Thursday, February 17
United States: Noon PT, 1pm MT, 2pm CT, 3pm ET
EUROPE: 20:00 GMT Australia: 7am AEDT, Friday
A panel inspired by the launch of the new book, Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities with Lynne Elizabeth, the book’s publisher, Linda Weintraub, moderator and the book’s co-editors: Amara Geffen, Ann Rosenthal, Chris Fremantle, and Aviva Rahmani. Several of the 67 contributors, 28 of whom are also members of ecoartspace, will be in attendance for the Q&A.
The event will begin with a discussion of the original vision and hopes for the book, what they saw realized and its position in current ecoart literature. These initial presentations and a short discussion between the panelists will segue to include attending contributors and a wider conversation with the audience in response to a Q&A.
PUBLISHER
Lynne Elizabeth is the founding director of New Village Press, an independent nonprofit publisher of progressive books that aim to enrich public discussion and understanding of issues vital to healthy, creative, and socially just communities. She is a past president of Architects Designers Planners for Social Responsibility and the founding director of the former Eos Institute for the Study of Sustainable Living. She has initiated numerous public programs, conferences, and exhibitions, and published the periodicals Earthword and New Village Journal. www.newvillagepress.org
Moderator
Linda Weintraub is a curator, educator, artist, and author of several popular books about contemporary art. She has earned her reputation by making the outposts of vanguard art accessible to broad audiences. Weintraub’s books exploring contemporary art and ecology include WHAT’s NEXT? Eco Materialism & Contemporary Art (2018), To LIFE! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet” (2012), and Avant-Guardians (2007), a series of textlets that include EcoCentric Topics: Pioneering Themes for Eco-Art; Cycle-Logical Art: Recycling Matters for Eco-Art; EnvironMentalities: Twenty-two Approaches to Eco-Art. Her forthcoming book is titled Who Do You Eat? Weintraub applies environmental concerns to her personal life by managing a sustainable homestead where she practices permaculture. She served as the director of the Edith C. Blum Art Institute located on the Bard College campus, and was the Henry Luce Professor of Emerging Arts at Oberlin College. www.lindaweintraub.com
EDITORS
Chris Fremantle is a producer, researcher, writer and teaches part-time at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland. He lives in Ayr, South West Scotland and was born in New York. Chris is a member of the Editorial team that realised Ecoart in Action published by New Village Press in 2022. Several public art projects Chris has produced have won significant arts awards. ‘Place of Origin,’ a ‘landscape as art’ work in Aberdeenshire received a Saltire Award in 2007. ‘Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom,’ the project by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison (the Harrisons) received the first Nick Reeves Art and Environment Award in 2010, and the ‘Land Art Generator Glasgow’ project received the award jointly in 2016 between LAGI and ecoartscotland. His research portfolio is available on ORCID. He established ecoartscotland in 2010 as a node in the worldwide ecoart networks. ecoartscotland.net
Amara Geffen is an artist, community organizer, Emerita Professor of Art at Allegheny College, and the founder/director of the Art & Environment Initiative(A&EI) in Meadville, Pennsylvania. During her more than three-decade career at Allegheny, Amara engaged students, colleagues, and community partners in community-centered public art that focuses on beautification, environmental renewal, and placemaking/placekeeping. Her work has been supported through grants from a variety of state and federal agencies such as the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA), the PCA’s Creative Communities Initiatives, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, Erie Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts (Our Town: Conneaut Lake). Amara has also exhibited widely and her work is included in public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. www.amarageffenstudios.com
Aviva Rahmani is best known for her projects, The Blued Trees Symphony and Ghost Nets. Her ecological artwork on ocean health, fresh water, land restoration and fire regimes are exhibited in museums and galleries, published and written about internationally, including the Independent Museum of Contemporary Art, Cyprus; Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMCA), CO; Hudson River Museum, NY; Cincinnati Center for Contemporary Art, (CCA) OH; and the Joseph Beuys 100 days of Conference Pavilion, for the 2007 Venice Biennale, Italy. Fellowships received include from the New York Foundation for the Arts, A Blade of Grass and the National Endowment for the Arts. Rahmani holds a PhD from Plymouth University, UK, her Masters is from CalArts. She is an Affiliate at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Rahmani authored “Divining Chaos,” and co-edited “Ecoart in Action,” (both launching 2022 pub. New Village Press). www.avivarahmani.com
Ann Rosenthal brings to communities over 40 years’ experience as an artist, educator, and writer. Her work examines the intersections of nature and culture through timely issues, including climate change, biodiversity, and biophilia. Highlights over the past five years include: a solo exhibition at the School of Environment and Sustainability, UM, Ann Arbor; artist in residence at HJ Andrews Experimental Forest; co-curator for “Crafting Conversations: A Call and Response to Our Changing Climate” for Creatives for Climate through Contemporary Craft’s BNY Mellon Satellite Gallery, which was featured in American Craft Magazine; and awarded PennFuture’s 2020 “Woman of Environmental Art, Celebrating Women in Conservation Award.” Most recently, Ann’s work was featured in three group exhibitions, and she was one of four editors for Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities (New Village Press), on behalf of an international network of ecoartists. www.locusartstudio.org
Members and one guest are free. General Public can attend for $10. Capacity is 100 participants. All participants MUST REGISTER.
