New York, NY.

A new installation by the climate storytelling project DearTomorrow opened on September 21 on Governors Island in New York City. The installation, titled “DearTomorrow: A Promise to the Future,” presents fifty letters about climate change written by people from around the world to people they love living in the future.

Written between 2015 and 2019, the letters were selected by DearTomorrow co-founder and director Jill Kubit along with co-curators Korinna Knapp and Geof Victory. The letters are written to children, families, and future selves, and come from across the US and around the world, from California and Tennessee to Oman and Australia.

Visual artist Tara DePorte and sound artist Lemon Guo collaborated with Kubit to bring the digital collection to life. The letters are collaged and screen-printed onto sheer, billowing cotton, scattered in loose sheets of paper, and plastered across the walls, immersing viewers in the hopes, fears, and passions of the letter-writers as they grapple with the present and future effects of climate change and commit to take action. Excerpts from thirty-three of the letters are read aloud by their authors and presented as a 45-minute looped audio recording.

The letters testify to the broad range of personal responses to climate change, but coalesce around six themes: current and future impacts of climate change, feelings of regret, the value of nature, the power of legacy, love and action. The stairway leading to the letters showcases 20 images of people committing to take climate action in their own lives.

Visitors are invited to contribute their own message to the installation and to DearTomorrow’s permanent digital archive.

“DearTomorrow: A Promise to the Future” is located at the House of Solutions, a collaboration between the Human Impacts Institute and the Climate Reality Project NYC Metro Region Chapter, at Nolan Park House 4B, 2nd Floor on Governors Island in New York Harbor, accessible by ferry from Brooklyn or Manhattan. The installation will be viewable on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 AM to 5 PM through October 20th.

DearTomorrow project concept by Jill Kubit and Trisha Shrum
Installation by Tara DePorte (visual) and Lemon Guo (audio)
Letters curation by Jill Kubit, Korinna Knapp, and Geof Victory
Photos by Elizabeth Cole, Kirsi Jansa, Jill Kubit, Trisha Shrum, Creatives4Climate Pittsburgh team, and Drawdown Marin team
Photos curation by Jill Kubit and Mustafa Önder

A very special thank you to Michelle Altman, Sofia Ibarra, and Elle Pak for donating their time and talent this exhibit, and to the Human Impacts Institute and Climate Reality NYC chapter for providing space through the House of Solution’s Artist in Residency Program.

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DearTomorrow is a digital and archive project for people to personally connect with the issue of climate change, to commit to taking stronger action and to share these stories with friends, family and their social networks.

The DearTomorrow project is made possible by financial support from the KR Foundation, individual donors and crowdfunding.

To see the full collection of 1500+ submissions from more than 50 countries and to write your own, please visit deartomorrow.org. To schedule an interview, please contact Jill Kubit at jill@deartomorrow.org.

Follow DearTomorrow on social: @deartomorrow (FB and IG) @deartmrw (Twitter) #deartomorrow

Photo credit: Mustafa Önder. High resolution photos available upon request.