ALLEN MEMORIAL ART MUSEUM 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This publication emerges from a unique convergence of scholarship, creativity, and environmental commitment at Oberlin College. In 2025, as the college celebrated achieving carbon neutrality—a milestone years in the making— we recognized that our dedication to sustainability had already been quietly shaping academic life across campus. From seminar discussions, research projects, and gallery installations, students, faculty, and staff had been exploring what it means to live in harmony with our planet. Two exhibitions at the Allen Memorial Art Museum featured in this book exemplify that spirit. What began as Kevin Greenwood’s fall 2021 exhibition Green Japan: Images of Sustainable Living in Ukiyo-e Prints, and later Professor Ann Sherif’s in-depth 2024 course on environmental humanities in Asia, Green Japan, evolved into something larger: a collaborative exploration that moved from museum to classroom to museum exhibition, from individual reflection to collective action. The Allen became not just a venue, but a partner in asking urgent questions about art, environment, and responsibility— questions that required a diverse community of collaborators to fully explore. This work would not have been possible without a community of supporters who believed in its vision. Greenwood thanks Azby Brown for the initial inspiration, and for his input on the Green Japan exhibition. Professor Denin Lee was a wonderful collaborator on Sherif’s course, providing guest lectures, and later a public lecture related to the exhibition Eight Views: Place, Picture, and Poem in East Asia. At the Allen, Megan Harding provided editing of the original exhibition text for Green Japan, and Stacie Ross did the same for Eight Views, as well as creating the layout and formatting for this publication. Pam Snyder and Lizzie Edgar facilitated crucial support from Oberlin College’s Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment (LIASE) grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Most importantly, we thank the Oberlin College students who transformed academic inquiry into something vital and urgent, as the Eight Views project evolved from classroom to exhibition. Their willingness to see connections between past and present, between art and environmental literacy, between Japan and Ohio, reminds us why this work matters: Mei Corliss (OC 2027), Jackson Davies (OC 2026), Michelle Chen (OC 2027), Phebe Grandison (OC 2027), Thea Larks (OC 2027), Gabe Liftman (OC 2026), Greta Lee (OC 2026), Phoebe McChesney (OC 2025), Zala Mendelson (OC 2026), Julianna Reineks (OC 2026), Bangbo Sun (OC 2024), Elliot Ungar (OC 2026), and Zaden Viola (OC 2026). The pages that follow reflect this collaborative spirit, weaving together scholarly research, artistic interpretation, and environmental consciousness in ways that honor both the past and our planetary future.
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