As part of Cuyahoga50, a citywide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the last Cuyahoga River fire and celebration of the progress made since toward clean water for all, the Cleveland Museum of Art will present two exhibitions that highlight the impact of human behavior on the environment. Featuring the work of renowned contemporary artist Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, born 1955), Water: Edward Burtynsky draws attention to current threats to clean, sustainable water and encourages visitors to reflect on individual actions that can impact the future of our planet.

Burtynsky’s global portrait explores humanity’s increasingly stressed relationship with water, the world’s most vital natural resource. Thirteen monumental color photographs survey locales from the Gulf of Mexico to the shore of the Ganges. Offering both aesthetic abstraction and concrete data, these hauntingly beautiful images encourage us to ponder whether current water-management strategies are among humankind’s great achievements or its most dangerous failures.