Abstract:

As climate change intensifies, engaging the public in climate adaptation requires approaches that connect scientific research with people’s everyday experiences. This report examines Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World, an interactive art exhibition and public engagement program presented at Descanso Gardens by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Through visitor surveys, postcard activities, and other participatory experiences, the exhibition explored how art can build public understanding of shade equity while generating insights into community perspectives on climate adaptation. Analysis of more than 3,500 survey responses and nearly 2,000 visitor postcards found that participants expressed an overwhelmingly hopeful, solution-oriented outlook, with themes like care, kindness, shade, and relief appearing more frequently than fear or despair. Visitors also overwhelmingly identified trees as their preferred source of shade in their communities. Together, these findings demonstrate that interactive art exhibitions can serve as effective climate communication tools and valuable participatory research platforms — generating actionable insights to inform more equitable, community-centered climate adaptation strategies.