Editorial note

I am very pleased to make several announcements on behalf of the journal, the editorial team and the advisory board.

First, we are delighted to announce that the journal will now be indexed by Scopus, one of the top indexing and abstracting providers for academic research. Scopus gives us considerably greater coverage for various kinds of online/digitised searches. It extends the reach of the contributions published in the journal, allows us to connect to wider readerships, and will increase the visibility of our authors and their work. It is one more boon and incentive for scholars to choose World Art for publishing their research and ensuring quality recognition.

Second, we have a few updates regarding our content and submission guidelines. We are now on a regular programme of publishing three issues per year, which has been the case since 2019. This uptick built on the successes of the previous years, and total submissions have increased accordingly. It’s worth mentioning that at least one of the three issues each year will be published as a special themed issue. Proposals for special issues are always welcome, and any queries or expressions of interest can be directed to: [email protected].

Any current calls for papers can always be found on the journal’s website: https://www.tandfonline.com. Of course, new manuscripts not intended for themed issues can be submitted at any time, and consideration of them proceeds on a rolling basis. This includes various kinds of contribution types (e.g., research articles, visual essays, art interventions, position pieces and interviews).

Lastly, that brings us to the present issue, dedicated to ‘Art and Environmental Crisis,’ guest-edited by Renato Rodrigues da Silva and Tami Bogéa. This issue is inspired by recent developments and activities concerning art and the environment across the world. Recent impacts wrought by climate change, tied to global warming and other anthropogenic forces, are eroding the world’s sustainability. At the same time, they reveal regional vulnerabilities, great inequalities in wealth and power, and legal and moral transgressions. Many signs and sources of evidence point to a planet and its various ecosystems in flux and some teetering on the edge.

World Art journal has already been covering themes centred on art and environmental concerns, including evaluating forms of expression and receptivity (e.g. Roosen, Klöckner, and Swim 2017; Hahn and Berkers 2021; Jacobs 2022; Jurriëns 2022). And this special issue continues that interest broadly about the greatest global challenge for the earth and humankind, both now and for the foreseeable future.

In particular, the contributions join up to register and visualise how various artists, scholars and writers are responding to the growing crisis. As the works show with great detail and critical reflection, this may involve a range of concerted activities: effective communication of information; visual documentation; environmental activism; decolonising critique; and historical reflections. Crucially, these are voices emerging from around the world.

Of course, much more can and ought to be done. One related, upcoming initiative is the next meeting of the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG 2023 at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK). Centred on ‘Climate Archaeologies: Temporalities & Ontologies', it will address ancient environmental developments and include coverage of creative cultural responses, including in art and landscape, past and present (https://tagnorwich2023.wordpress.com/); World Art intends to host a session and special issue on the topic. The journal will be ready to further chronicle and provide visibility for developments that are now burgeoning worldwide at the intersections of art, visual culture and environmental change.