Turning up the heat

How sculptor Victor Pacheco and climate scientist Paul Kirshen track past, present, and future temperatures in Umbrella Arts Center's "Tapped In."

Victor Pacheco with Paul Kirshen, “Temperature Check!” 2024. Steel, glass, lead strips, Arduino, solar power kit, 6’x7’x10. Photo by Stephanie Marlin-Curiel. Photo courtesy Umbrella Arts. All other photos courtesy Victor Pacheco.

Artists and scientists often approach problems differently. Put them on a team together, and maybe you begin to solve some of the world’s problems. In Concord, the Umbrella Arts Center’s “Tapped In: Moving Hearts and Minds through Art and Science,” curator Stephanie Marlin-Curiel pairs artists and scientists to address climate issues – and specifically the notion of edges in ecosystems. The outdoor portion of the show is up through June 8.

But what’s the edge when it comes to temperature? We’re all the proverbial frogs in a pot of heating water, adapting and ignoring as we go about our days, oblivious to the approaching boiling point. Sculptor Victor Pacheco collaborated with Paul Kirshen, Professor of Climate Adaptation in the School for the Environment at University of Massachusetts Boston, to create the installation’s centerpiece, “Temperature Check!”.