Welcome to the 2025 edition of the collaborative solarpunk art project! This year’s theme is Life of Learning, focusing on education, teaching, mentorship and research in a better climate future!
The goal of the project is to welcome everyone to collaborate together, share ideas and get inspired by each others’ works! This is not a contest - there are no prizes and no winners, outside of everything we learn from each other and the visions of a better world we create!
Join the Art Collab Discord
Livestream #
Previous Collabs #
- 2024: Dreams of New Labor (and on YouTube)
- 2023: Bioregions (and on YouTube)
- 2021 Art Collab
Submission Guidelines #
- All entries must be submitted by or before 30th June 2025.
- Artists may submit as many pieces as they’d like. In fact, the more the merrier.
- Artwork may be traditional or digital.
- Traditional artwork must be digitally scanned, not photographed.
- Artwork must not be AI-generated or contain AI elements (backgrounds, textures, etc…).
- Artwork must be colourised.
- Artwork may not depict anything of an NSFW nature.
- All artwork must pertain to the theme “LIFE OF LEARNING” (see theme guidelines below)
- Artwork must be submitted to the email address saint.whom@gmail.com with the email subject “SOLARPUNK ART 2025.” A brief description of the work would be appreciated.
- Submitted artwork should be submitted under Creative Commons BY 4.0 or Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0. Yo can learn more about them here.
- Submitted artwork may be included in a livestream on the main channel and video on the side channel, as well as being published on Tumblr and on Story Seed Library. By submitting artwork, you consent to your work being shared in this manner with due credit. I reserve the right to decline submissions.
- Artists should include what, if any, credit they would like to have included in the final showcase.
Theme Guidelines #
- Artwork must depict people engaged in teaching and learning: literature, sciences, arts, trades, sports, crafts, cooking, husbandry, permaculture, social skills, and more.
- Consider settings within and outside the classroom or lecture hall. How do mentorships and apprenticeships look lke? Does practical learning happen in libraries, makerspaces and hackerspaces?
- Imagine how humanity, nature, and technology interact in your setting - and how it’s different from today.
- Think how different age groups interact in a setting where lifelong learning is the norm, not only in schools!
- Explore the role of research, non-exploitative peer review, and science education.
- What does Citizen Science look like, when regular people care for and monitor the ecosystems around them?
- Education and learning is not only about your early life. Look at projects like the University of the Third Age - maybe there are even some in your area?
- To make people more aware of their surroundings, education and learning should happen within the context of local ecosystems. How can we encourage people to get involved in their own hometowns?
- Take a look at the Story Seeds and see if any of them inspire you!
- Artwork must reflect some degree of human diversity. People of different racial and cultural backgrounds, genders and sexualities, abilities, ages, etc, should be included. Solarpunk is for the people. All the people.
- Artwork may depict urban, semi-urban, and rural spaces, including interiors or exteriors.
- Greenwashing is not solarpunk. Don’t just change a single element about our current world, like adding trees or stained glass to unsustainable buildings. Think about subtler and more beautiful consequences of sustainability - like how making technology repairable can make everything more long-lasting and personalised.
- Artwork should be a realistic vision of near-future, with no fantasy or far-future elements. We want to explore how humanity can change, not what magical technology can save us.
- Please indicate in your submission what form(s) of education you are reimagining in your work. Try to venture outside the typical.
- Further theme guidelines may be included as artist discussion ensues/clarifying questions are asked.
- If you’re seeking inspiration or explanation, consider Andrewism’s videos on:
Background art CC BY-SA 4.0 Sean Bodley
