Nancy Forrester
By Kristen Grimes
Not far from the beaten path of Duval Street stands an acre of land untouched by development and rich with beauty. Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden, off the 500 block of Simonton Street at One Free School Lane, stands tall with natural and exotic plants that thrive on her piece of paradise.
Nancy Forrester spent a lifetime dedicated to environmental causes starting from an early age. After moving to the lush tropical paradise of the Florida Keys from the rugged mountains of Pennsylvania in the early 1950s, Forrester grew up barefooted, dodging water moccasins and poison wood while looking for antique bottles from the various fishing camps lining the Middle Keys.
“We lived very simply,” she reflecting, conjuring an image of her mother cranking clothes in a ringer washer and pinning them up to dry, while a young image of herself sat with her adopted cat, Billy Josie, purring on her lap. “I miss the smell of cotton fabric dried in fresh air.”
She went to school in a one room school house in Marathon before the Sue Moore School was built and spent her afternoons at the beach looking for shells and other sea life washing ashore.
Her best friend lived miles away and was the only one in the area her age. Her friend’s father was a surveyor from Key West and they lived a rich lifestyle. Together they learned to cook seafood from delicious Key West recipes while growing up together.
At 70 years old, her July 29 birthday was proclaimed “Nancy Forrester Day” by Mayor McPherson for her dedication and ability to ward off developers wishing to pave the one remaining mini rainforest located in the heart of old town Key West.
Her house isn’t big, but her heart is. For the past 40 years she lived on the property, she welcomes friends (and soon-to-be friends) with open arms. Unused space is non-existent.
Each day, people pay the $10 admission fee to lounge around the gardens, or paint, picnic, or take pictures of the plants and animals she adopted over the years including exotic parrots.
“People don’t realize when they are here that they are not just meeting me or seeing the place I created, I am trying to convey to them to become a part of nature,” she said.
From her farming background of her parents and grandparents, Nancy continues to show locals and tourists that each piece of land is precious and everyone can make a difference. Over the past 10 years, she says her dialogue changes with each and every person who walks through her hammocks.
This passionate artist doesn’t have retirement in her vocabulary, but at 70 years old, she is now unable to do the things she used to at 50, like climb ladders to water the orchids that hang from the trees.
“I love this community and I love what I do,” she said. “But, I am in need of some desperate help.”
That’s when Forrester decided to hand over the financial and caretaking responsibilities to the Mana Project. Mana means positive, creative force in Polynesian. With the help of the project and the community, she hopes to be able to raise the $160,000 for this year’s operating budget.
“It’s doable,” she said now looking at the leaf of one of the orchids that adorns her property. “I know everyone is hurting economically right now, but even if it’s just a little, it’s something,” she added. “This place counts, because I would like to think that every place should be able to be saved.”
Being a Leo, she can be a little emotional and brought up her partner who passed away in 2005. He was known as Elliott to the tourists and “Pops” to the locals, but after meeting him 25 years prior in the garden while teaching children from the Wesley House how to pot plants, she couldn’t help but think of his “never give up energy.”
“I’m on survival mode right now and I feel like I am swimming against the tide,” she said.
Forrester, who graduated from University of Michigan School of Architecture and Design, said that she is thankful for her degree because it taught her more than just design, but prepared her to be flexible in a creative life.
“Being an artist is a pleasurable way of life,” she said. “I have always been an artist.”
Above being an artist, she is also an environmentalist. Her family understood the principles of the land, and she feels she was “green” before it was the hip thing to do. Using her own guidelines to protect the environment, she never uses pesticides in the garden and even scarcely uses fertilizers to prevent runoff to the ocean.
To monetarily donate to Nancy Forrester’s cause, go to www.manaproject.org and follow the links to Network for Good’s safe and secure website before September 1. Like Nancy said, every penny counts and after September 1, she may no longer be able to financially keep the place afloat. You can also send your tax deductible donation to Mana Project, 518 Elizabeth Street Key West, FL 33040.
Nancy Forrester
By Kristen Grimes
Not far from the beaten path of Duval Street stands an acre of land untouched by development and rich with beauty. Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden, off the 500 block of Simonton Street at One Free School Lane, stands tall with natural and exotic plants that thrive on her piece of paradise.
Nancy Forrester spent a lifetime dedicated to environmental causes starting from an early age. After moving to the lush tropical paradise of the Florida Keys from the rugged mountains of Pennsylvania in the early 1950s, Forrester grew up barefooted, dodging water moccasins and poison wood while looking for antique bottles from the various fishing camps lining the Middle Keys.
“We lived very simply,” she reflecting, conjuring an image of her mother cranking clothes in a ringer washer and pinning them up to dry, while a young image of herself sat with her adopted cat, Billy Josie, purring on her lap. “I miss the smell of cotton fabric dried in fresh air.”
She went to school in a one room school house in Marathon before the Sue Moore School was built and spent her afternoons at the beach looking for shells and other sea life washing ashore.
Her best friend lived miles away and was the only one in the area her age. Her friend’s father was a surveyor from Key West and they lived a rich lifestyle. Together they learned to cook seafood from delicious Key West recipes while growing up together.
At 70 years old, her July 29 birthday was proclaimed “Nancy Forrester Day” by Mayor McPherson for her dedication and ability to ward off developers wishing to pave the one remaining mini rainforest located in the heart of old town Key West.
Her house isn’t big, but her heart is. For the past 40 years she lived on the property, she welcomes friends (and soon-to-be friends) with open arms. Unused space is non-existent.
Each day, people pay the $10 admission fee to lounge around the gardens, or paint, picnic, or take pictures of the plants and animals she adopted over the years including exotic parrots.
