New name!
Water Works is now Imagine Water Works — a small, but important shift as we reimagine the future through art, science, and human connection. This change comes after reflecting on who we are, where the world is, and what we can do as an organization. We’re honing our focus and wanted our new name to convey the importance of imagination and creativity as we take on the biggest issue of our time: climate change and its interwoven oppressions.
We know the strategies that have gotten us to this point have not worked. And we know that if we want fundamentally different results, we need to do things in a fundamentally different way. With a new name and a clear focus, we are committed to shifting who is centered in conversations about our shared future.
Together we are reimagining new ways to adapt to a changing climate… and a new future that is not only possible, but healing, balanced, and just.
New people!
We’re excited to announce that our team is expanding for this next chapter, with new co-founders and advisors. Our team today centers Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) and folks who are from New Orleans, while also holding space for newcomers who have found refuge in this place. Part of imagining new ways forward includes an internal practice of pushing power outwards — as such, leadership of Imagine Water Works is shifting to Klie Kliebert, with support from Monique Thomas, Pepper Bowen, Laura Castro, Alessandra Jerolleman, and Miriam Belblidia, as we work together toward a shared vision. Each of these people bring important expertise — including grassroots organizing, visual arts, community science, film, local knowledge, climate justice, storytelling, immigrants’ rights, writing, business and nonprofit management, social science, food law & policy, and hazard mitigation — that will be needed for reimagining the kind of future in which we can all thrive.
New ways to Imagine Water Works!
As we entered our seventh year, we decided to pause and shift. Our landscape has literally and figuratively changed — subsidence, sea level rise, and climate change have become a crisis. We have more folks joining the water sector, but our challenges have grown all the more existential and continue to overlap with systemic oppressions that have also been a part of our landscape for centuries. We recognized that we need new ways forward, with more creativity, abundance, and intention about who is driving these conversations and decisions. We firmly believe that BIPOC and LGBTQ folks, who have had to survive in other hostile worlds, will lead the way when it comes to adapting to the climate crisis. We believe that artists and storytellers are needed as we seek new ways forward. And we want you to join us: Please reach out if you’d like to collaborate or donate to support our upcoming projects.
Lastly, but most importantly, many thanks to our partners throughout the years. Here are just a few photos we found while digging around the office / dusty phones / usb drives:
