Post to Airspace!
Airspace is the citizen artwork that shows how many of us care about climate and sky. Invite your community to post their sky art to any of the Sky Galleries or Sign Up for a Sky Gallery of your own. It’s free!
Posting is easy. Just scan the QR Code, click Upload Photos (top right), select a Sky Gallery and post! (Note: JPEGs and HEICs only)
PRINT THIS SIGN FOR YOUR TABLE! OR MAKE YOUR OWN!
Calling All Artists!
Know any artists? If you do perhaps suggest to them that they use their talents, vision and creativity to engage their community on the crucial issues of climate and ecological citizenship. It’s called being a citizen artist. For inspiration, listen to Umesh Bajagain (Nepal), Celia Berrell (Australia) and Dan Simpson (England) share their work for Sky Day on WBEZ Chicago’s Worldview.
Take a Sky Walk!
Sometimes the simplest things mean the most. So gather students, friends and family and go for a Sky Walk. Is there somewhere near you where you can share an awesome view of the sky? And while you walk, notice together how every day is a unique symphony of light and atmosphere unfolding right above our heads. Maybe ask the group to share a memory of when they once noticed the sky in some special way. Take a moment to reflect on how much we rely on our thin atmosphere functioning naturally every day. Doesn’t it only stand to reason we should take care of it for each other?
Write a Sky-ku
While a poem cannot scrub away the pollution in our atmosphere, no-one should underestimate the power of the written word. Sky-ku are inspired by haiku and are a beautiful way to express your thoughts and feelings about our amazing shared sky. Learn more
Tell Your Sky Story
A friend was driving to her father’s funeral through a very heavy rain storm with a very heavy heart. She remembers the clouds and the eerie darkness. It felt to her as if the sky grieved with her. And then, all of a sudden, there was a break in the clouds and she saw a magnificent rainbow. The sight of it filled her heart with a new sense of inner peace. It hadn’t replaced her grief, of course, but something had changed within her and she has never forgotten that moment.
Is there a time in your life when the sky has impacted you in a personal and memorable way? Let us know @skydayproject (Twitter, Instagram)
Jelena’s Sky Scavenger Hunt for Kids!
This great idea for Pre-K through Second Grade. Give kiddos a couple days to hunt down each of the sky experiences shown. Then suggest they look for these very sky photos hidden in the Sky Galleries of Sky Day Project! Download and print this pdf. Can you find them all?!!
Interview Family and Friends
One of the best ways to help with climate change is just to talk to people like parents, friends and family. Be curious. What are they thinking? Are they concerned? Share with them what you know and what your concerns are.
Our advice - be respectful and a good listener. Consider sharing what you learn on Instagram or Twitter - #ComeTogetherForClimate. Did the conversation surprise you in any way?
Hold a Sky Concert
Unclouded Day, The New Trier Concert Choir
CO2, Jim and the Povolos
Nothing moves us like music. Use your talents - your voice - to reconnect us to our magnificent sky and celebrate the way it connects us all as one global family. You will have done your community a great service for we only protect the things we care about and only care about the things we are connected to.
Exhibit a Sky Show and Help With Climate
This idea from teachers Diane and Stephanie. Their students saw the sky photos sent in to Sky Day Project by a school in Puerto Rico just before they were hit by Hurricane Maria. They wanted to help so they painted sky paintings, exhibited them and then sold them to family and friends to raise money for that school. To which we say - Bravo! Why not do something similar yourself and donate the funds you raise to a worthy climate helping cause like donating to a carbon offsetting charity? The sky’s the limit to what you can do to help!
Lightning Critiques of
Environmentalist Art
This idea suggested by high school science teacher John C. His students really enjoyed changing gears for a day and talking about art. So ask your students to search the web for art that deals in some way with sky, climate change or the environment. Then ask them to show a slide of it in class and talk about it for three minutes. What is the art conveying? How do they respond to it?
No rules! Just lots of appreciation for whatever they have to say.
Shoot for the Moon
In this cool video Nick and Meredith of Chicago's Adler Planetarium show you how to take awesome night sky photos using a DSLR camera! Then upload yours to SkyDayProject! We can't wait to see them!
Talking About Our Sky Might Be More on Point Than You Think!
Did you know Our word ‘sky’ comes from the Old Norse word ský which means the location where clouds hang out? Back then they didn’t have a term for atmosphere but that is what they were talking about.
The world needs better ways to talk about climate and global heating because too many people are turned off by the politics. We need ways that are more motivating, ways that make the impersonal concepts of environment and temperature more relatable, something you can see and feel - and yes, something that gives you joy.
It’s hard to argue with our beautiful, dynamic sky. It’s one of the greatest shows on earth! Constantly changing, constantly moving - it’s never the same twice. How could it be? Nature knows nothing of repetition. So when we at Sky Day talk about sky we are talking about our atmosphere - the place where clouds float by, where our water comes from and where the air we breathe hangs out. When we talk about sky we are talking about the one natural resource that truly connects us all.
Try this. Simply ask people to talk about their relationship to climate and sky. ‘What does the sky mean to you?’ has been a good conversation starter. We’ve found that many people have beautiful ideas about this and personal experiences they have never forgotten. Maybe you could interview people and post their comments on insta or tik tok? #skydayproject