From flood lines stenciled on sidewalks to murals that echo community voices, Envision Resilience has brought climate adaptation into public view, turning buildings and streetscapes into vivid calls for action. In October 2021, as part of their inaugural Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge on Nantucket, the program unveiled the “Rising Above” light projection, which transformed the historic scallop shanty on Old North Wharf into a compelling story of rising seas and shifting shorelines. Owned by Nantucket native and environmental advocate Ginger Andrews, the shanty took on new life as a luminous symbol of the island’s delicate balance between preservation, adaptation, and inevitable change.
Running on a five-minute loop, a light projection of waves traced historic tides and projected future water levels created by Scenic and Projection Designer Michael Clark, reminding passersby that climate change is already at our door. For Andrews, a fifth-generation scalloper and steward of the island, the shanty became a metaphor for resilience. As she put it, “It’s knowing what you can save, what you can’t save, and getting out of the way when there’s something going down.” This breakthrough moment revealed art’s capacity to transform abstract threats into tangible, emotional experiences.
Building on this understanding of art’s power to conceptualize climate change, the 2022 Envision Resilience Narragansett Bay Challenge celebrated and supported the “The Seas Are Rising and So Are We,” a mural in Warren, Rhode Island developed by The Avenue Concept and the Town of Warren, which honors the endangered saltmarsh sparrow and the fragile habitat it calls home.
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