We are a team of multimedia artists working at the intersection of art and climate action

  • Founder

    Classically trained, a contemporary rebel at heart, Sara (she/her) is electrified by all things movement. She began her dance training at the age of four, under the tutelage of Toni Carrion and Denise Donovan. She continued her training at the University of California, Irvine, where she holds degrees in Dance Performance and Anthropology. Sara currently lives in Kansas City, MO and has danced with companies including Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Hanna Brictson & Dancers, and Cocodaco Dance Project. She has performed works by choreographers including, but not limited to, Lar Lubovitch, Sherry Zunker, Christian Denice, Dante Puleio, Jose Limon, and David Maurice. She has presented works at festivals including 92Y’s Mobile Dance Film festival, and the Contemporary choreographic Dance Festival.

    Sara is an interdisciplinary artist, and is interested in creating work that is accessible for all- and has written and produced multi-media shows that are dedicated to telling tales of the earth, and of healing.

    Sara is tenaciously devoted to her heart’s path, and seeks to amplify all beings in their own regeneration.

    @sarakirstenn

  • Operations

    Maxine Patronik (she/her) is a dance artist, dance educator, and art administrator based in Chicago. She is interested in the intersection of art and social activism, and carries a passion for using art to connect, communicate, and grow. Maxine holds a BFA Degree in Dance from Dominican University of California with a minor in Creative Writing, and her professional career has included choreographing and performing across Chicago and creating earth-focused works for film. She is driven by collaboration in all forms, and is the co-creator of Fémura, a movement and music project with Maché Sánchez. As a movement artist and earth-lover, Maxine was drawn to Unearth upon its inception in 2020, first becoming involved in the inaugural film festival and then becoming part of the founding team in early 2021. She is thrilled to contribute her energy and efforts towards Unearth’s daily operations and growth as a non-profit.

  • Outreach+ Collaborations

    Maia (she/her) is a writer and movement artist from Chicago currently in residence at Urban Adamah in Berkeley, CA. She has a Master’s degree in climate journalism from Northwestern University and a Bachelor's in Environmental Analysis from Pomona College. Her writing focuses on regenerative food systems and the intersections of art and environmental activism, and her work has been featured in publications including Ambrook Research, i-D, In These Times, mindbodygreen, Cherry Bombe Magazine, Green Building & Design, Closed Loop Cooking, and more. Maia has performed and choreographed as a contemporary dancer throughout Chicago and in the Bay Area, and is currently exploring how dance can help us reconnect with land as co-creator of Landing: A Movement Festival at Zumwalt Acres. In her spare time you can find her baking, reading, hiking, practicing and teaching yoga, and volunteering as an equine therapy assistant. She is thrilled to be fostering community with UneARTh.

We are an inclusive collective of Earth lovers who believe creative expression is a vital component of activism, and we strive to amplify and support makers who share our passion for the planet.

We catalyze collaborations, produce performances, moderate workshops, create online social networks, and offer residencies, pop-up community events, and more!

UneARTh supports creatives whose work is in conversation with the climate justice movement

  • UneARTh’s founder, Sara Schroerlucke, grew up in Claremont CA, nicknamed “the city of trees and PhDs.” It was here that she was immersed in a very unified community that practiced two unspoken rules: “Respect others, and Respect Nature”. Here at UneARTh, we are concerned about the ways in which the dying earth directly correlates to, and mirrors the decline that we face as a human species, on individual and collective levels. In order to reconcile issues that we face as a species and within our environment, it is essential that we firstly heal our selves. The earth must be the exemplary focal point of our daily healing practices.

    Sara, and the team at UneARTh, believe that this is possible through the symbiosis of art and earth. While the earth contains all of the wisdom needed to understand how we might regenerate, the arts can raise awareness to these various issues, and can call people to action. Artists play an imperative role in exemplifying this reconciliation with the earth, and amongst our communities, through their own regenerative practices.

    With this in mind, Sara created UneARTh in 2020, a multimedia festival - now a 501(c)(3) organization in California & Illinois - that amplifies regenerative art that seeks to transform our communities, as we know it.

  • Where did UneARTh’s name come from?

    UneARTh came from a brainstorming session between Sara and long-time friend & art historian, Abby Kolodge. The two were interested in creating a play on words, (ART & EARTH) to suggest that, regenerative art practices are firstly informed by the earth, and thusly, the two working in tandem can serve as a vehicle for transformation on micro and macro scales. It is only through the grounding into earth - centered healing practices that we can bring to light the very issues that obstruct the possibility for a more just and resilient future .It is through regenerative art practices that we believe the earth’s wisdom can be transmitted to promote healing within our selves, our communities, our society, and on our earth.

    What does it mean to be a Regenerative Artist?

    A regenerative artist is anyone who aims to inspire healing and change through their own creative lens. A regenerative artist also prioritizes practice over product.

    What is Regenerative Art- Making?

    The term regenerative derives from the regenerative agriculture movement, which is a philosophy and approach to land management that asks us to think about how all aspects of agriculture are connected through a web — a network of entities who grow, enhance, exchange, distribute, and consume goods and services. Regenerative farming is meant to restore soil and ecosystem health, address inequity, and leave our land, waters, and climate in better shape for future generations (NRDC).

    Regenerative art making applies the same framework of interconnection and cyclic renewal to creative expression. Regenerative artists position themselves as connected entities within the living network of their communities and environments. That is, we respect the land we live on and consider the impacts, positive and negative, that our labor and output effects. We honor the healing potential of art, and our work is in service of creating a safer, and more just world for all living beings. We embrace the limitations and fluctuations of our own bodyminds, and reject the capitalist mandate of constant production and growth. Like a perennial garden, our composition and strategy spans seasons past, present, and future.

    Some examples of regenerative art-making include: repurposed, and renewably-sourced materials; artistic productions and collectives that honor the voices of all collaborators; art-making that empowers the art-maker; promoting Human-Earth connection; art that provides ecological education for its audience.

  • We are a 501c3, registered in California and Illinois