Art For Laudato Si is a multi-faceted project that creativity envisions and brings to life ideas to help address the twin crises of climate change and inequality.
Through murals, paintings, events, sculptures, and collaboration, we aim to inspire hope, creativity, and action.
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Art
Delphinoto’s paintings, murals and actions embrace the potential for social change and unity central to Laudato Si by pushing beyond the latest “ism”, in a search for transcendant threads.
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Economy
Living Laudato Si, our team is implementing solutions offered in Laudato Si at Bakeshop in Brooklyn, a cafe-bakery that serves sustainable food.
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Policy
Caring for our common home means reducing and eliminating waste. We launched a recycled coffee cup displaying a message urging people to call their city council person and asking for a ban on all disposable cups to help usher is a zero waste economy.
Laudato si' (Praise Be to You) is the second encyclical of Pope Francis. The encyclical has the subtitle "on care for our common home.”
The letter calls on on each of us to renew our relationship to mother earth and work towards reversing environmental degradation and global warming.
The first paragraph of Laudato Si reads:
“Laudato si’, mi’ Signore – Praise be to you, my Lord. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.”
In November 2021, Pope Francis launched a 7 year campaign to put into action called The Laudato Si’ Action Platform, which “empowers the universal Church and all people of good will” to respond to Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical on caring for our common home.
Exploring the ancient teachings of our faith in the light of today’s ecological crisis, Laudato Si’ teaches us that “everything is connected” (LS 91). As our relationship with our divine Creator has been neglected, human relationships have faltered, and our world has grown hotter, less stable, and more lifeless. As a result, we all suffer, and the poorest and most vulnerable suffer above all. We face a “complex crisis that is both social and environmental” (LS 139).
There is hope. Pope Francis calls us to develop a “loving awareness” of this home we share and to act on the values we hold dear (LS 220).
Standing on the firm ground of “three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor, and with the Earth itself,” we commit to setting out “on the long path of renewal.” (LS 66, 202) We embrace our rightful place in the “order and dynamism” that our Creator ordained, and we urgently embark on new ways of living with “creativity and enthusiasm” (LS 221, 220).
About Laudato Si
Delphinoto is a social practice artist based in NYC, his studio is in the Lower East Side. He works primarily in oils, murals and sculpture. He is inspired by the intersection of nature, commerce, and faith, and the humanistic striving for renewal. His influences come from his Italian roots, growing up in Brooklyn, and working in the climate change movement for over 20 years, where he was active in building up the youth climate movement through SustainUS and Energy Action Coalition. As a member of Climate Reality he was personally trained by Vice President Al Gore to be a climate change lecturer. Passionate about local organic farming, he is the co-founder of the world’s first carbon neutral bakery, and has co-founded sustainable several cafe-bakeries since 2005 including Bake Shop in Brooklyn. In 2020 in response to COVID-19 he launched mutual-aid fridges and murals inspired by Laudato Si to re-envision food systems and currency. In 2023 he partnered with the Laudato Si Action Platform and Vatican to produce an art exhibition about integral ecology. He received a B.A in psychology from CUNY and his work has been featured local, Catholic, and major press.