July 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

Flyer: Museum of Fishes & Greens, on view now through June 28th, River Center in Beacon, New York. Additional hours by appointment, contact eve@soonisnow.org

Carried by Hand: What the AI Inevitability Argument Leaves Out

Photography, Water, and the Fight That Is Coming

Substack post by Lesly Deschler Canossi, including review of the Museum of Fishes & Greens commissioned by Soon is Now, Beacon, New York

excerpted from here

A kind of refusal

As I write this, I am sitting in the Museum of Fishes & Greens, an exhibition presented and commissioned by Soon is Now, a climate and eco-themed arts organization founded by Eve Morgenstern, producing exhibitions, live performances, residencies, and artist-led workshops on the Hudson River/Muhheakantuck in Beacon, New York. Museum of Fishes & Greens is an immersive multimedia collaboration, made out of an exchange of ideas and art workshops between Food Studio Collective, a multidisciplinary group of artists, curators, and scholars from Kolkata and Shantiniketan, India, and women in fishing and farming communities in the Sundarbans, West Bengal. Bringing together batik sari textiles, handmade paper, a handcrafted book with data, memories, plants and recipes, and three films, this project explores the social, ecological, and cultural impact of food systems and climate change through art. The show features the handwork and personal stories of women in the Sundarbans, the biodiverse delta in West Bengal that climate change is actively dismantling.

In March and April of this year, with the support of the Food Studio Collective, these women made saris from their own drawings of fishes and plants, made paper from local vegetation, and recorded their recipes. The saris hang throughout the exhibition space, forming a kind of tent, loosely reminiscent of clotheslines, creating a warm and intimate environment for visitors to move through the flora, fauna, and fish of the Sundarbans. Handmade paper, made with locally foraged greens and fish parts, adds an unusual textural element, and original drawings by the women hang on moveable walls, giving the space the feeling of a working studio. Three films place you alongside the women as they forage, cook, create, and live. The result is an archive of knowledge - culinary, agricultural, and ecological - that the Sundarbans may not be able to hold much longer, translated into craft by the people who carry it.

Installation view: At Scenic Hudson’s River Center, Museum of Fishes & Greens, a multimedia collaboration on climate, craft and food by , artists and curators from Kolkata, and women from fishing and farming communities in the Sundarbans, West Bengal. Source

This installation allows us, 8000 miles away, to hear directly from the women as they wade into waters while navigating crocodiles and snakes, and into the markets where they sell what they have gathered. But the water itself is changing with rising salinity, driven by the Bay of Bengal pushing inland as sea levels climb, transforming the Sundarbans from the inside. The region sits at the confluence of hundreds of rivers and the planet’s largest mangrove forest, ecosystems that have long buffered these communities from the worst of what the ocean can do. But mangroves are being cleared for aquaculture, farming, and human settlement, and an estimated 20 to 35 percent of the world’s mangroves have been lost since 1980. As glaciers melt and temperatures rise, the delta’s capacity to hold back the sea shrinks. Work is already scarce. For many women here, wading in water in service of the fishing industry is one of the few options left.

Portrait of local collaborator: Gauri Mandal with original / enlarged drawing (in background), and printed sari detail from limited edition handcrafted cookbook: Recipe of Resilience, subtitle: Museum of Fishes & Greens, curated by Sayantan Maitra Boka

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June 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is  here

PLAYA campus and pond with the Fremont-Winema National Forest in the background

EMPHASIZING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COMMUNITY AND THE LAND THROUGH ART AND SCIENCE: PLAYA’s Approach to Socially and Ecologically Engaged Community-driven Art Projects Blending Art and Science in Rural Oregon

By: Olivia Ann Carye-Hallstein

Sitting at Summer Lake in the Great Basin in Rural Oregon, PLAYA hosts a number of residencies and other opportunities for artists working at the intersection of Arts and Science, Community and Justice. Kathryn Wilson, the Program Manager, at PLAYA describes the organization’s approach and understanding of successful engagement within their unique Rural Oregon location. Where tribal nations, ranchers, watershed councils, amongst other communities meet, many artists work within the communities to shed light and contribute through workshops, reflecting on the changing climate, the land, and cross-cultural engagement. For those interested in working with PLAYA, consider applying to the  2027 Art/Sci Awarded Residency application before it closes on June 30. 

Hi Kathryn, I would love to learn more about PLAYA’s relationship to its location situated in a high desert basin and surrounded by such a diverse community. How does your location contribute and inform the work you do there? 

Lake County's Oregon Outback informs everything we do--from the landscape to the community. The Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Band of Northern Paiute have called this land home since time immemorial, and some more recent families have been ranching here for eight generations. Our programs are designed to introduce and immerse people in this breathtaking landscape, exposing them to its natural features: flora, fauna, geology, water systems, shorebirds, dark skies, and so much more. Our programs also use art as a pathway into relationship with, and knowledge about, this landscape. This region faces significant social and ecological challenges, and PLAYA works alongside the community to foster dialogue and serve as a partner in addressing these issues. We regularly host scientists conducting research in the region. Whether residents spend days unplugging and taking in the wide-open playa (or Summer Lake, depending on the time of year), exploring the wild Fremont-Winema forest, or walking through high desert wetlands, they often have a transformative experience.

