Yearly Archives: 2018

Opportunity: Evolving the Forest (call for participation)

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

We are seeking the most engaging people and ideas to take part in Evolving the Forest

art.earth, our partners The Royal Forestry Society and Timber Strategies and our academic partner Science Walden @ Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST) invite proposals to an international forum: Evolving the Forest.

This is a three-day international forum bringing together creative thinkers and doers to explore physically and figuratively our relationship with wood, trees and forest over the past hundred years, and imagining that evolving relationship over the next 100.

The event takes place June 19-21, 2019 at Dartington Hall, Devon UK.

We particularly welcome submissions that challenge conventions of the academic conference: in what senses may we approach in our behaviours, our speech, our work, our ideas and ethos, the notion of voicing the forest? We invite you to explore participatory workshops, discursive formats (interviews, on-stage conversations, etc.), artist presentations, and performative disturbance and/or interventions.

The deadline for submissions is November 19 2018 (22.00 GMT). All proposals must be submitted online at https://evolvingtheforest.uk/proposal-form

For full details visit https://evolvingtheforest.uk

Evolving the Forest Lead Convenor is Prof. Richard Povall. Please address any questions to research@artdotearth.org



The post Opportunity: Evolving the Forest (call for participation) appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.


 

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Sustainability rising at the Edinburgh summer festivals

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Our Digital Communications Officer, Mike Elm, looks back at how sustainability was right across the festivals in Edinburgh this August.

What was your highlight of the Edinburgh festivals this August?

For me it was the signs that sustainability – which the festivals have been doing to a greater or lesser extent even before they helped found the Green Arts Initiative – is growing in the minds of the organisers and participants at the festivals! (Ok there was also some really good and interesting theatre, comedy, visual art, magic (did you see how it was a common theme this year? What’s up with that?), spoken word, dance and even some clowning)

Participants

One of the breakout ‘acts’ of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the Sustainable Fringe campaign, which Creative Carbon Scotland has been promoting as a concept for a number of years but was this year led by members of the Poltergeist Theatre group who were up running a show of their own. It offered a great example of how the sector is taking on looking at its impact and using its reach to inspire others to take action on theirs.

“Over the month, the Sustainable Fringe campaign rallied over 100 production companies and individuals on twitter around three challenges – to reduce plastic, paper and material waste. The support from performers, press and Green Arts groups shows that not only are many people ready for a greener festival, but they are prepared to make changes that are vital for the transition.” 

             -Alice Boyd, #SustainableFringe

The campaign got coverage from the local: The Student Newspaper, to the national: Sky News! It also attracted praise from prominent voices in the sustainability world – Keep Scotland Beautiful, Terry A’hearn the CEO of SEPA – and the arts world – renowned theatre critic Lyn Gardner.

Critics

Now everyone knows, a review can make or break your time at the Edinburgh Festivals and they don’t come much impact-ier than Lyn Gardner. She wrote in her new column for The Stage about the environmental issues facing the festivals, but also warmly about the solutions such as the Sustainable Fringe campaign and the Fringe Swap Shop, run by Fringe Central

It’s all good

News: Fringe Swap Shop praised by Zero Waste Scotland

Zero Waste Scotland Edinburgh Festival Fringe Swap Shop Visit

The Fringe Swap Shop also caught the eye of the national body for waste reduction, Zero Waste Scotland. Iain Gulland, the Zero Waste Scotland Chief Executive, came down himself to check out the weird and wonderful items that had been brought to be used again. He praised the initiative saying:

“Edinburgh Festivals are leading the way in making better use of our resources – with exciting projects like the re-use swap shop.” 
- 
Iain Gulland, Chief Executive, Zero Waste Scotland

And we’re reliably told that the story even popped up in the Metro! To continue building on this work the festivals will be taking part in a Circular Economy workshop later this year with Circular Edinburgh to identify opportunities and develop a business case for developing a circular economy approach within the festivals – maximising re-use and recycling opportunities across the events.

They’re International festivals

Though only one is called ‘The Edinburgh International Festival’, they’re all international in reach and appeal. This year at the Fringe World Congress, our Director Ben Twist and Catriona Patterson (in her Festivals Edinburgh role) spoke at a session on environmental sustainability and festivals that was being held at the Congress. Delegates from Fringes from Amsterdam, Orlando and Adelaide were among those who participated in the session, demonstrating there’s a leadership role for what we’re doing in Scotland.

