problem that requires imaginative solutions. Tonight, join artists, designers, advocates, and community members to strengthen your response to our changing environment. Learn to find your way when the path is uncertain with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, author of Climate Wayfinding. And don't miss a preview of Field Station, our forthcoming outdoor exhibits focused on the deep connections between humans, the built environment, and our ecosystems.

To purchase tickets, head to the Exploratorium website here: https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/after-dark-climate-journeys

Panel Discussion: The Waterfront Field Station: A Front-Row Seat to Climate Change

With Susan Schwartzenberg, Emma Greenbaum, Kate Hayes, and Gregg Castro

6:30 pm

Gallery 6 Fisher Bay Observatory

Come learn about the future of climate discovery at the Exploratorium. Be among the first to experience a sneak preview of the Waterfront Field Station—an exciting new outdoor gallery where art, science, and the environment collide. Wander through exhibits, explore innovative landscape designs, and uncover powerful stories about our changing planet.

Through hands-on experiences and creative inquiry, you’ll gain a fresh perspective on climate change—especially the rising seas shaping our world.

Susan Schwartzenberg is a senior artist at the Exploratorium, where she leads the development of the Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery. She has been a curator, photographer, designer, and artist, and served as director of media for the museum. She has participated in many exhibit development and Web-based projects. Susan was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, the California College of Art, and Stanford University. As a photographer and visual artist, she has received numerous awards, and has taken part in residencies and exhibitions worldwide. She is known for her public art, including works at Stanford University and San Francisco’s McLaren Park.

Kate Hayes, RLA, ASLA, is a Senior Associate at SCAPE. Drawing on her interdisciplinary science background, Kate leads her projects from an ecological perspective and a multi-scaled systems approach. She integrates community science and experimentation into her process-oriented design work, and she is energized by collaborating with clients and communities to realize a collective design vision. This work has led Kate to three National ASLA Awards, both as a student and professional.

Kate holds a Master’s of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia, where she received the Helen and Stanley Abbott Award for Design Excellence. Kate has also been a lecturer in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design in the Department of Human Ecology at UC Davis and in the Earth Systems Department at Stanford University. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Earth Systems from Stanford University.

Gregg Castro [t'rowt'raahl Salinan/rumsien-ramaytush Ohlone], has been involved in preservation of his cultural heritage for nearly three decades, for both his late Mother’s rumsien Ohlone heritage, and on his late Father’s side, the since ended ‘Salinan Nation Tribal Council’ (serving two terms as Tribal Chair) and currently the non-profit organization, Salinan T’rowt’raahl. Gregg is a member of the Society for California Archaeology (SCA). Gregg is a Co-Facilitator for the annual California Indian Conference, a 30+ year gathering about California Indigenous heritage. Gregg is a writer and activist within the California indigenous community, on issues regarding cultural preservation, protection, education and traditional practices.

Emma Greenbaum is the Project Director for Climate and Landscapes at the Exploratorium. With a background in multi-dimensional climate work, Emma has brought a passion for complex problem solving in a rapidly shifting world to her 15 years of work in the movement. Prior to the Exploratorium, Emma worked with Resilient by Design, the State of California, and the Sierra Club. Emma holds a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Environment with a focus on climate adaptation and urban planning and a BA from American University in economics and international studies.

Activity: Climate Wayfinding--Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home

With Katharine Wilkinson, PhD

8:15 pm

Gallery 6 Fisher Bay Observatory

When maps come up short and the path ahead is uncertain, how do we find our way? In her new book Climate Wayfinding, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson offers a compassionate and empowering guide for navigating through ache to action, doubt to possibility. Whether we’re steeped in climate or newly curious, we can look inward with care, outward with curiosity, and forward with courage to shape our unique contributions.

Join Dr. Wilkinson for a dynamic book experience, immersing in the wisdom of Climate Wayfinding and the beauty of poetry, art, and song. Amid kindred community, we remember that each of us is a node of possibility for healing the climate crisis—whoever we are and whatever we’ve got to give.

Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson is a bestselling climate author, teacher, and creator. She has inspired hundreds of thousands of climate journeys through transformational projects that shift our cultural narratives about what’s possible and nurture engagement in renewing our world. Her publications include the forthcoming Climate Wayfinding, the bestselling anthology All We Can Save, and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown. Dr. Wilkinson co-founded and leads The All We Can Project, co-hosts the podcast A Matter of Degrees, and writes the newsletter Human on Earth. Time magazine named her one of fifteen “Women Who Will Save the World.”