Art/Sci Awarded Residency March 2026 cohort

Since PLAYA hosts a number of art/science residency opportunities in rural Oregon, often focused on specific ecological challenges, such as wildfires & water and BIPOC makers there must be a range of projects that you see. What does a successful residency period look like to you? 

A successful residency at PLAYA can take many forms, so we like to think of it as a living ecosystem of exchange, research, and mastery—where artists and scientists cross-pollinate ideas across disciplines, collaborate with the natural world, deepen their craft, and share dialogue, knowledge, and inspiration with Lake County locals. Some residents use unstructured time for creative exploration and production, while others spend their days in the field researching, playing, and discovering new approaches to their work. Strong collaborations and friendships often emerge as a result. A meaningful indicator of success is genuine community engagement, whether through workshops in local schools, outings with residents, or open studio tours. Rural Oregon is a living network of Tribal nations, ranchers, watershed councils, and more. For us, success means residents don't just make work about the community—they work relationally with it.

What an important consideration that often gets overlooked. Do you mind expanding? What do you find that art can uniquely contribute in working with a community ‘relationally’ to address the challenges faced in rural Oregon and beyond? 

Art brings people together to clarify what matters most to a community. When that consensus is visualized through art, it can help develop a strong core for the community to return to when deciding what to fight for and how to face challenges together. Community-driven art builds coalition, collaboration, relationships, and trust—skills that are essential for solving critical problems.

Art can have an enormous impact on communities facing socio-political and ecological challenges. When artists—even those who may not be local to a community—reflect back the opinions and stories of local residents, as well as the science and stories of the natural world within and around that community, their work creates an opportunity to see these issues in a new light. Artists and scientists who engage with locals also foster relationships and bonds with people who hold different perspectives on complex issues. 

Heather Goodwind in her studio at PLAYA, 2025

Keeping all this in mind, what kinds of projects have come out of previous residencies that you are particularly excited about?

Many collaborators have come through PLAYA, and many new collaborations have been born here when artists and scientists find each other in synchrony. One particularly exciting project is happening right now: spearheaded by Wildfire + Water artist Sabina Haque and poet Emilie Lygren, The Memory of Water: Field Notes from Pakistan & Eastern Oregon is a cross-cultural ecology exchange project connecting Oregon and Pakistan through water, salt, fire, migration, and climate memory. The project links students in Paisley, Oregon, with students in Karachi, Pakistan, through art and poetry centered on our shared climate crisis. The work will be on view this September at our Wildfire + Water Pop-Up exhibit at PLAYA.

Both PLAYA’s focuses on artistic engagement as well as impact sound really exciting to me. What will be next for PLAYA? 

We are excited to see how PLAYA will grow in the coming years, deepening the partnerships and collaborations that are central to its mission. The coming year will emphasize continued cohort programming, expanded educational partnerships, and public-facing programs that invite dialogue and shared learning. For instance, the Wildfire + Water: Artists and Scientists Adapting to Change residency Pop-Up Exhibit this September will be the culmination of a year-long immersion: new works by nine artists exploring the urgent issues of wildfire and water in Lake County. Informed by the expertise of local collaborators, the artists' works offer timely reflections on critical social and environmental issues in this region. Through long-term relationships with regional and academic partners, PLAYA aims to strengthen opportunities for artists, scientists, students, and community members to work together and respond to environmental and cultural change. 

We are open to hearing from groups we have not yet connected with who wish to start a collaboration with PLAYA. Whether through a campus rental, a collaboratively built program, or something else entirely, we are always looking for more opportunities for mutual growth.

Lake Abert, Lake County, Oregon

Thank you so much, Kathryn! For anyone interested in applying to the 2027 residency or other opportunities at PLAYA, Visit PLAYA’s website here.

May 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

Installation View, Ecologies of Restoration by DM Witman, Danforth Art Museum, 2024

Transdisciplinary artist DM Witman talks with GroundTruth Director Margaret LeJeune about her work on the polycrisis including how her background as a field biologist has informed her creative processes. Witman’s work has been exhibited in over 120 solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, and she has been awarded residencies at Ellis-Beauregard Foundation (Maine), Monson Arts (Maine), and How to Flatten A Mountain (Ireland). She is the recipient of grants from the Maine Arts Commission, The Kindling Fund and Warhol Foundation, The John Anson Kittredge Fund, and the Puffin Foundation. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Portland Museum of Art (Maine); and CICA Museum (Korea), among others, and she is affiliated with photo-eye Gallery (New Mexico) and the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts (Maine). Witman holds an MFA from Maine Media College and a BS in Environmental Science from Kutztown University. #ecoartist #womenphotographers #environmentalphotography

DM Witman

Interview on April 7 for Ground Truth Institute

Margaret LeJeune: I first learned of DM Witman’s work when I was invited to curate an exhibition titled Agency for Broto: Art-Climate-Science’s 2021 conference, a project of the Cape Cod Center for Sustainability. The questions which drove my curatorial process included “what exists at the intersection of empowerment, the climate crisis, and radical empathy? what does agency look like in a post-human world? and, can it be ascribed to non-human species, rivers and/or ecosystems?” Witman’s video work Witness, which was included in the exhibition, addresses environmental disruption and humanity’s role in global degradation. In this work, a nude figure is seen perched atop a block of ice that changes color through the duration of the piece as the sounds of a reverberating boat engine and cracking ice intensifies. Next to the figure, a video of waves crashing ashore within a sterile oval frame suggests nature as compartmentalized artifice. This work can be viewed here.

