Next Normal, a CASCADE pilot art exhibition, launched in February 2026 during Orientation Week at the University of Cape Town’s Environmental and Geographical Sciences (EGS) building. Running from 11 to 13 February, the exhibit developed in partnership with the Climate Systems Analysis Group and arts-based NPO Awehness and EGS department was designed to do two things at once: share what CASCADE has learned, and use creative storytelling to spark meaningful public dialogue and test new, community-centered ways of sharing vital climate-health research.

A space designed for encounter

The exhibition unfolded in two parts. The first was a self-guided journey through photography and installations built from recycled materials, cardboard, plywood, and live plants. Atmospheric lighting, simulated storm sounds, and a slowly dripping water bucket gave the space a sensory weight that data alone cannot carry. The exhibition drew a diverse mix of campus life: the CASCADE team, 11 first-year students, and EGS staff and students all moved through the space across the three days.

Visitors descending the staircase towards the EGS building could hear the resonant wind chimes representing the rising global temperatures, the installation welcomed visitors into the heat-themed foyer before entering a corridor devoted to urban flooding. The second part invited people to participate directly through facilitated games, group discussions, graffiti walls, collective puzzle-drawing, and reflection postcards in which visitors wrote letters to their past or future selves. 

What visitors brought to the work

As people engaged with the maps, photographs, and installations, the conversation often returned to the texture of daily life. Participants spoke about how climate threats disproportionately affect communities across Cape Town, how affluent neighbourhoods and informal settlements face the same heatwaves and storms, but with vastly different resources to absorb them. One of the activities asked participants to write a postcard to their past or future self, sharing how they felt about climate change and their potential to contribute. The postcard activity highlighted how simple drawings and personal storytelling can make climate-health advocacy relatable.

“I learned that sharing stories about health and climate change can be simple but powerful. Art, writing, and drawing can help people express how climate change affects their daily lives and health,” one participant reflected.

The installations successfully illustrated the subtle intersections of climate and health. Specifically, they demonstrated how extreme heat exacerbates dehydration and chronic conditions, and how receding floodwaters leave behind persistent, toxic bacteria. Seeing these connections together, rather than as separate concerns, prompted deeper questions about what community health support should look like during and after a disaster. 

The team came away thinking about how future exhibits might use sharper, more provocative imagery, contrasting city, community, and international media to draw out an even wider range of perspectives.

Lessons from a first attempt

A central insight from the pilot was the value of co-designing with communities from the outset. The pilot exhibition was built on earlier collaborative workshops and think-tanks where the team imagined ethical, participatory arts-based engagements. This foundation will enable engagements with different people to include longer preparation timelines, audience-rooted promotion, and partnerships with relevant stakeholders. Multi-language translation and the use of local vernacular emerged as priorities to make the work genuinely relatable.

The pilot also surfaced its share of practical lessons. Budget and time constraints shaped what was possible. The library venue, quiet and adjacent to working offices, sometimes muted the interactive energy the team had hoped to generate. Holding the exhibition during Orientation Week brought visitors through the doors, but made it harder to slow them down for the facilitated activities at the heart of the research. 

Beyond public engagement, the project became a learning space in its own right for early-career researchers, offering hands-on experience of what collaborative art-science work actually demands. A structured visit from a university lecturer and her class reinforced how much guided, educational group engagement can add, and the EGS department’s request for an extended run signalled an appetite for this kind of work.

Looking ahead

Next Normal was a chance to ask whether arts-based methods could open up dialogue between climate-health research and the people it most concerns. The answer, on the evidence, is yes. Visual prompts, sensory installations, and creative invitations can make complex environmental data accessible in ways that move people, not just inform them. 

Building on lessons learned, the CASCADE team, alongside partners Eh!woza and Awehness, plans to expand this experience to communities in Khayelitsha. This next phase will continue exploring how creative methods can support dialogue, surface local knowledge, and strengthen more grounded conversations about climate-health risks and responses in Cape Town.

Photo credit: Awehness