Culture & Sustainability Initiative (CAS) Past Projects

Arts in Society

As part of its effort to reveal the important connection between the arts and sustainability, the UNH Sustainability Academy supported the course "The Arts in Society" (INCO 480 and SOC 580), which was taught each semester by now retired sociology Professor Melvin Bobick. The aim of the course was to help students achieve a broad understanding of the arts and humanities by seeing to it that students attend symphony, ballet, and opera performances and visit museums, including the Boston Museum of Fine Art and the Currier Gallery.

Beaming Bioneers

The Sustainability Academy hosted three consecutive live satellite telecasts of the annual Bioneers Conference plenary speakers, which is held in California. These sessions were complemented by workshops and other activities at UNH to provide practical tools and education around sustainability and to help build community.

Campus Aesthetics & Public Art

Examples of this work included the following:

  • The UNH Sustainability Academy, the UNH Arts and Society Program, and UNH Dimond Library, in partnership with Ken Browne Productions and the Currier Gallery of Art, collaborated in making the documentary film entitled "Four Hands One Heart,"which celebrates the lives and art of former UNH faculty Ed and Mary Scheier. The film was broadcast on over 100 PBS stations throughout the country. The video is available for loan at Dimond Library or can be purchased on DVD throughwww.4hands1heart.com or through New Hampshire Public Television. In addition, the University collection of the Scheier's work is on display at Dimond Library.
  • Green Art and the Growing Divide: During the spring of 2009, and in conjunction with "The Growing Divide: A University Dialogue on Poverty and Opportunity" UOS is partnering with the Discovery Program on a "green" public art project. The project will engage students, faculty, and the broader campus community in the design and implementation of the artwork.

Celebrity Series

Chief Sustainability Officer Tom Kelly served on the planning committee for the UNH Celebrity Series, which brings world-class theater, dance, and music to the UNH campus every year.

Cultural Excursions

Now run by the UNH Museum of Art, the UNH Sustainability Academy ran a program of cultural excursions to the world renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra until 2011. Open to the entire UNH community, participants enjoy live open rehearsals featuring outstanding performers! The goal of our Cultural Excursions program is to contribute to the campus's and community’s opportunity for shared cultural experiences that reflect the highest levels of achievement in the performing arts. 

Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium

The first U.S. Northeast Campus Sustainability Summit (NECSC) was hosted at UNH by the Sustainability Academy in October 2004. The Summit was designed to convene the growing network of higher education institutions, non-profits, activists, and community members working to advance campus sustainability in the northeast region and to represent a growing network of institutions of higher education from the northeast United States and Eastern Canadian Provinces. The Summit also actively anticipated the launch of theUnited Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, which began on January 1, 2005. The Decade offers us an opportunity to think ahead 10 years, to envision where we wish to be, and to further implement the principles of education for sustainability. An annual Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium Summit will be held through 2014 and will rotate locations throughout the region. The 2005 summit was held at Harvard University, the 2006 summit was held at Yale University, the 2007 summit was held at Bowdoin College, the 2008 summit was held at Princeton University, and the 2009 summit held at the University of Vermont. The final 2014 summit will return to UNH. Learn more about the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consoritum (NECSC)...

Participation in "TMI: A University Dialogue on Decision Making in the Age of Information Overload" in 2010-2011

Sponsored by the UNH Discovery Program, the University Dialogue is an ongoing effort to engage the UNH community in a series of discussions and activities that explore a common theme each year. The Sustainability Academy often partners with the Discovery Program to help sponsor events, speakers, films, plays, and other "happenings" to campus related to each year's Dialogue topic. This year, the Sustainability Academy will partner with the Discovery Program as part of "TMI: A University Dialogue on Decision Making in the Age of Information Overload" to host a talk by Alexis Pauline Gumbs on online activism, to be held Nov. 9th, 12:40-2 p.m. at the MUB Strafford Room. Learn more about the UNH Discovery Program...

