Sant Khalsa was awarded the 2023-24 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship (Legacy level) for her lifetime contributions to California art, environment and community.
Sant Khalsa is a visual artist whose work derives from a mindful inquiry into critical and complex environmental issues. Her practice balances art making (photography, mixed-media sculpture, and installation), teaching, lecturing, curating, writing, mentoring, and community building. She lives and works in Joshua Tree in San Bernardino County.
Sant Khalsa’s Geothermal Field photographic works made at the Salton Sea are featured in the exhibition “Reflections on a Warming Planet” at Pasadena City College Boone Family and V Galleries in Pasadena, CA from August 26 – September 27, 2024.
Sant Khalsa curated the Getty supported PST ART: Art & Life Collide exhibition with book Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees, at the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, CA, September 7 – December 29, 2024. The exhibition and book brings together artists, scientists, indigenous culture bearers, conservationists, policy makers, historians and creative writers, all focused on the plight of the Joshua tree, threatened by climate change, fire, development, industrial solar and other human impacts.
Desert Forest focuses on the plight of the iconic Joshua tree and the vital and sensitive Mojave Desert ecosystem that supports it. The tree’s survival is threatened by climate change as well as development, wind and solar energy industries, and wildfires. In August 2020, a lightning strike ignited a fire that destroyed more than 1.3 million trees, prompting the California Fish and Game Commission to consider granting western Joshua trees protection under the California Endangered Species Act. This multidisciplinary project brings together natural history, Indigenous knowledge, public policy, conservation science, and creative works by historic and contemporary artists to spotlight the threatened tree and preservation efforts around it. From the first known photograph of a Joshua tree by Carleton Watkins to recent photographs by Cara Romero, the exhibition brings attention to the Joshua tree, current pressures on its fragile desert ecosystem, and its future viability.