Science is hard to understand and even when people know the facts, they don’t act, explains Skagit County Science Consortium Director Carol MacIlroy. Her Seattle house is on an earthquake fault, yet she has not reinforced it. “Climate change has created a lot on anxiety in the public, with all this information but people don’t know what to do about it,” she says.

Art might offer an entry in. Thus “Surge,” opening at the Museum of Northwest Art Sat. at 10 a.m. From “a sense of curiosity” from looking at the art created by 21 artists in collaboration with 11 scientists, people...