The international interest in the intersection of arts & sustainability was further demonstrated by our Director meeting with delegates on the British Council’s “Momentum” programme including representatives from Canada’s cultural sector and Washington D.C.’s Chief Resilience Officer.

Sharing is caring

The Edinburgh International Festival took the opportunity of allowing our Catriona (in her Green Arts Manager role) to write an excellent blog linking one of their flagship shows – Waiting for Godot – with the role of the arts in tackling climate change, and why it’s no time for waiting! The blog highlighted some of the International Festival’s sustainability work including embedding sustainability in all their staff training.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival are certainly well read when it comes to sustainability and this year, alongside having drinking water taps everywhere, creating an excellent bike lane to maintain active travel access along George Street, they also allowed their Green Team to tell their story on Instagram.

Others were more modest. Low-key sustainability leaders Assembly, were also keeping the support for active travel with their bike lane around the George Street , recycling like it mattered to their lives (though somewhat discretely) and using not one but two (at least) “lifesaver” electric cargo bikes from the Sustrans Bike Library to ferry all sorts of equipment and supplies around town.

And this year also saw the return, or the continuation, of the Bobby Niven’s Palm House in the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Johnston Terrace wildlife garden as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival. This year alongside bringing people into this beautiful green space in its own right and to sample pizzas from the oven, it also played host to magic. Marxist magic. Ruth Ewan’s “Sympathetic Magick” commission for the Art Festival saw magicians work-shopping and performing on how magic tricks can integrate social issues close to the magician’s heart.

A time for magic.

The summer festivals in Edinburgh are magic. They’re a unique (and sometimes wild!) point of mixing and experimentation in the world’s cultural calendar and so it’s only right that there should be some fantastic work going on across them to support environmental sustainability. There’s clearly an appetite for this and room to do more.

This year the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the biggest arts festival in the world, have put out the call in “The Fringe Blueprint”  for collaborators to help them innovate and lead on sustainability and also released a new Sustainability Toolkits for Venues and a Sustainability toolkit for performing companies.

It was an undoubtedly excellent summer of festivals (is there any other kind) and we’re looking forward to seeing how this world-leading collection of cultural events can continue to develop as pioneers in environmental sustainability.

__________________________________

Main image: Drinking water tap at Edinburgh International Book Festival by Michael Thomas, Festivals Edinburgh.

 


The post Sustainability rising at the Edinburgh summer festivals appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.


 

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

An Interview With Painter Danielle Nelisse

This post comes from the Artists and Climate Change Blog

This month I have for you an exclusive interview with Danielle Nelisse, an immigration attorney, private investigator, and – painter! Her Wildfires series, which was inspired by nine wildfires that surrounded her California art studio in May 2014, is on view at the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain through July 2020. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

What inspired the Wildfires series?

My Wildfires series was first inspired in 2014 when nine wildfires simultaneously surrounded my art studio in Southern California. While I stood in my art studio creating the first Wildfires paintings on two canvases side-by-side, my family members checked in over the phone. I just kept painting. The sky became dark with charred ash.

The massive wildfires were fed for days by hot Santa Ana winds that blew in from the desert. To date I have completed nine wildfires paintings and luckily I haven’t been ordered to evacuate my art studio yet.

What led to the Wildfires series being shown at the US Embassy in Bahrain? 

When Justin Siberell was appointed as Ambassador by the President, he sought artwork from a California artist to exhibit at the U.S. Embassy in Manama, Bahrain. His staff contacted me and told me that he connected with my artwork because he is originally from California and as a former firefighter, he wanted to share his memory of the wildfires in California with the people of Bahrain.

Danielle Nelisse, “Wildfires V.,” 36″ x 36″ oil on canvas. Photo by EgoID Media.

What do you hope viewers will take away from Wildfires?

I often use art to depict imagery associated with climate change. I feel that a majority of people are overwhelmed with emotions regarding the negative impact of climate change, and the fact that solutions are too complex to implement quickly or easily by any one person or any one government or any one country.

