This year, APECS Italy organized its third Antarctica Day event in conjunction with the ‘Climate change, the grand challenge’ public outreach symposium, held at the Zattere campus of the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari. In contrast to previous years, APECS Italy teamed up with a larger event to celebrate Antarctica Day, one that was focused on the use of art to communicate science. To this end, as well as to emphasize how the themes of polar research and climate change are in inextricably intertwined, the event was organized in two parts: after a brief introduction to the impacts of climate change in the Veneto region by Professor Roberto Pastres from the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari, the first half of the event focused on the use of art to capture themes of climate change. In this section, works by artists submitted to a competition for inclusion in the symposium were displayed and discussed by the symposium judges, as well as by the artists (when they were present). Works included painting, sculpture and poetry. The second part of the event was spearheaded by APECS Italy, more specifically addressing Antarctica Day by discussing topics in polar research and how they relate to climate change concerns. The presentations revolved around the theme of polar exploration in research, specifically, the confluence of the scientific aspects with the human experience. The ‘Protecting Ice Memory’ project was discussed, promoted by the University of Ca’ Foscari Venice, the CNR-IDPA in Venice and the LGGE in Grenoble. The final section concluded with a reading of the polar diary recently published by Federico Dallo, which sheds light on the human side of conducting polar research: the hardships, emotions and triumphs.
