We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful M. Annenberg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with M. below.

M., thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

Becoming an artist never felt like a decision. it was more of a need. The art studio was a place of peace, of challenge and of contentment. Going to art school in NYC, after college, at a place called the Art Students League, was the perfect laboratory to experiment in, because you only had to sign up for class on a month to month basis. Therefore, you could study with how many or few teachers appealed to you. There were no grades, either, so it was a place of no judgement; not no criticism, just no judgement. The students didn’t give each other critiques, like in a formal college, we just learned from others in a casual way. My family was against my studying art, but that changed when I joined a group show in Brooklyn and sold two figure paintings. They were not only amazed, but it encouraged my dad to start a new career in photography, and he started classes in darkroom photo techniques.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

How does one become an artist? It should have been a straight road, but it was a long and winding one, with a dad who got a certificate in advertising design from Cooper Union back in the day. I was born into a family that decided when I very young that I would become a musician. The day I walked into the Art Students League, NYC, at the age of 25, changed that trajectory. I met a teacher who believed in me, Isaac Soyer, and I never looked back.

With a traditional background in figure drawing and painting, I could have been happy with a profession as a portrait painter, but it was not meant to be. My growing awareness of climate change and other issues, changed my path. Conceptual art, where ideas dominate over the genres of landscape, still life
and portraits, prevailed.
Since we are products of both nature and nurture, the one thing my parents introduced me to, that had unintended consequences, was a newsletter written by the journalist I.F. Stone, that analyzed the unreported news stories of the day. What started as a boring
ritual of dinner conservation, for me, as a child, evolved into a life long passion,
searching out the subjects that moved me to my core, that were under reported. Using newsprint media as a design element, I arranged visual compositions in order to communicate the science I cared deeply about, combining art, science and journalism as a unique genre.

Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, was pivotal in my life as an artist and it propelled me into becoming a curator – a field I had never considered to be in my future.
The clarity of his before and after images of our melting cryosphere were alarming.
I organized my first exhibition, in 2011, called Petroleum Paradox, with the assistance of the Women’s Caucus for Art, a national art organization with a social mission. I wasn’t sure that there would be a response to our ‘call for art’ but there were 600 submissions. Seventy -two artists were part of that exhibit. The art critic, Eleanor Heartney, served as the juror. This year, I just organized my sixth environmental exhibition.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Perhaps the greatest surprise in my creative journey has been discovering my latent fascination with science. How is science communicated to the general public – and how can art facilitate the understanding of our changing biosphere and our changing ecosystems; that has become my goal. When I joined the roster of artists who showed their work with Flomenhaft Gallery, in NYC, the director, Eleanor Flomenhaft, supported that interest in science, by sponsoring a panel called Art, Activism and Global Warming, with the Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. Gavin A. Schmidt. Eleanor and I co-curated the exhibition, Earth SOS, in an effort to convey the urgency of lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

When the Gallery closed in 2018, I followed that curatorial effort with three pop up shows at Ceres Gallery, NYC, called Endangered Earth, Earth on the Edge and Mayday! Eaarth. I added educational panels to these exhibits, in order to explain global warming to the public – for example, Dr. Klaus Jacob, Earth Institute, an expert in sea level rise, spoke at Earth on the Edge. Environmental writer, Bill McKibben, Dr. James Hansen, former director of NASA, GISS and the author Geoff Dembicki were interviewed during Mayday! Eaarth. These interviews can be viewed on YouTube at m. annenberg. My latest exhibit, Biophilia; In Excelsis, which means “the love of life, in the highest”. is currently on view at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music, in New Haven, CT, March 27 – May 2 , 2024. I interviewed NASA’s Dr. Gavin Schmidt at the opening reception. That interview is on the ISM’s youtube page.

Have you ever had to pivot?

It was a miracle to be part of the Flomenhaft Gallery in New York City. Elly Flomenhaft represented people like Faith Ringgold and Jaune Quick -to -See- Smith. I had sent in images that were rejected a year earlier, in 2013, and received a form letter stating that they weren’t looking for additional artists. Elly met me at an exhibit hosted by John Jay College, called Women Call for Peace, when I was part of a panel. While every else talked about issues relating to peace, I talked about Malala Yousefsai, and the penalty of living among extremists, for women wanting an education. My sculpture on view, memorialized a victim of stoning in Somalia. Eleanor was intrigued by my talk and she came to my studio for a visit. Following that visit, she included my artwork in a group show. The three years we spent together was my first taste of a gallerist’s support. Besides including my work in exhibits, she sponsored a brunch for me, when my work was included in an article. We also co-curated an exhibition together, about global warming, which she knew was the issue closest to my heart, called Earth SOS. How devastating, when she announced her retirement at the age of 85. She had one of the few galleries in NYC devoted to political and socially conscious art. There was no replacement.

This was definitely a crossroads for me. I didn’t want to apply to another gallery, but I also didn’t want to stop making art related to the climate crisis. My artistic practice documented whether, or if, international and national climate studies were reported in the American press; who reported them and who didn’t. I came up with a term, “inverse propaganda” for news items that should be reported, but aren’t (which prevents civic engagement). For example, when the National Climate Assessment was published, in 2019, it was upstaged by the arrest of Harvey Weinstein, which dominated the airwaves.

I decided that the way to go forward from this disappointment, was to become
my own gallerist – a curator-at-large. There was a large gallery space in Chelsea, the most popular gallery district in NYC, that opened its space to non-members every December. I decided to apply for the space, which became available to rent. I searched for artists, who were as concerned about the climate crisis as I was and whose artwork centered on this concern. This resulted in three exhibitions at Ceres Gallery, over a span of four years. My initiative, as independent curator, culminated this spring with an exhibition called Biophilia; In Excelsis, with 22 artists, who address our changing ecosystems, at the
Yale Institute of Sacred Music, CT. The ISM’s call for art, called “Ritual Natures:
Expressive Culture and the Natural Forms of Trees, Water and Rocks”, was right down my alley! The exhibition continues until May 2, 2024 at the Institute of Sacred Music, 406 Prospect Street, New Haven CT. Tu -Th, 10-4 pm.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mannenberg.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m.annenberg
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarciaAnnenberg
• Linkedin: https://www.LinkedIn.com/MarciaAnnenberg
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@marciberg
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/m.annenberg

Image Credits
Jean Vong Etienne Frossard