‘Life On Earth’ exhibition brings global perspectives on design, climate to UK College of Design
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 22, 2025) — The University of Kentucky College of Design is partnering with New York-based nonprofit organization The World Around (TWA) to present TWA’s first exhibition, “Life On Earth,” Jan. 24-March 14 in the Gray Design Building’s first-floor gallery.
The “Life On Earth” exhibition explores human civilization from a planetary perspective, examining the architectural and design systems that have shaped the last 50 years while highlighting their environmental and social consequences. Through video dispatches by 18 global experts and stories from The World Around’s Young Climate Prize, the exhibition showcases design’s role in addressing the climate crisis, featuring on-the-ground perspectives from diverse locations like Kenya’s Great Rift Valley and Argentina’s salt flats. Celebrating Intergenerational collaboration, it emphasizes the urgent need for collective action and invites viewers to reflect on the transformative potential of architecture in the Anthropocene.
TWA founder and executive director Beatrice Galilee and TWA Young Climate Prize cohort member McKenna Dunbar will speak at the exhibition opening at 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, in the Forum of Gray Design Building. Galilee is the author of “Radical Architecture of the Future” and served as the first curator of contemporary architecture and design at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 2014 to 2019. Dunbar is a trained energy justice organizer focusing on the socially equitable electrification through rural green workforce development. The exhibition opening is free and open to the public.
For a full list of the exhibition’s featured artists and experts, visit https://design.uky.edu/events/life-on-earth-gallery-exhibition-lecture.
Learn more about The World Around at https://theworldaround.com/.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.