President’s Message: “Seeds Germinating”

This came home to me at the opening program for The Huntington’s first Youth Summit, “Sustainable C.H.A.N.G.E.S.,” which was held in early November. Nearly 120 teens from surrounding school districts attended lectures, exhibition and garden tours, and workshops inspiring them to be part of the solution to the climate crisis. Hosted by The Huntington’s Education division, this Youth Summit challenged participants to create impact projects that bring aspects of sustainability to their communities or spheres of influence. The students will reconvene in March to discuss their projects and evaluate the results. In other words, these teen “influencers” will be agents of positive environmental and social change.

The inaugural session of the Youth Summit set an inspiring tone, with three members of the Summit’s advisory council interviewing Nicole Cavender, director of the Botanical Gardens. There have been only four directors of the Botanical Gardens in the 100-year history of The Huntington. This position oversees a division that cares for over 27,000 different kinds of plants within our 130 acres of themed botanical gardens: from the Chinese Garden to the Desert Garden; from the Rose Garden to the Palm Garden; from the Shakespeare Garden to our conservatory of tropical and other rare plants. When asked how she got to where she is today, Nicole’s answer was all about seeds and growth. She had followed her passion for plants and nature, influenced from childhood by her scientist dad, through her formal education, a Ph.D. in horticulture and botany, and then to positions where she could spend her time thinking about the interaction between people and plants. One of the teen volunteers asked a thought-provoking question: How can people who care about climate change encourage others to care, especially when its effects can occur slowly, over decades and centuries? Nicole repeated the basic message that sustainability is a multigenerational project, using resources without compromising future generations. It involves sustained action, with an understanding of how our collective actions affect the future.

The Youth Summit was inspired by a Getty-led initiative held every five years, PST ART. For the 2024–25 theme, Art & Science Collide, The Huntington is hosting the exhibition “Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis,” which the Youth Summit participants toured. The exhibition brings together art, history, literature, and science from our collections and key loans from other institutions, presenting 150 years of British and American artists, scientists, and writers observing and documenting the evolving relationship between humans and the natural world, as well as the effects of industrialization. Through manuscript pages from Thoreau’s Walden journals, Thomas Cole’s magisterial painting Portage Falls on the Genesee, and 19th-century scientific instruments, “Storm Cloud” tells the story of the origins of the climate crisis from both a humanistic and scientific perspective.

The human impact on the environment has accrued over generations, and we—as humanists, scientists, and citizens of the world—have expanded our understanding of these effects and possible remedies. At The Huntington, our own practices in the gardens have evolved. From water-capture techniques to drought-tolerant plants and experiments in our botanical cryopreservation lab, we aim to not only sustain but also regenerate our natural environment. Similarly, “Storm Cloud” and the Youth Summit have seeded dialogues among audiences of all ages that we hope will continue to germinate, transforming our physical and cultural landscape for the better.