Jane da Mosto is an environmental scientist and activist based in Venice, co-founder and Executive President of the NGO We are here Venice (WahV). Operating across many different disciplines, WahV has a mission to change the future of the city, highlighting the need to protect the lagoon and rebuild a more resilient resident population.

Jane’s books include The Science of Saving Venice (Umberto Allemandi, 2004), The Venice Report (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Acqua in Piazza (Linea d’acqua 2016). She has also contributed to articles such as “Practicing Civic Ecology: Venice and the Lagoon” in Care and Repair (MIT Press, Angelika Fitz et al, 2019),  and “The Venice Paradox” in Aroop special edition on Failure (Raza Foundation, 2020). In 2017, Jane was honoured with the Osella d’Oro by the city of Venice.

Tomás Saraceno’s floating sculptures and interactive art installations explore sustainable ways of inhabiting and sensing the environment. From collaborations with the air to spider/webs, he envisions ethical relationships with the terrestrial, atmospheric, and cosmic realms. Saraceno’s community projects Aerocene and Arachnophilia furthermore invite all to deepen an understanding of environmental justice and interspecies cohabitation.

Saraceno has most recently exhibited Songs for the Air at Hessischen Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (2020); Moving Atmospheres at Garage Museum, Moscow (2020); and Event Horizon at Cisternene, Copenhagen (2020). In January 2020, his project Fly with Aerocene Pacha set 32 world records, ratified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Saraceno’s Aero(s)cene, presented at the 2019 Venice Art Biennial, seeks to raise awareness about global warming and its consequences and lay out an example of ethical collaboration with the atmosphere and the environment, free of borders, free of fossil fuels.

Saraceno has lectured at academic institutions worldwide and collaborated with MIT, Nanyang Technological University, and Imperial College London among others. He has also directed the Institute of Architecture‐related Art at TU Braunschweig and held residencies including at the CNES and the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (2012–ongoing). Saraceno lives and works in and beyond the planet Earth.

Co-author of The Renaissance Print, David is a scholar, curator, and businessman on the board of multiple cultural institutions including London’s National Gallery and the Courtauld Institute of Arts, and is a Trustee of The National Gallery Trust.

A passionate collector of glass artwork by Venini, David has undertaken a number of initiatives with his wife Marie-Rose Kahane to celebrate and revitalize Murano glassworks, including founding the Le Stanze del Vetro exhibition and research center with Fondazione Giorgio Cini and establishing Venice Glass Week. In light of Venice mayoral elections in September 2020 and the growing impact of mass tourism on the city, David published an open letter to candidates outlining a 5-point plan for the future of Venice, published in both Venetian local papers and in The Art Newspaper.

Bénédicte de Montlaur is President and Chief Executive Officer of World Monuments Fund (WMF), the world’s foremost private organization dedicated to saving extraordinary places while empowering the communities around them. She is responsible for defining WMF’s strategic vision, currently implementing that vision in more than 30 countries around the world and leading a team that spans the globe. Her background mixes culture and the arts, politics, international diplomacy and human rights. Prior to joining WMF, Montlaur spent two decades working across three continents as a senior diplomat at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A series of conversations at the nexus of history, culture and current global issues with top thought leaders, activists, artists, journalists, and politicians, Heritage Now explores why monuments and other cultural heritage sites are such a vital part of our local and global ecosystems; the history and relevance of these sites in our contemporary context; the urgent threats to their preservation; and what we can do—individually and collectively—to protect these irreplaceable treasures.