Just Transition Visioning Project

Read the 2024 Exhibit Booklet

Northwest Indiana has been dominated by the extractive economy for well over a century and is one of the largest fossil fuel industry corridors on the planet.

However, we believe that communities deserve the ability to dream that a new world and region is possible, one free from pollution, where everyone has access to clean air, water, and soil, and family-sustaining, union jobs that usher in a renewable and regenerative economy.

The Just Transition Visioning Project is a program launched by JTNWI and partner artists to envision a Just Transition from the extractive economy of today, reliant on resource extraction, consumerism, exploitation, racism, militarism, and the concentration of wealth and power, to the regenerative economy of tomorrow, rooted in resource regeneration, caring and sacredness, cooperation, deep democracy, and ecological and social well-being.

Since launching in Spring 2024, we have welcomed two cohorts of Project artists, each hosting their own exhibitions and other visionary activities.

If you’re a creative interested in getting involved with the Just Transition Visioning Project, email us at info@jtnwi.org.

A Just Transition is about transforming an unjust past and present into a human-centered future where the planet and everyone is taken care of, and no one is left behind.

2025 Visioning Project Exhibition

On April 25, 2025, JTNWI hosted an exhibition entitled “Students on the Frontlines of Change” at Studio 659 in Whiting in collaboration with Professor Dana Moore’s fine arts students at the Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond. Read their artist’s statement below.

“What if our skies were clear?
What if our streets bloomed with green instead of smoke?
Together with Just Transition Northwest Indiana,
We asked these questions with our hearts—and answered with our hands.
Our art speaks of a future free from pollution,
where factories no longer cast shadows over our homes,
and the next generation can thrive in balance with nature.
We create not just to dream,
but to shape, to speak, to spark change.
This is our vision of a just and beautiful world—
and we believe it begins here.”

Meet Our 2025 Exhibition Program Hosts

Alexandra Magallanes
Sergio Meza
Aniyah Joseph
Arianna Hernandez
Elia Chavez
Aria Moore

2025 Exhibition Featured Artwork

Pyramid to a New Life by Daniella Flores

This Land is Made for You and Me by Sophia Nowacki

Under the Sea Recycling by Jazmin Orozco

Our View of Whihala Beach by Rocco Cabrera, Juan Carbajal, Gabriella Casillas, Elia Chavez, Madison Coglianese, Saul Cordero, Anahi Flores, Janice Flores, Alyssa Gomez, Arianna Gonzalez, Aidan Leitelt, Maximus Martinez, Alexsander Medina Marin, Gael Nunez, Alan Paz, Xabi Peterson, Jacey Ramirez, Diego Rodriguez, Elizabeth Skubisz, Megan Spanier, Joselyn Unzueta, and Joselyn Yaileen Villegas

Our View of the Indiana Dunes by Jayden Cabrales, Esther Crownover, Alejandro Diaz, Cristian Dominguez, Nayeli Gil, Mackenzie Hamer, Elijah Mondragon, Victoria Ortiz, Ja'Meah Radcliff, Jazmin Ramirez, Dre'Dien Rhea, Hannah Robinson, Truth Robinzine, Natalie Romero, Audrey Ryfa, Annalyse Vega, Julian Villagomez, Dimas Villagomez, Alejandro Webb, and Dalia White

2024 Visioning Project Exhibition

From July 26 to August 31, 2024, JTNWI hosted an exhibition at Paul Henry’s Art Gallery in Hammond, featuring an inaugural cohort of multidisciplinary artists. The exhibition showcased 70 works from 48 intergenerational and multicultural artists, including 16 students from the University of Chicago’s School of Art and Art History. The exhibition featured dancers, filmmakers, photographers, painters, graphic designers, printmakers, mixed-media artists, textile artists, and poets, who told stories of the region and envisioned a sustainable, regenerative future through art rooted in environmental and climate justice.

Meet Our 2024 Exhibition Artist Cohort