Tania Ralli

Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from WBUR's weekly arts and culture newsletter, The ARTery. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here. Since 2019, we've undertaken a project called The Makers to highlight some of the most exciting artists working in Greater Boston. Throughout the year, we keep an eye out for work that intrigues us, but we also rely on other people in the arts community to tell us who they find exciting right now.

The natural world has been a powerful muse for artists across the ages. From the earliest petroglyphs to sweeping landscape paintings, humans have been driven to record the world around us. And in our present era, engaging with our environment is more urgent than ever. This year, we introduce you to ten local artists of color who are foregrounding the environment — its beauty, its fragility, and the mounting challenges — in their work.