Since then, I have followed Witman’s work closely. In 2023, I invited her to have a solo exhibition, Solastalgia Times, at the Red Door Gallery at Bradley University. And in 2024 we began to share space more regularly as we worked together as members of the Board of Directors for the Society for Photographic Education. The conversation below reflects my curiosity to learn more about DM’s motivations and processes in her work on environmental grief and ecological shifts.

ML: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me about your creative practice for the GroundTruth archive. One of the most compelling things about your work is how it visualizes grief, healing, and ecological loss. When did you first recognize mourning as an ecological condition rather than only a personal one?

DM: I first felt it when I worked as a field environmental scientist, it was by experience. The field work I conducted was for baseline studies and permitting for infrastructure projects. This was in my early 20s. Quite quickly I became acutely aware of change, destruction, transformation of the natural and semi-natural spaces. I didn’t have a name for it, but it was very real and at times incredibly intense. It wasn’t until many years later that I became aware that it could be more than my singular experience, that eco-distress and mourning is really an existential issue. This was shortly after working on the series “Melt”.

DM Witman, eom no. 1 from the series Ecologies of Mourning, 2023-24, 18 x 15”, unique gold-toned salted-paper on handmade abaca

ML:  In Ecologies of Mourning, you describe grief and healing as non-linear and liminal. How does photography, particularly process-based and material experimentation, allow you to hold that ambiguity?

DM: I have learned a great deal about loss and mourning, through experience and research. There are a number of psychological and social models which provide for an understanding of how humans process and experience loss–in each there is the element of time. And how this unfolds over time is unique to each of us.  When I work with materials, photographic or not, time is an essential component. Allowing materials to respond and unfold, is directly tied to the idea and/or experience at hand. Life is ambiguous, it is change over time, it is dynamic, as are our bodies and everything else (mostly)around us. This liminal place of working, allows me to consciously sit in this space of ambiguity and attempt to understand.

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Published 4/14 by Regine with wemakemoneynotart READ HERE

“Get Dirty, Eat Well, and Make Art”: Reflecting on 25 Years of Wormfarm Institute with Donna Neuwirth & Jay Salinas

Meet Donna Neuwirth and Jay Salinas, co-Founders of Wormfarm Institute, a cross-sector arts and culture organization rooted in Sauk County, Wisconsin.

Apr 27, 2026

Podcast Interview conducted by Matthew Fluharty with Art of the Rural REPOSTED

Meet Donna Neuwirth and Jay Salinas, co-Founders of Wormfarm Institute, a cross-sector arts and culture organization rooted in Sauk County, Wisconsin, in the heart of the Driftless region of the Upper Midwest.

Over thirty years ago, Jay and Donna made a leap of faith, leaving behind Chicago and the city’s vibrant arts scene for a forty-acre dairy farm in Wisconsin. Out of this experiment grew one of the most inventive and influential models for artistic, cultural, and agricultural stewardship in rural communities, a way of seeing connections embodied in Wormfarm’s notion of the cultureshed.

“[The cultureshed is] the idea that the whole of a region’s culture — that means chefs and farmers and businessmen who are all forming the culture of a region — speaks to and is inspired by the place in which it emerges, but also has a capacity to speak clearly and coherently outside of its region.” —Jay Salinas

From this foundation, Jay and Donna built a residency program rooted in the simple, generative idea of invitation – welcoming artists to visit, stay, and pitch in with the labor of a working farm. As we learn in this conversation, all of the work that has garnered Wormfarm such attention and respect continues to be rooted in those relationships and conversations that can be exchanged across a bean row.

As we learn, this ethos led to some of the Institute’s most well-known work: the Farm/Art DTour, a ten-day, fifty-mile, self-guided drive across Sauk County, punctuated by temporary art installations, pasture performances, and roadside poetry; and Fermentation Fest, a celebration of the deep connections between food, land, and culture.

“We invented something where we could be who we are and could be products of our urban environment and bring some attention to these spaces, ways of life, and important land uses that we believe more people should pay attention to in urban areas as well as in rural areas.” —Donna Neuwirth

Across all these efforts, Wormfarm has cultivated a web of cross-sector partnerships that weave together farmers, ecologists, choreographers, sculptors, and community members across the Midwest.

This conversation scans from Wormfarm’s history forward into their visions for the future, and what can emerge out of deep attention to place, culture, and ecology – and where those soundings might take all of us.

Learn more and support Wormfarm Institute at wormfarminstitute.org.

April 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

March 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is  here