New environmental artworks pop up across Chicago

This month, Chicago launched Earth Art, a series of works meant to spark conversations and inspire environmental action.

Why it matters: Art can sometimes reach people with important messages in ways that science and polemics can't.

What they're saying: "Our hope for this project is for these artworks to be an act of inspiration, but also provide renewal in the face of despair around climate change and the environment," project organizer Uzma Noormohamed, of the Illinois Science & Energy Innovation Foundation, tells Axios.

• "We look to artists to give us hope, inspire us, and help us reveal and process our feelings as we come to terms with an uncertain future."

What's happening: Six of the 12 highlighted works debuted last week, including:

• "Pollinator Solace Columns": A sculpture that doubles as an animal habitat in Back of the Yards.
• In the Grove: Songs, plays and stories on trails in Eggers Grove on the Southeast Side.
• River of Welcome: A plaza and mosaic planter on the Canalport Riverwalk Park.
• Redemptive Plastics: Public seating made of recycled plastic in Austin.

The latest: Tonight, Chicagoans can catch a film screening at Calumet Park of "The Hills," which explores toxic slag heaps on the Southeast Side. We talked to filmmaker Ines Sommer about it.

The inspiration: A tour with the Southeast Side Environmental Task Force of the "Schroud property, a 67-acre slag hill [leaching into local water] that has since been declared a Superfund site," Sommer said.

• "The site is so barren and vast, it felt as if we had landed on Mars."

The aim: "To make viewers appreciate how we are all interconnected — just like our waterways — and that just a few neighborhoods shouldn’t have to shoulder most of our city's environmental burdens."

What's next: Works from the series continue to roll out this week with:

• Rest.Rise.Move.Nourish.Heal: A live dance performance tonight in Grant Park.
• Little Village Dreams: Community mural painting and a celebration Saturday in Little Village.
• Triangle Garden Party amid stalagmite Creamsicles this Saturday in McKinley Park.