JUST ART
← ProjectsJUST ART: Creating Common Grounds for Climate Justice Through Artistic Research is a six year project funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and led by the University of Groningen.
Bringing together artists, researchers, campaigners and communities in rural and urban regions across the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the project aims to cultivate diverse strategies of climate justice through artistic research and creative practice.
The Green Heart Biennale is a societal partner of JUST ART. We worked together on two events in the first edition of the biennale (30 May – 21 June, 2026): The Subterranean Dialogues in Tuinen van Boskoop, part of the art / research project Subterranean of artist Christine Hvidt, and the conference The Design of Regeneration (Gouda, June 20, 2026).
The complexity and scale of the climate crisis can feel overwhelming. Artistic practice and artistic research can open up new ways of understanding the intersectional dimensions of this crisis so that people feel empowered to act, wherever they are. This grounded approach is central to the JUST ART project. From Aruba to Brabant, from the Wadden Islands to Twente, and from the polders to Curaçao, JUST ART will promote climate justice in contexts where the crisis is most acutely felt, and where action is most urgently needed.
JUST ART will unfold over the next six years (2026-31) through multiple collaborative research projects delivered by partners across the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The project is structured around five core research themes (see below) alongside a strand of work focused on governance and synthesis. There are twelve PhDs attached to the project.
JUST ART research themes:
Just Practices
Centring Climate and Multispecies Justice in the Visual and Performing Arts
Just Futures
ReStor(y)ing Rurban Patterns
Just Transitions
Hydro-Social Relations in Islands, Coastlands and Peatlands
Just Production
Soil Ecologies and Life-Sustaining Goods
Just Matter
Situated Material Engagement for Climate Justice