Tools for Rising Seas

With Sara Dean and Beth Ferguson

6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Gallery 4

Hosted by the co-creators of Tools for a Warming Planet, this drop-in workshop will empower you to share knowledge and work together for a more sustainable, adaptive, and symbiotic future. Propose a tool of your own to engage the challenges of climate change, and learn how to build a communal toolbox through science, design, art, technology, and activism.

Beth Ferguson is an ecological designer whose work integrates solar engineering, sustainable transportation, and eco‑materials to advance climate resilience and public engagement. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Design at UC Davis, where she directs the Circular Futures Lab.

Sara Dean builds public installations and digital systems which imagine more equitable and adaptive future cities. She is Associate Professor and MDes Director at Stamps School of Art and Design at University of Michigan and Principal of IF/THEN Studio.

California Changing (Before Your Eyes)

With Brett Snyder

6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Gallery 4

The state of California has emerged as a pioneering force in designing for climate change, yet it has also faced the devastating impacts of numerous climate-related disasters, including droughts, wildfires, and rising sea levels. Dive deeper into the content of California Changing: 50 Sites of Climate Change in Augmented Reality, meet the author, and explore interactive digital overlays that inspired the book. Download the Artivive app and discover how design can help us understand and respond to our changing landscape.

Brett Snyder works at the intersection of architecture, media, and the environment. He is a principal of Cheng+Snyder, an experimental design studio based in Oakland, and Associate Professor of Design and Chair of the MFA in Design program at the University of California, Davis. His recent book, California Changing: 50 Sites of Climate Change in Augmented Reality, explores the relationship between climate change and the built environment. Recent collaborations include Block Party: From Independent Living to Disability Communalism and Public Sediment, a plan to re-connect Alameda Creek to the San Francisco Bay to restore protective marshlands.

Sediment for Survival: A Bay-Saving Game

With the San Francisco Estuary Institute

6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Gallery 3

Sediment For Survival is a board game-in-progress by the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI)—and we need your help to finish it! Join our team to (literally) shore up natural defenses with sediment and restored wetlands as sea levels rise. As you balance political pressures and ecological needs to protect the Bay, you’ll serve as a game designer, helping us troubleshoot mechanics and refine strategies to win. Help us build a resilient future, one turn at a time.

The San Francisco Estuary Institute is a nonprofit environmental research institute that delivers visionary science to revitalize nature in our communities. Our interdisciplinary team focuses on sustaining the chemical, physical, and biological health of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. By partnering with communities, Tribal nations, and government agencies, SFEI creates cost-effective solutions for clean water and resilient ecosystems. Our objective science informs far-reaching policies and helps prioritize billion-dollar infrastructure and nature-based investments throughout the region.

Meet the Bay's Climate Resilience Reporters

With KneeDeep Times

7:30 PM

Gallery 3 Wattis Studio

Hear a series of lightning talks from writers about their work for the Bay Area climate magazine KneeDeep Times. From policy to science and community activism, they'll present what they've learned covering some of their favorite stories from across the region:

Duncan Agnew: How Santa Clara is making data centers more environmentally friendly

Padma Balaji: Youth climate action at the Bay Area Climate Literacy Exchange

Audrey Mei Yi Brown: The fight for environmental justice in Bayview Hunters Point

Juan Pablo Pérez-Burgos: El Cerrito's journey toward car-free living

Kathleen Wong: Caring for fringe wildlife like marsh mice

KneeDeep Times is a digital magazine featuring stories from the frontlines of climate resilience. They aim to give readers the inside scoop on local climate adaptation efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. They examine what’s working, what’s not, and how communities of all sizes are responding as the impacts of climate change intensify. They report on the meaning and impacts of policies, projects and investments and on the lived experiences of real people and real places. In all our work, they center both professional journalism and training for emerging reporters learning to tell climate change stories.

I ♥️the SF Bayshore

With the Waterfront Field Station Team

6:30-9:30pm

Gallery 4

The San Francisco Bay stretches across 400 miles of remarkably diverse shoreline - wetlands giving way to marinas, parks meeting ports, beaches bordering residential neighborhoods, and more.

Share your own story of a Bay shoreline location that is special to you. Discover local places that are meaningful to others, and explore how sea level rise may reshape the landscapes we treasure.