The HERDS: Art, Movement, and Urgency for Climate Action
The HERDS:
Art, Movement, and Urgency for Climate Action
By: Sabrina Careri
The HERDS:
Art, Movement, and Urgency for Climate Action
A new public art and climate initiative brings life-sized puppet animals on a 20,000km journey from the Congo Basin to the Arctic, symbolizing the mass displacement caused by climate change. Blending art with science and rooted in storytelling, the project uses immersive performance to engage the senses for urgent action.
From April to August 2025, THE HERDS will take to the streets with life sized puppet animals journeying across continents. Spanning 20,000 kilometers from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, this extraordinary public art and climate initiative is not just a spectacle, but is a sensory call to action.
At its core, this project is a reminder that we are not separate from the natural world. We are part of it. And when that world is threneded, so too are we. The puppets, created with breathtaking detail and artistry, and are used to depict animals fleeing the devastation caused by a climate that is far from normal. Their silent march through cities is an opportunity for us to pause and reflect. These are not just puppets, but they are symbols of life being displaced when migration is not a choice, but is a necessity.
Blending Science, Storytelling, and Immersive Performance
What I appreciate most about this project is how it blends science and storytelling, using creative methods of visualization to communicate our complex climate reality. At each stop along the route, the artists will respond with performances and events rooted in local culture and scientific insight. Together, they create an immersive experience, using performative arts to tell a story of climate urgency by reaching beyond facts or logic and more into emotion.
By engaging in the senses through sight, sounds, and movement, this project invites us to establish a deeper connection to the climate crisis – feel the deliberate thump of hooves, hear the rustle of feathers, or witness the beauty of animals moving through your city, rather than simply reading about rising temperatures or the cascading loss of biodiversity. This project uses art to communicate something real and vanishing, and awakening these feelings is how we build awareness and change minds.
Ultimately, THE HERDS reminds us that climate action isn’t just policy or plans or strategies (though, of course, those are essential); it’s also personal. It’s cultural. It’s emotional. This project is a stark warning of what may come. As the animals move, so must we, but not away from the problem, instead toward each other and toward a future climate resilient, vibrant and biodiverse planet.
To learn more and follow the journey, visit theherds.org.
