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Edith de Guzman stands inside an art installation of colorful hanging panels, holding a rolled paper. She is co-curator of the “Roots of Cool” exhibition on shade equity at Descanso Gardens, shown in front of artist Cidne Hart’s piece “Traversing the Warming Forest.”
Edith de Guzman, curator of Descanso Gardens’ exhibition “Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World,” in front of artist Cidne Hart’s piece “Traversing the Warming Forest” on July 9, 2025. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

art & culture,  cities & towns,  environmental justice

Featured in L.A. Times—Edith de Guzman, Ph.D. ’23, reimagines L.A. climate inequities through art at Descanso Gardens

Featured in this week’s Los Angeles Times Climate and Environment coverage, Edith de Guzman, Ph.D. ‘23, brings climate and heat inequities to the spotlight.

This summer at Descano Gardens, a new art exhibition Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World, invites visitors to cultivate appreciation for the life-giving role trees and shade play in making urban neighborhoods livable. Co-curated by Edith and Jolly de Guzman — husband and wife-duo — the exhibition features immersive, colorful installations by all-female artists that explore how policy, heat and environmental justice interact. The three-part installation invites visitors to cultivate appreciation for the life-giving role trees and shade play in making urban neighborhoods livable.

“There’s a lot of reasons to despair right now, but if we change our radio frequency a little bit, we can connect to a whole different feeling,” said Edith de Guzman, an alumna of the Ph.D. in Environment and Sustainability program at UCLA and climate researcher at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.  

A True Bruin (BA ’02, MURP ’06, Ph.D. ’23 ), Edith de Guzman has spent her career helping the city of Los Angeles rethink its relationship to climate, public space and justice.

Read the full article in The Los Angeles Times

The story was written by IoES Ph.D. student Marcos R. Magaña, an intern at The Los Angeles Times through the CDLS Environmental Justice and Science Journalism Fellowship.