Beverly Naidus – Ecological Community Art
Business-Organization: University of Washington, Tacoma
Interdisciplinary artist, Beverly Naidus, combines a solitary studio practice with collaborative projects that solicit stories and images from the community. Much of her work deals with ecological and social issues that adversely affect those around her. She works with others to develop strategies that might heal those challenges. Remediation and reconstructive visions are key concepts that guide her work. Her forms are audience-participatory installations, photo/text work and artist’s books. Her work has been written about in many books and journals and has developed an international audience. After successful chapters in NYC and Los Angeles, she has been rooted in the Pacific Northwest since 2003. She teaches at the University of Washington, Tacoma where she facilitates an innovative program in art for social change. She is the author of several books, including Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame and the just-released, limited-edition artist’s book, Not Just Words: A 30-Year Exhortation to Love & Resistance. “Eden Reframed,” an eco-art project inspired by permaculture design, lives on Vashon Island, and provides visitors to the park with a food forest (natural snack bar), a soil remediation demonstration and a story hive. It was funded by the Royalty Research Foundation. Her project, “We Almost Didn’t Make It,” about climate change recently traveled to ONCA Gallery in Brighton, England. The interactive installation gave visitors an opportunity to imagine themselves as ancestors and to commit to an action that may allow future generations to thrive.
Tacoma
United States
Website: http://www.beverlynaidus.net
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/92685388277/
Workshop(s)
Workshop 1: Eco-art to Heal, Transform and Awaken
An eco-art slide show with examples of projects from around the world. Ecological Art is an art practice that embraces an ethic of social justice in both its content and form/materials. EcoArt is created to inspire caring and respect, stimulate dialogue, and encourage the long-term flourishing of the social and natural environments in which we live. It commonly manifests as socially engaged, activist, community-based restorative or interventionist art. Many eco-art projects employ permaculture design to restore a local ecosystem.
Workshop 2: We Almost Didn’t Make It
Participants will be able to imagine themselves as ancestors. We will walking meditation. We will scavenge materials to make an object that represents something precious that may or may not exist in 150 years. People will insert into their object a commitment to an action that may help future generations thrive.
