LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE, CA.- Descanso Gardens debuted Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World, a vibrant new indoor-outdoor exhibition spotlighting the vital role trees play in climate resilience and urban livability. Curated by Edith and Jolly de Guzman, Roots of Cool runs July 12 through October 12, 2025. The show invites visitors to reflect on “shade equity”—the idea that access to cooling shade is not distributed equally across communities.

“When Descanso issued a curatorial call on the theme of trees, we were thrilled to apply and propose the topic of shade equity,” said curator Edith de Guzman, who is a Cooperative Extension climate researcher with the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. “Even with all of the good intent to improve the livability of neighborhoods in a warming climate, it is clear that the challenges to providing life-protecting benefits of trees and shade remain very significant.”

Featuring work from over a dozen artists, the exhibition blends visual art, music, and storytelling into a multi-sensory exploration of the past, present, and future of shade in Los Angeles. Installations span from historical reflections on discriminatory planning policies to forward-looking, community-centered visions of cooler, greener neighborhoods.

“Everyone has experienced this theme viscerally,” the curators shared. “We decided to slow things down... through the lens of art, in a manner that would enable people to tap into something they are already familiar with — but through an aesthetic, heart-first approach.”

Installations across the gardens include imaginative bus stops highlighting public shade disparities, suspended repurposed umbrellas as tree canopy metaphors, and a “forest” of future-facing love letters encouraging reflection and action. A parallel indoor show in the Sturt Haaga Gallery and the Boddy House presents visual and musical works that guide visitors through the layered relationships between trees, equity, and climate resilience.

Artists include: Robin Lasser, Leslie K. Gray, Chantée Benefield, Valerie Daval, Kim Abeles, Victoria Arriola, Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke, Cidne Hart, Diana Kohne, Lisa Tomczeszyn, Lois Keller, Sarita Zaleha, Yarn Bombing Los Angeles, and Shoshana Ben-Horin.

One of the exhibition’s most poignant works comes from Chantée Benefield, who rebuilt her piece after losing her original artwork and family home in the Eaton Fire. “This was a brutal reminder of why we are taking on the topic of shade equity,” the curators noted. “Disasters like the devastating fires of January 2025 produced images that will forever be seared into our collective consciousness,” they said. “Extreme heat is an invisible disaster, but it kills more people than all other weather disasters combined. Shade is a way to counter that disaster and make our neighborhoods livable.”

The layout of Roots of Cool reflects the exhibition’s exploration of time—how the past, present, and future shape our understanding of shade equity. “We were able to overlay this repeated theme both in the gallery and around the grounds,” said the curators. “What are some of the decisions of the past that cause the problem? What are the challenges in the present that we still have to overcome to achieve tree and shade equity? And what would a future that is cooler and greener look and feel like?”

All participating artists identify as women—a curatorial decision rooted in equity. “Women are a demographic that is particularly vulnerable to extreme heat,” they explained. “We just wanted to give voice to perspectives that haven’t always received attention.”

Visitors will also be encouraged to participate in hands-on activities and learn how to improve shade equity in their own communities. “There is no single powerful entity out there that is going to do it for us — not the government, not private industry, and not even philanthropy,” said the curators. “The only way to get there is to train our eyes to see opportunities in our neighborhoods to make change and then roll up our sleeves and make it happen.”