UNITED NATIONS, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Images of oversized cockroaches, a hunting lifestyle in the Arctic and a feminine figure immersed into a flowery background ... these are part of a collection of artworks at a UN exhibition opened Wednesday.

    They are supposed to serve as "a catalyst" to inspire the right attitude toward the environment, said organizers of the exhibition which is concurrent with a UN seminar with an identical focus.

    "Art is a vehicle for environmental action and social change," Mia Hanak, founding executive director of the Natural World Museum, told reporters at a briefing.

    "Our collective goal is to ignite people's passion for being a part of the global solution and together inspiring people to take bold actions in finding new ways to embrace sustainable lifestyles," she said.

    Hanak's museum, the UN's Environment Program and Department of Information are cosponsoring the seminar and art exhibition under the title "art changing attitudes toward the environment."

    The exhibition, which will last until the end of May in the public Visitors' Lobby of the UN Headquarters Building, brings together the works of seven artists from six global regions -- Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America, and Western Asia.

    Indian born photographer Subhankar Banerjee, who has spent the past eight years focusing on indigenous human rights and land conservation issues in the Arctic, was one of them.

    Often dubbed as a "barren wasteland," the Arctic is "perhaps the part of the planet which is suffering from the greatest intolerance," Banerjee told reporters, adding that the indigenous peoples have also suffered from intolerance.

    "I hope that my work would help unlearn many of these intolerances against a whole part of our planet and our indigenous friends who call this home," he said.

    U.S. artist Catherine Chalmers focused on depicting the lives of animals, in particular the insects, in an effort to foster better understanding and tolerance from their human partners.

    While people usually hold the misconception that insects live in a way that are "amoral and downright terrible," "our lives depend upon them," she said.

    "If insects were to disappear, the ecosystem will crash, as some scientists say, within a matter of a month," Chalmers said.

    The events are part of the "Unlearning Intolerance Seminar Series" which was initiated by the Department of Public Information in 2004 to help examine intolerance and explore ways to promote respect and understanding among peoples.

    Its past versions highlighted diverse issues of intolerance on the themes including anti-Semitism, the role of the media, genocide and Islamophobia.