I know when people feel they are not free to express their emotions, it compromises their emotional and physical health. By creating abstract paintings that address climate change, I invite viewers to vent their emotions about what is interpreted as a devastating and staggering problem for an international community to solve.

Many experts say that California’s wildfires are exacerbated by climate change. Do you think about climate change beyond what you paint in the studio?

I worry a lot about the negative impacts of climate change. Living in Southern California, I am exposed to the consequences of long term drought conditions and see lakes dry up, see mudslides take place after the fires, see lawns removed in favor of xeriscape landscapes, and see wildfires all year round.

These days wildfire firefighters are facing situations they have never encountered, such as a 100-foot wall of flames and triple digit heat for 25 consecutive days.

Eighty-nine large wildfires are currently burning in the United States, but I can’t help but notice that global warming has resulted in wildfires not only in California, but worldwide. Europe just suffered its deadliest fire season in more than a century.

According to Stanford University climate change scientist Noah Diffenbaugh, “We now have very strong evidence that global warming has already put a thumb on the scales, upping the odds of extremes like severe heat and heavy rainfall. We find that global warming has increased the odds of record-setting heat events over more than 80 percent of the planet.”

What role do you see art playing in our larger conversations about climate change and ecological disasters like wildfires?

For about ten years or more, artists like me have been expressing our concern by creating artwork about climate change and ecological disasters. Making my Wildfires painting series allows me to release anxiety and express my emotions about climate change. I can only hope that if my art is in the right place at the right time it might provide an opportunity to impact policymakers by sparking productive conversations.

Just a few days ago, the United Nations officially recognized climate change as a cause for migration, outlining ways for countries to cope with communities that are displaced by natural disasters as well as “slow onset events” like drought, desertification, and rising seas. I believe that artists can help keep this issue at the forefront by constantly reminding the public that climate change needs our immediate attention.

What’s next for you?

Within the next month I’m moving my art studio to the Hawaiian island of Maui. Rising temperatures, king tides, shifting precipitation patterns, warming and acidifying oceans and other climate change impacts are already affecting the islands in ways that will change them permanently. Given the rise in sea levels, it may be my last chance to experience and artistically record island life.

This article is part of the Climate Art Interviews series. It was originally published in Amy Brady’s “Burning Worlds” newsletter. Subscribe to get Amy’s newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.

For more on Danielle Nelisse, see this interview published on Artists & Climate Change in 2014.

___________________________

Amy Brady is the Deputy Publisher of Guernica magazine and Senior Editor of the Chicago Review of Books. Her writing about art, culture, and climate has appeared in the Village Voice, the Los Angeles Times, Pacific Standard, the New Republic, and other places. She is also the editor of the monthly newsletter “Burning Worlds,” which explores how artists and writers are thinking about climate change. She holds a PHD in English and is the recipient of a CLIR/Mellon Library of Congress Fellowship. Read more of her work at AmyBradyWrites.com and follow her on Twitter at @ingredient_x. 


 

Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

Go to the Artists and Climate Change Blog

News: Grassroots Storytelling in Gardens Across Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

See gardens with new eyes hearing local stories of creation, history & interaction with environment

Scotland’s Gardens Scheme, in association with the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, was delighted to host four garden storytelling sessions in the summer months, heralding the Storytelling Festival’s theme of Growing Stories for its 30th year, with two sessions for autumn still to come!

Families strolled through some of Scotland’s finest gardens to explore the stories they’ve kept hidden for hundreds of years. From Poolewe to East Lothian there was lots to uncover, and garden visitors were guided by the most intrepid of tale miners: storytellers.

Parents were pulled through the small gate to Dr Neil’s Garden, Edinburgh by impatient little hands looking for the storyteller. “You’ve found her” cried Nicola Wright. They set off down the well-worn picturesque paths and stood in awe at the monkey puzzle tree. Young and old left the session beaming, warmed by the May sunshine and the whittled tales of medieval medicines, feisty fairies and giants. “I can’t believe this is a thing” exclaimed one dad of two. “Where’s the next one?”

