Get Information, Give Information: Facilitating the Production and Teaching of Environmental Art.

Navigation: Main page

Author: Bower, Sam1

Until recently, information about eco-art was difficult to find. Projects are often ephemeral or site-specific. Some artworks respond to global issues and involve multiple locations and collaborative partnerships among artists, scientists, and community groups. Some of this work is located in nontraditional venues that can be difficult to access, such as deep beneath the ocean, in national parks, in active agricultural areas, and even in Superfund clean-up sites. As such, much of this contemporary work has suffered from an underexposure in what is understood as the traditional art world of galleries and museums.

Over the past decade, many organizations have formed to meet these unique challenges. In 2001, a Web-based museum, greenmuseum.org, was created to span these geographical barriers and to chronicle, highlight, and support the global environmental-art movement. As executive director of greenmuseum.org, I was invited to the Eco-tistical Art sessions to answer questions and distribute information about the growing number of useful resources available for artists and teachers.

In the hallway outside the conference room, two tables were set up with flyers and handouts from eighteen different organizations from around the world. A computer monitor displayed a cycle of images from greenmuseum.org and showcased selected artists and their projects. Hundreds of fliers were distributed during the day and all of our signed copies of Sue Spaid's Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies and the Women's Environmental Art Directory were sold. Eucalyptus and California bay-laurel leaves stamped with the greenmuseum.org logo were also scooped up in handfuls by conference attendees.

Organizations with materials at the conference included:

Art & Community Landscapes (www.nefa.org/grantprog/acl/)

Art, Culture, Nature Association (http://faculty.uwb.edu/kkochhar/ACN/)

Artists in Nature International Network (www.artinnature.org)

Arts & Environment Initiative, CEED (http://ceed.Allegheny.edu/A%26E/home.html)

Arts and Healing Network (www.artheals.org)

Buckminster Fuller Institute (www.bfi.org)

Creative Capital (www.creative-capital.org)

Ecoart Network (www.ecoartnetwork.org)

ecoartspace (www.ecoartspace.org)

Fourth Door Review (www.fourthdoor.co.uk)

greenmuseum.org (www.greenmuseum.org)

Helix Arts (www.helixarts.com)

Israeli Forum for Ecological Art (contact: shai-stu@inter.net.il)

RANE: Research in Art, Nature & Environment (http://rane.Falmouth.ac.uk/home.html)

Social Sculpture Research Unit (www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/apm/social%5fsculpture/!)

The Center For Land Use Interpretation (www.clui.org)

Women Environmental Artists Directory (WEAD) (www.weadartists.org)

These organizations are just a sampling of the many groups forming across the globe to address the needs of this rapidly expanding field. Further information can be found through these Web sites and in the "Links" section of greenmuseum.org.

As a catalyst and forum for creative discussion, greenmuseum.org is a valuable tool for connecting a worldwide network of individuals interested in learning more about environmental issues and art. The Web site features an unprecedented collection of resources for educators, including indexed information on artists and their work, a forum for posting syllabi and discussion, essays, event listings, and online exhibitions. From its small, storefront office just north of San Francisco, greenmuseum.org currently reaches over two thousand unique visitors each day and has become the premier source for information about this ever-evolving and diverse art movement.

We believe that environmental art represents the future of art and is essential for building a more sustainable world culture.

PHOTO (COLOR): Tim Gaudreau, Found!--in Great Bay Wildlife Refuge, NH. Possibly jewelry fashioned from local resources, 2004 (artwork © Tim Gaudreau; image provided by greenmuseum.org)

PHOTO (COLOR): Gaudreau's work is among the many arts practices explored at greenmuseum.org.

~~~~~~~~

By Sam Bower

Sam Bower is cofounder and executive director of greenmuseum.org, an online museum of environmental art. Prior to this, Sam created environmental art for eight years as part of a San Francisco Bay Area collaborative art group known as Meadowsweet Dairy. He was involved in the formation of Cellspace, a nonprofit community art space in San Francisco, and codirected Crucible Steel Gallery. He has worked as a solo artist and Web designer, and in advertising, events-planning, and the environmental nonprofit sector in the United States and Ecuador. He has a BA in history from Pomona College, California.