Into the Time Horizon

This exhibition, which occupies every gallery of the Museum, invites visitors to consider how to move forward on our planet—ethically, responsibly, and with care for coming generations. It strives to catalyze and amplify protection for the Earth and build an awareness around environmental concerns on many different levels. In the process, it promotes forward-thinking models rooted in collectivity, engagement, and collaboration.

A “time horizon,” a concept mostly used in economics, is a point in the future that one sets for the length of an investment. In his acclaimed novel The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson astutely describes the environment’s time horizon as the window of opportunity we still have to avert the most cataclysmic effects of climate change. The pattern of rising temperatures is evident in desert communities such as Reno, which has the unfortunate title of being the fastest warming city in the United States (with Las Vegas coming in second). Since 1970, Reno’s average annual temperature has increased by 7.8°F.

Into the Time Horizon encompasses seven discrete thematic sections, while also including several large-scale installations that interweave the project’s primary concerns. Including nearly 200 artists, the exhibition sheds insight into the wide range of output, across all mediums, of makers who are integrating environmentalism into their innovative creative approaches. Ecofeminism is a recurring motif, with more than 50 percent of the artists identifying as female.