"The Sustainable Learning Community: One University's Journey to the Future"

Published in 2009, “The Sustainable Learning Community: One University’s Journey to the Future”(University Press of New England) details how UNH, home to the oldest endowed office of sustainability in the nation, has been integrating sustainability across its curriculum, operations, research, and engagement in the last 10-plus years. Edited by University Professor and Provost John Aber, chief sustainability officer Tom Kelly, and former provost and current education faculty member Bruce Mallory, the book shares the perspectives of more than 60 authors from UNH and beyond on subjects ranging from curriculum to climate change to compost. Learn more...

Eating as a Moral Act: Ethics and Power from Agrarianism to Consumerism

In April 2004, the Sustainability Academy  organized the interdisciplinary Saul O Sidore Memorial Lecture Series and Symposium "Eating as a Moral Act: Ethics and Power from Agrarianism to Consumerism." The event was sponsored by the Saul O Sidore Memorial Foundation and the Center for the Humanities at the University of New Hampshire. The program examined the underlying questions of justice and morality within America's food and farming system and explored the ability of citizens and communities to shape a sustainable food system through their food choices.

National Citizen Technology Forum

As one of six sites across the country, in March 2008 the Sustainability Academy and Communication Department at UNH hosted a group of local citizens to discuss recent technological advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology that might lead to significant enhancements of human mental, emotional, and physical abilities. This effort to increase public participation in and guidance of scientific and technological research and development is part of a national research effort being undertaken by a network of universities under the leadership of the Center for Nanotechnology and Society at Arizona State University, which has been funded in conjunction with the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The coordinating institution for this particular citizens’ conference activity was North Carolina State University. Other participant institutions included UC-Berkeley, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Georgia Tech, and the Colorado School of Mines. The goal of this project was to learn background information, formulate opinions, pose questions to a range of experts, and make recommendations in a report about the impacts and consequences of human enhancement technologies. The recommendations will be widely circulated to government, industry, and to the general public.

Scheier Project

The UNH Sustainability Academy, the UNH Arts and Society Program, and UNH Dimond Library, in partnership with Ken Browne Productions and the Currier Gallery of Art, collaborated in making the documentary film entitled "Four Hands One Heart," which celebrates the lives and art of former UNH faculty Ed and Mary Scheier. The film was broadcast on over 100 PBS stations throughout the country. The video is available for loan at Dimond Library or can be purchased on DVD through www.4hands1heart.com or through New Hampshire Public Television. In addition, the University collection of the Scheier's work is on display at Dimond Library. Learn more about the Scheier’s story and philosophy here.

"We Hold These Truths": 2007 - 2008 University Dialogue on Democracy

Sponsored by the UNH Discovery Program, the University Dialogue is an ongoing effort to engage the UNH community in a series of discussions and activities that explore a common theme each year. In 2007, the Sustainability Academy partnered with the Discovery Program on a Fair Trade Fair that was part of "We Hold These Truths: A University Dialogue on Democracy." The Sustainability Academy often partners with the Discovery Program to help sponsor events, speakers, films, plays, and other "happenings" to campus related to each year's Dialoge topic. UNH Chief Sustainability Officer Tom Kelly was a Dialogue author during the first Dialogue on globalization in 2005-2006, and during the 2006-2007 Dialogue on energy UOS helped to bring the one-woman show "The Boycott" to campus. Learn more about the UNH Discovery Program...

"The Growing Divide": 2008-2009 University-wide Dialogue on Poverty & Opportunity

Sponsored by the UNH Discovery Program, the University Dialogue is an ongoing effort to engage the UNH community in a series of discussions and activities that explore a common theme each year. The Sustainability Academy often partners with the Discovery Program to help sponsor events, speakers, films, plays, and other "happenings" to campus related to each year's Dialogue topic. Events on which UOS partnered with the Discovery Program as part of "The Growing Divide: A University-wide Dialogue on Poverty & Opportunity" in 2008-2009 included: