Coal + ICE

From Beijing to New York: Over a decade of visualizing the climate crisis through photography and video

Leah Thompson and Jillian Schultz: Exhibition Producers

Project of the Asia Society

COAL + ICE is an immersive documentary photography and video exhibition about climate change that brings together the work of over 40 photographers from around the world to visualize the causes and consequences of the climate crisis and foreground creative solutions.

The exhibition was first developed by Asia Society in 2011 for Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing, China. Leah was the lead producer for Asia Society and Jillian for Three Shadows (see Two Tigers origin story). Over the past 13 years, COAL + ICE traveled to rural China, Shanghai, Paris, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York. The exhibition continues to evolve as the years go by, both to fit each unique venue and to address the changing dimensions of the climate crisis.

As the producers of COAL + ICE, we serve as the lead organizing entity, fostering communication and collaboration between the Asia Society staff, venues, curatorial and exhibition design team, photographers, fabrication and installation teams, etc. In both San Francisco and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. we also helped produce the accompanying slate of programming (in D.C., Two Tigers also took the lead on Communications for the project, detailed here). Whether working in China or inside the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Paris, through this project we have garnered immense experience solving production challenges in sensitive situations.

The exhibition is co-curated by Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and international exhibition designer Jeroen de Vries, and led by Asia Society’s Orville Schell.