Rural Voices on a Changing Environment | Project Description
A community/arts/science-based project
Generated by Carolyn Law
An interdisciplinary arts/science project to collaborate with rural Lake County, Oregon residents describe their deep relationship to the land and how they will adapt to how a changing is now and will continue to impact their environment, landscape places & life into the future.
The collaborative project, “Rural Voices on a Changing Environment”, has been taking shape in the city of Lakeview and in Lake County, in rural south-central Oregon since 2014. This interdisciplinary project combines the visions of artists, community leaders, and scientists. At its core, the project uses interactive activities based in the arts and sciences to prompt and facilitate an inclusive, converging conversation with residents of the county on a critical issue: How on-going environmental changes may affect and even threaten their way of life. The project’s goal is to enable the community to develop a unique description of this important issue in place-based language and imagery that is specific to Lake County. The critical outcome will be a distinctive, potent rural “voice” that through active dissemination enhances opportunities for individual action and advocacy, community resilience and adaptability. Importantly, this description will then be shared regionally and nationally.
All of the interdisciplinary engagement activities are organized to unfold as a progressive series, building momentum from 2016-on as grant support is secured, and culminating with the community-wide conversation. All activities will be generated collaboratively, monitored communally by a team comprised of community members, artists and scientists, and evaluated over time. Initial proposed event sites include vacant storefronts, a local radio station, town/county newspapers, libraries, and programs within the school systems. Community engagement events are an interactive website to re-map Lake County (hosted by the Lake County Library) with community photos and narratives, Our Environmental Ledger, a creative compilation of contemporary and historical oral/written/photographic accounts, environmental field trips with arts component, and digital photography activities and shows that begin compiling this community’s awareness of their environment.
