Biophilia at the Biosphere, Part 3 of 3

William L. Fox

“Ocean View” © 2009 Judy Natal from the series Perfect Worlds. Tourists peer down at the small “ocean” biome from the “savanna.”

Several artists have worked at Biosphere 2, among them the photographers Judy Natal a…

Biophilia at the Biosphere, Part 2 of 3

William L. Fox

One of the triple-canopied vaulted roofs over the Argricutural Biome at Biosphere 2.

Rising alongside the long axial greenhouse of Biosphere 2 with its step-pyramids at each end are th…

Biophilia at the Biosphere, Part 1 of 3

William L. Fox

In 1991 the world’s largest closed system ever created by humans opened to international fanfare. John Allen and his experimental theatre group from New Mexico--who had for years been building and running facilities in a variety of environments around the globe--had managed to build in only four years one of the most complicated buildings imaginable. Biosphere 2, or B2 as it’s known, cover…

Public/Private Art at CityCenter, Las Vegas

William L. Fox

Nancy Rubins’ Big Edge dominates the drive in front of the Vitara Hotel & Spa porte-cochere.


For the next three weeks I’ll be writing from the Biosphere 2 in Arizona, where I’m staying as a writer-in-residence with the B2 Institute. More about a…

Mark Klett & Byron Wolfe: Charting the Canyon

William L. Fox

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2007. Details from the view at Point Sublime on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, based on the panoramic drawing by William Holmes (1882).
William Henry Holmes, 1882. Sheets XV, XVI, XVII. Panorama of Point Sublime. From Clarence Dutton,…

A | W | E: Artists | Writers | Environments

Announcing A | W | E: Artists | Writers | Environments: A Grant Program

Artists | Writers | Environments: A Grant Program
Teams of visual artists and writers who are U.S. citizens working on art + environment projects anywhere in the world from July 2010 through August 2011 will be eligible to apply for the first A | W | E Grant. Letters of interest must be received via e-mail on or before Friday, Apr…

Artist Jean-Claude Passes Away

Half of the famous husband-and-wife duo, one of the artists behind "The Gates," has passed away at the age of 74, of complications arising from a brain aneurysm. " Jean-Claude will be remembered wide…

Place:Appalachia: Summer Course At West Virginia University

A new two-week field course, Place:Appalachia, is being offered this summer by Erika Osborne at West Virginia University.

For more information visit: http://artanddesign.wvu.edu/placeappalachia

FENCE DITCH REPEAT: New exhibit and public presentation at the Center for Land Use Interpretation's Los Angeles

FENCE DITCH REPEAT: Iterations of the Border at Juárez/El Paso
Exhibit opens on Friday March 5, 2010

A CLUI Independent Interpreter exhibit featuring the work of Sarah Cowles and Alan Smart.

Sound by John Also Bennett.
Independent Interpreter event - Sarah Cowles will talk about the exhibit Fence Ditch Repeat on Saturday, March 13 at 7:30pm. (Please arrive early, seating is limited.)

This Center for Land Use Interpretation Independent Interpreter program is made possible by the support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

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The Center for Land Use Interpretation
9331 Venice Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
310.839.5722 office
310.839.6678 fax
clui@clui.org
www.clui.org

Exhibit is open 12 - 5 PM, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, or by appointment.
Admission is free.

3rd annual NMU Indigenous Earth Issues Summit

Taking Action for Mother Earth:
The upcoming 3rd annual NMU Indigenous Earth Issues Summit

By Aimée Cree Dunn

This year’s Indigenous Earth Issues Summit, to be held on April 5 in the NMU Great Lakes Rooms, promises to be another exciting event. Indigenous activists from Turtle Island’s East and West and many places in between will gather to offer their skills and knowledge on how to effect change for Mother Earth.

The third annual Summit will focus on taking action. As part of this, Summit participants will have the opportunity to learn such skills as how tribes can take action against polluting industries by exercising their sovereign right to regulate air and water quality on and around reservations. Lee Sprague of the Little River Band will conduct a workshop on the topic.

Participants in the Summit will also have the chance to learn from long-time Native activist and lawyer, Gail Small, of the Northern Cheyenne. Small, Ms. Magazine's 1995 Gloria Steinem Women of Vision Award winner, has been fighting coal mining for over 25 years. She will offer her experience in “using organizing, alliances, legal challenges, and the drafting of tribal laws to assert tribal control over resource extraction on and around Indian reservations” to those who attend her workshop.

Our Indigenous brothers from the East Coast have also been invited to join us. Bettina Washington and Chuckie Green of the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation will present on their tribe’s opposition to the mega-windfarm proposed for Cape Cod. The Mashpee Wampanoag’s opposition is based on protection of sacred sites as the proposed mega-windfarm would interfere with traditional ceremonies.

Other workshop presenters include Ben Yahola (Quasartte/Tokobutchee), Co-director of Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Intitiative of Oklahoma, will teach about the Native spiritual connections between food and Mother Earth. Damien Lee, Anishinabe (Ojibwa) from Fort William First Nation, will give a workshop offering his firsthand experience in organizing effective “community decolonization by addressing environmental racism affecting traditional territories.”

The event will wrap up with a keynote address from American Indian Movement activist, scholar, and author, Ward Churchill. In his presentation, “Water is Life: Reflections on an Omnicidal Equation,” he will offer a holistic perspective on Indigenous environmental issues and will discuss how Indigenous concerns over water issues fit into the context of this bigger picture. "[C]olonialism equals genocide," he writes in his book Struggle for the Land. He adds that "colonialism also equals ecocide." The Native "struggle for the liberation of our homelands" is "a struggle to achieve decolonization." This is not only a Native issue in Churchill’s eyes. “Like it or not, we are all – Indian and non-Indian alike – finally in the same boat,” he points out. “Either Native North America will be liberated, or liberation will be foreclosed for everyone, once and for all.” According to Churchill, “We must take our stand together.”

And that is exactly what the Summit is all about – taking action together to protect Mother Earth from the excesses of industrialization. The third annual Indigenous Earth Issues Summit is about sharing wisdom and expertise and about uniting to learn, engage and go forth armed with skills and knowledge to effect positive change for Mother Earth.

The Summit is free and open to all. No registration is required.

For more information, including a call for eco-vendors and a draft Summit schedule, please visit www.nmu.edu/nativeamericans. Questions can also be answered by calling 906-227-1397.

The Summit is sponsored by the NMU Center for Native American Studies with the generous support of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the NMU Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Committee.