Inspiring Change: World Environment Day 2025

New for 2025 at the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition is the Climate Emergency Prize, £2,000 for the best artwork that addresses the climate crisis. Artists have explored this theme in various creative experimental ways, and the full display of works can be viewed throughout the exhibition at Mall Galleries from 12 to 21 June 2025.

The NEAC feels that while no one has all the answers to the current climate crisis, the prize is one small way in which they can help to further raise public awareness of such a critical matter. It also offers those brave artists who feel impelled to address these concerns through their art an opportunity to display this work and encourage conversation.

The New English Art Club has a long tradition of showing work related directly to the environment. The NEAC was formed partly as a consequence of the radical engagement with nature pioneered by the French Impressionists. This history of plein air observation is still a major strand linking members' working practices.

The environment has always been integral to the Society of Wildlife Artists. President Harriet Mead wrote in 2013 that 'art can be a powerful tool for conservation. It can breathe life onto the bones of research by reminding us exactly why we should care about the increasingly gloomy news of habitat loss, climate change and extinction.'

The SWLA seek to generate an appreciation of and delight in the natural world through all forms of fine art based on or representing the world’s wildlife. Through exhibitions and publications of fine art, the Society aims to further an awareness of the importance of conservation in order to maintain the variety of the world’s ecosystems and its wildlife.

In May 2025, they announced a major new project: The Massingham Heath Project. For the next year over thirty member artists will follow the seasons and changing flora, fauna and landscape of an exciting rewilding project in West Norfolk.

The first discoveries and results will feature in the Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition, The Natural Eye 2025, running from 16 to 25 October.

The Royal Society of Marine Artists exists to promote all forms of marine art, in essence anything inspired by tidal water. This means that in the modern day, the state of the climate plays a key role. The Society has begun to put a focus on eco-sailing as part of their exhibitions, a theme that resonates more than ever, with the growing environmental challenges in the industry.

The 2025 exhibition will continue to raise awareness of these ultra-low emission sail cargo ships that are the link between thousands of years of history and the innovative solutions of today. They are a renaissance in responsible maritime trade: sourcing goods that cannot be produced locally, and delivering them on sailing ships, emission-free.

A work at the 2024 exhibition, 'The Great Pacific Garbage Patch' by Julie Simpson, spoke directly to environmental issues. The piece stood over 2 metres tall and was made up of plastic recycling, wire and fishing line.