Tim Porteus spun wonderful tales from the history of Tyninghame House and The Walled Garden, East Lothian. Ancient footprints have traced the grounds at Tyninghame from lost villages and ruined churches, which Tim explored from a cosy picnic rug, exclaiming to the gathering:

“Stories do not die if told and retold, and what better place for their telling than the ground upon which they were lived and worn.”

It was a hot and busy day at Culzean Castle when Alison Galbraith brought the gardens to life, and visitors learnt about the intriguing tale of the slave Scipio who earned his freedom and some property at Culzean. Imaginations were also left to run wild with fairy bedtime tales – pssssttt, fairies love tulip petal bedding!

Visitors to Inverewe Gardens got a treat as Heather Yule regaled them with storytelling and harp playing, immersing them in folklore and music from the Poolewe area.

Two More Garden Adventures This October

There are still two chances to see gardens with new eyes, hearing local stories about their creation, history and interaction with the environment.

As leaves turn from green to golden, and t-shirts are replaced by woolly jumpers, autumnal sessions will warm the soul in arguably the most picturesque time of year for nature, with two magic in-situ storytelling sessions still to come.

At the stunning Fingask Castle in Perthshire on Thursday 11 October, storyteller Lizzie McDougall presents fascinating insights to the garden’s rich history, including story walks around the grounds, appropriately starting by the Dragon Steps!

Then explore the majestic Dalswinton House in Dumfriesshire on Sunday 21 October with storyteller John Wheeler, who will delight with insights into the maiden voyage of Britain’s first steamboat, alongside story walks exploring the garden’s plants and wildlife.


The post News: Grassroots Storytelling in Gardens Across Scotland appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.


 

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

An Introduction to Our Food, Art & Climate Series

This post comes from the Artists and Climate Change Blog

Thanks to a generous grant from Invoking the Pause, the Artists & Climate Change’s Core Team recently went on a retreat to the Omega Institute, a holistic center located in Rhinebeck, New York. While there, the topic of food kept coming up in our conversations, and not (only) because we were having three gorgeous organic meals prepared for us every day. It became clear that when talking about climate, we also need to talk about what’s on our plate. The complicated infrastructure of large-scale, globally connected food systems irreversibly impacts bodies, tummies, animals, oceans, and ultimately climate. At the same time more extreme weather, including droughts and floods, impacts farmers across the globe. And that, in turn, impacts us. Since we all need to eat, we couldn’t think of a more democratic yet urgent topic to dedicate our next series to.

There are many different points of entry into this topic: as a farmer, consumer, scientist, nutritionist, designer, cook, businessperson, policymaker, etc. We all have agency when we make decisions about what we eat, and these decisions inevitably add up to become collective power.

In this new Foodstuff series, we – Chantal Bilodeau, Susan Hoffman Fishman, Julia Levine, Yasmine Ostendorf, and Joan Sullivan – will write about the relationship between art, food, and climate from our own backgrounds and interests. Below is a short introduction that outlines our respective views on this subject.

*  *  *

Chantal: When we talk about climate change, we usually talk about food that will disappear. I’m interested in the flipside of that. What are the foods we will eat more of because the new climate makes them easier to grow, or because they have a smaller footprint? Many cultures already eat things like insects and worms – what will it look like when those show up in Western cuisine? Fine cooking has become so labour and energy intensive, it’s almost like chemistry! I wonder if somehow we have to rein that back a bit. What are other ways we can make cooking and eating fun? How do we do that with nature rather than with machines? How do we eat with the seasons rather than importing food whenever we feel like having it? Eating local can make us more creative because we’re challenged to do more with less.

Susan: My entry point into the food series will be directly connected to water resources. As the planet continues to heat and reliable sources of water dry up, crop growth and food supplies will continue to be impacted, setting off a chain of local, regional, and global events, including water wars, large scale migration, and political upheaval. These events are already occurring in many regions around the world. I am also very interested in exploring the ways in which indigenous populations have traditionally sustained their food sources by planting efficiently and by honoring, protecting, and conserving their water resources.

