The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) will lead its spring schedule with the blockbuster exhibition Fault Lines: Art and the Environment, on view April 2 to July 17, 2022, highlighting contemporary artists’ responses to
current environmental concerns through an immersive multimedia exhibition and outdoor sculpture installations. Curated by the NCMA, Fault Lines includes works by 13 artists, including John Akomfrah, Olafur Eliasson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Allison Janae Hamilton, Richard Mosse, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Christine and Margaret Wertheim.

“We’re excited to present these artists’ perspectives on such critical topics as climate change, environmentalism, and what it means to interact with the natural world,” said Museum director Valerie Hillings. “The experiential nature of the exhibition invites visitor to reflect on the future of the environment.”

Focusing on humanity’s relationship to nature, the featured artists address urgent environmental issues and the consequences of inaction as well as possibilities for environmental stewardship and restoration, presenting alternative ways to move forward that are sustainable and renewable. Exploring the transience and fragility of the natural world, the project features video, photography, sculpture, and mixed-media installations both indoors and outdoors.

“The North Carolina Museum of Art has a long history of exploring environmental topics and projects on its campus, which inspired the genesis for this exhibition,” said Linda Dougherty, chief curator and curator of contemporary art. “Fault Lines: Art and the Environment is a timely response to the imminent threat of climate change, showcasing these leading contemporary artists’ responses to present environmental concerns alongside the Museum’s own work toward this cause.”

Situated on 164 acres, the NCMA blurs the line between museum and park. The site, once a Civil War training camp and later the location of a youth prison, has been transformed from a degraded landscape into a welcoming and accessible public space that connects art, nature, and people. Among the largest of its kind in the world, the Museum Park expands the traditional museum experience by positioning site-specific, temporary, and permanent
works of art throughout so visitors can explore sculpture informally on trails and paths.

As part of Fault Lines, the NCMA hosts a Satellite Reef, part of the Crochet Coral Reef project by Christine and
Margaret Wertheim and the Institute For Figuring, a Los Angeles–based organization dedicated to the poetic
and aesthetic dimensions of science and mathematics. North Carolina fiber artists, crochet enthusiasts, craftivists, and crochet beginners have been invited to create individual parts of the Satellite Reef included in the exhibition.

Fault Lines also provides opportunities for robust public programming centered around the themes of the exhibition, with the intent of inviting multiple viewpoints and encouraging community dialogue. Programs include outdoor slow-art appreciation, workshops to process “eco-grief,” and a day of teen activities focused on environmental art and youth activism. A two-day observance planned for Earth Day, April 22–23, includes an outdoor film screening, a volunteer service project in the Park, and a Family Day with hands-on activities and
environmental organizations distributing information about how people can take action.

Fault Lines reflects the Museum’s ongoing efforts to present art that invites visitors to engage in new ways of connecting to the world around them, and its commitment to building climate resiliency, raising environmental awareness, and creating opportunities for future artist projects in all corners of its campus. Fault Lines includes a pendant exhibition, TO BE RATHER THAN TO SEEM, that explores the history of the Museum Park and its original master plan, Imperfect Utopia, as well as the new Museum Park Preserve Vision Plan, focused on an expansive area featuring the visitor-favorite sunflower field and beyond, connecting to the Greenway bridge through a wooded zone. The area is a popular place to spot songbirds, falcons, deer, and more.