- [Donna] As part of the Zen Buddhist aesthetics, there is a craft called kintsugi, which is the repair of broken pottery with the idea that rather than throw things away, that they get reused and recycled.

In the kintsugi there's a gold scar, which really shows a certain beauty in the fact that there's wounds that do get repaired.

So that to me is a definition of resilience in a way.

The exhibition's called Portraits of the Precarious Earth and the intention is to engage the public with the environmental crisis that we're going through.

(emotional music) (fire crackling) My name is Donna Bassin.

I am a clinical psychologist with a specialty in trauma and I'm an artist who uses photography.

I'm also a mother and that plays into my work, especially now with the environment and the kids that I've been working with from Bradley School.

- We are very proud to have an over 20 year long partnership with the Bradley Schools.

We've spent a lot of time over the last several years focusing on the relationship between the museum, our community partners and mental health.

- [Charlene] The kids that I work with have emotional and behavioral issues, so the public school will send them to Bradley and we'll teach them some strategies so that they can go back to their public school and be successful.

The kids have the opportunity to see Donna in her studio and she was talking about the work that she was making at the time.

- [Donna] They asked me a lot of questions and I talked about my work and talked about healing and vulnerability and then asked the kids to respond.

Oh wow.

By creating their own work.

Look at these.

These are of magnificent.

- [Danielle] That's where the idea sparked from is this notion of wanting the Bradley students to not only have an arts learning experience where they learn about a work of art, but then there's the next level of exhibiting or being part of an installation experience in the museum.

- I told them about kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of repair, which allows for the history of the object, including the wound and the scar as being showed as part of the object's life.

- [Danielle] There seemed to be an immediate connection that they felt a sense of loss around climate change and that's where there was this natural alignment between Donna's exhibition here and the Bradley students.

- I think this work is more moving than my own.

Wow, wow, wow.

- [Charlene] Donna's work.

Let them think about themselves, but also what's going on in the world.

And as a young person, that could be a little bit frightening, right?

(folk guitar music) (ice crashing) - [Donna] The question I've been asking is why, given the environmental crisis, why aren't more people paying attention?

If we think about it as so overwhelming and traumatic that we disengage, that we feel helpless, we become apathetic, we get depressed.

How do I get people to look at the work that I'm, to look at this environmental crisis?

I felt like I needed to instill some beauty and signs of hopefulness and and resilience in them.

(folk guitar music) - [Charlene] In Donna's work, we see these landscapes that are barren and she's stitching and mending beautiful color into them or, or making us aware that there's little glimmers in this devastation.

As they were developing their own work, we started giving them two prompts.

So what is it do you think Mother Earth would say?

And what would you tell your parents or your grandparents because they left you this.

(chalk scratching) - [Danielle] It wasn't until Donna started writing the words on the wall where the impact of the program really came through.

The students' words are, they're powerful.

- [Donna] I am a tree.

Please protect me.

Do you understand how much has disappeared?

I was struggling with how to represent them and I wrote it on the board here and I started not making it so legible because I think it is hard to hear and I wanted it to be hard to read, but I, and I wanted in the same way that I want with my own work, for you to look closely and say, what's going on here?

I'm a kid, we need to work together.

I am vulnerable.

- [Danielle] I truly feel like these students got it.

And it's not just the theme of the climate crisis, but there are deeper layers around pain and repair and loss.

- [Charlene] Some of our kids are healing, right?

And repairing.

They do have a voice and I don't wanna speak for them because actually their voice is in their artwork.

So I think if you focus on their work, you can hear what they have to say.

(water bubbling) - [Students] Why would you throw trash into lakes, ponds, and rivers and oceans?

Stop cutting my trees down, I say.

Respect the environment.

We need to protect the earth for this is the only planet we have.

The only planet raising life.

If I was a tree and I could talk, I would say, I love this place.

(zen music) (TV static buzzing) (surf rock music)