Julia: I want to connect with where my food comes from, and motivate others to do so as well. By tracing the food supply chain, we connect more deeply to the planet and to each other, thus strengthening our community in the face of climate change. Sharing meals as a community is vital. As a theatremaker, everything I do is about recognizing other people. I want audiences to feel that they’re not just at a play but part of something larger than themselves. The more I learn about others working on food, the more I see that food is a justice issue. What we eat is connected to a larger political and cultural system. I want people to feel driven by their own interests and equipped to make informed choices (whether in food or climate or otherwise). In these ways, I use theatre to pose questions about how, in Western culture, we got disconnected from our food sources. On the stage, my collaborators and I imagine alternative food systems and empower audiences to shift from apathy to action.

Yasmine: I’m interested in how artists, innovators, and designers are contributing to re-thinking and sometimes radically re-shaping some of our food systems: whether that means what we eat, how we eat it, or how it travels to our plate. Food-sharing apps, speculative foodfutures, co-ops, (experiential) food design, groundbreaking horticultural research around greenhouses, and start-ups producing artificial meat – all of this stuff really excites me. In addition, I’m really interested in microbes and the pivotal role of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, both in our bodies and beyond. Not to mention bio-art collectives, which are doing interesting research and projects.

Joan: I would like to explore food from a personal level, looking at my own life. My bachelor’s degree was in Nutritional Science and now I’m living on a farm. I’ve lived there for ten years and it has influenced and informed my worldview on food and the environment. My own child, who grew up on the farm, has become a vegan; her personal activism to address climate change is a plant-based diet. In addition, food waste really bothers me; we have 40 chickens and the tablewaste goes back to the chickens or is composted. But generally, the amount of food waste we generate is shocking and I would like to look into how this could stop. I find it unethical. I’m also very interested in the packaging of food. And I LOVE cooking and am interested in fermented food.

*  *  *

We hope you enjoy this new series and invite you to comment below with your own interests/concerns relating to food, art, and climate! And perhaps this might lead up to an offline event at some point…!

Note: For people in Europe interested in art and food, Yasmine is organizing the Food Art Film Week at the Van Eyck Academy in September 2018, transforming the academy into an open-air arthouse cinema, artist-run organic restaurant, site for debate on Food Futures, and forum for workshops and Artist’ Talks. Topics include Is Natural Possible?, Obsession and the Senses, Livestock vs Wild Animal, and Human-Non-Human Dependencies.

(All photos by Marente van der Valk.)

For previous articles related to food, check out:

Recipe for Change, In Conversation with Food and DIRT in Development by Julia Levine
Plants, Place, and Environmental Stewardship by Jimmy Fike
Maybe Tomorrow, The Fish Will Be Gone by Alison Weller
Abundance, Art, and Creative Social Research by Dianna Tarr
The Nature of Positive by Tanja Beer
Non-Human Narratives: Stories of Bacteria, Fungi and Viruses by Yasmine Ostendorf

This article is part of the Foodstuff series.

See the Core Team’s bios here.


 

Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

Go to the Artists and Climate Change Blog

A Studio in the Woods, Artists in Residence 2018/19

This News Comes from A Studio in the Woods

A Studio in the Woods has announced the 2018-2019 Adaptations: Living with Change Residents. In its second year of a three year cycle, Adaptations: Living with Change residencies invite artists to examine how climate driven adaptations – large and small, historic and contemporary, cultural and scientific – are shaping our future. In 2018 -19 A Studio in the Woods will host six residencies to competitively selected artists from all disciplines that have demonstrated an established dialogue with art as social practice and a commitment to sparking creative discourse. Each artist will host a dinner and presentation of their work during their residency as well as public programming specific to their project.

Jonathan “rat de bois farouche” Mayers, Louisiana, October – November 2018 – Jonathan “rat de bois farouche” Mayers is a Louisiana Creole artist and writer from Baton Rouge, LA. While in residence, Jonathan will create high-relief, mixed-media works presenting landscapes from Grand Isle, Bayou Segnette, St. Bernard Parish and Maurepas Swamp. They will be populated with imaginary beasts using paint and physical materials from the region to bring awareness to consequences surrounding environmental change, human conflict, cultural identity, and attitudes toward la Terre. To further these narratives and in celebration of historic multiculturalism in Balbancha, the Tricentennial year of New Orleans, and the 50th Anniversary of CODOFIL, he plans to write a bilingual French and English mythological micro story or poem for each work completed, some of which will be crafted in collaboration with members of the community.

Jonathan Mayers, La Louve blanche protégeant Rayne (The White Wolf Protecting Rayne), 2018, acrylic, sediment and blue crawfish claws from the L’Eau est La Vie camp in Rayne, Louisiana on panel, repurposed frame.

Aurora Levins Morales, California, October – November 2018 – Aurora Levins Morales is an internationally known Puerto Rican Jewish feminist poet and essayist whose work explores issues of identity, social justice, and the interwoven social and natural histories of our landscapes and our bodies. While in residence Aurora will produce a prose poetry book and podcast series exploring the connections between the ecological and social histories of the Mississippi River and the Caribbean Sea, as well as the shared experiences of New Orleans and Puerto Rico of hurricane devastation and disaster capitalism, drawing from community story circles, and extending into visions for just and resilient futures.

Aurora Levins Morales

Manon Bellet, Louisiana, November – December 2018 – Manon Bellet is a French visual and olfactory artist who has lived and worked in New Orleans since 2016. Manon will extract scents from strategically chosen historic places in New Orleans and its surrounding regions which are destined to disappear soon due to ecological issues. This work aims to highlight the notions of being rooted and uprooted, especially in Louisiana. The project intends to show the risks for people who remain attached to their land, their territory, their place. Through the experience of these scents the artist hopes to broaden awareness of environmentally vulnerable areas.

Manon Bellet, Toxicité Radieuse, 2017, mixed media

Geraldine Laurendeau, Canada, January – February 2019 – Geraldine Laurendeau is a multidisciplinary artist from Montreal. A trained ethnologist, she collaborates with First Nations, museums and research institutions as an independent curator, designer and consultant on projects related to environment, land planning, heritage, culture and biodiversity conservation, food security and health. During her residency, Geraldine will look at how Louisiana’s diverse cultural groups have developed strategies to adapt and deal with the abundance of water in the region. Geraldine will use drawing and photography to document the biogeography of the area, studying topography, water movements, landscape forms and vernacular architecture. Through this work Geraldine will explore solutions while creating a water resilient site-specific earthwork that will evolve over time.

Geraldine Laurendeau, Under Arthur’s Seat, 2008, digital photography

Ash Arder, Michigan, December 2018 and May 2019 – Ash Arder is a transdisciplinary artist who creates idea and object-based systems for interpreting and re-imagining interspecies relations (i.e. relations between humans and plants). This highly flexible, research-based approach examines these relationships primarily through pop culture and historic lenses. Ash will continue developing a multi-sensory body of work that examines human-plant relations through the lens of agricultural experiments in 19th century Louisiana. Archival reports from these experiments and found field recordings will be used as source material for new works that question historic human-plant relations and speculate about the future of that exchange.

Ash Arder, Untitled (Thunderstorm Terror), 2017, Electronics, cassette tape, soil, nettle seeds

Hannah Pepper-Cunningham, Louisiana, March – April 2019 – Hannah Pepper-Cunningham has been creating performance work in New Orleans since 2009. A member of Mondo Bizarro from 2009-2018, Hannah served as co-artistic director of training programs and collaboratively developed and performed in “Cry You One” and “The Way at Midnight.” A member of Southerners on New Ground and Alternate ROOTS, Hannah organizes in multi-racial, multi-issue coalitions for racial and economic justice and LGBTQ liberation. In collaboration with New Orleans-based artists and organizers Hannah will create “Unfamiliar” (working title), a touring performance and workshop that will engage people to shift their relationships of care and responsibility in the era of climate change. Drawing on Hannah’s work in live performance, actor training and traditional music; the performance and accompanying workshop will be built to support organizing in multiracial movements for climate justice in the Southeast.

Hannah Pepper-Cunningham


 

About A Studio in The Woods:

A Studio in the Woods, located in 7.66 forested acres on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, is dedicated to preserving the endangered bottomland hardwood forest and providing within it a peaceful retreat where artists and scholars can work uninterrupted. A program of Tulane University’s ByWater Institute, A Studio in the Woods focuses on interrelated areas of programming including artistic and scholarly residencies, forest restoration, and science-inspired art education for children and adults. For more information, visit: www.astudiointhewoods.org.