“People don’t realize when they are here that they are not just meeting me or seeing the place I created, I am trying to convey to them to become a part of nature,” she said.
From her farming background of her parents and grandparents, Nancy continues to show locals and tourists that each piece of land is precious and everyone can make a difference. Over the past 10 years, she says her dialogue changes with each and every person who walks through her hammocks.
This passionate artist doesn’t have retirement in her vocabulary, but at 70 years old, she is now unable to do the things she used to at 50, like climb ladders to water the orchids that hang from the trees.
“I love this community and I love what I do,” she said. “But, I am in need of some desperate help.”
That’s when Forrester decided to hand over the financial and caretaking responsibilities to the Mana Project. Mana means positive, creative force in Polynesian. With the help of the project and the community, she hopes to be able to raise the $160,000 for this year’s operating budget.
“It’s doable,” she said now looking at the leaf of one of the orchids that adorns her property. “I know everyone is hurting economically right now, but even if it’s just a little, it’s something,” she added. “This place counts, because I would like to think that every place should be able to be saved.”
Being a Leo, she can be a little emotional and brought up her partner who passed away in 2005. He was known as Elliott to the tourists and “Pops” to the locals, but after meeting him 25 years prior in the garden while teaching children from the Wesley House how to pot plants, she couldn’t help but think of his “never give up energy.”
“I’m on survival mode right now and I feel like I am swimming against the tide,” she said.
Forrester, who graduated from University of Michigan School of Architecture and Design, said that she is thankful for her degree because it taught her more than just design, but prepared her to be flexible in a creative life.
“Being an artist is a pleasurable way of life,” she said. “I have always been an artist.”
Above being an artist, she is also an environmentalist. Her family understood the principles of the land, and she feels she was “green” before it was the hip thing to do. Using her own guidelines to protect the environment, she never uses pesticides in the garden and even scarcely uses fertilizers to prevent runoff to the ocean.
To monetarily donate to Nancy Forrester’s cause, go to www.manaproject.org and follow the links to Network for Good’s safe and secure website before September 1. Like Nancy said, every penny counts and after September 1, she may no longer be able to financially keep the place afloat. You can also send your tax deductible donation to Mana Project, 518 Elizabeth Street Key West, FL 33040.
Nancy Forrester
By Kristen Grimes
Not far from the beaten path of Duval Street stands an acre of land untouched by development and rich with beauty. Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden, off the 500 block of Simonton Street at One Free School Lane, stands tall with natural and exotic plants that thrive on her piece of paradise.
Nancy Forrester spent a lifetime dedicated to environmental causes starting from an early age. After moving to the lush tropical paradise of the Florida Keys from the rugged mountains of Pennsylvania in the early 1950s, Forrester grew up barefooted, dodging water moccasins and poison wood while looking for antique bottles from the various fishing camps lining the Middle Keys.
“We lived very simply,” she reflecting, conjuring an image of her mother cranking clothes in a ringer washer and pinning them up to dry, while a young image of herself sat with her adopted cat, Billy Josie, purring on her lap. “I miss the smell of cotton fabric dried in fresh air.”
She went to school in a one room school house in Marathon before the Sue Moore School was built and spent her afternoons at the beach looking for shells and other sea life washing ashore.
Her best friend lived miles away and was the only one in the area her age. Her friend’s father was a surveyor from Key West and they lived a rich lifestyle. Together they learned to cook seafood from delicious Key West recipes while growing up together.
At 70 years old, her July 29 birthday was proclaimed “Nancy Forrester Day” by Mayor McPherson for her dedication and ability to ward off developers wishing to pave the one remaining mini rainforest located in the heart of old town Key West.
Her house isn’t big, but her heart is. For the past 40 years she lived on the property, she welcomes friends (and soon-to-be friends) with open arms. Unused space is non-existent.
Each day, people pay the $10 admission fee to lounge around the gardens, or paint, picnic, or take pictures of the plants and animals she adopted over the years including exotic parrots.
“People don’t realize when they are here that they are not just meeting me or seeing the place I created, I am trying to convey to them to become a part of nature,” she said.
From her farming background of her parents and grandparents, Nancy continues to show locals and tourists that each piece of land is precious and everyone can make a difference. Over the past 10 years, she says her dialogue changes with each and every person who walks through her hammocks.
This passionate artist doesn’t have retirement in her vocabulary, but at 70 years old, she is now unable to do the things she used to at 50, like climb ladders to water the orchids that hang from the trees.
“I love this community and I love what I do,” she said. “But, I am in need of some desperate help.”
That’s when Forrester decided to hand over the financial and caretaking responsibilities to the Mana Project. Mana means positive, creative force in Polynesian. With the help of the project and the community, she hopes to be able to raise the $160,000 for this year’s operating budget.
“It’s doable,” she said now looking at the leaf of one of the orchids that adorns her property. “I know everyone is hurting economically right now, but even if it’s just a little, it’s something,” she added. “This place counts, because I would like to think that every place should be able to be saved.”
Being a Leo, she can be a little emotional and brought up her partner who passed away in 2005. He was known as Elliott to the tourists and “Pops” to the locals, but after meeting him 25 years prior in the garden while teaching children from the Wesley House how to pot plants, she couldn’t help but think of his “never give up energy.”
“I’m on survival mode right now and I feel like I am swimming against the tide,” she said.
Forrester, who graduated from University of Michigan School of Architecture and Design, said that she is thankful for her degree because it taught her more than just design, but prepared her to be flexible in a creative life.
“Being an artist is a pleasurable way of life,” she said. “I have always been an artist.”
Above being an artist, she is also an environmentalist. Her family understood the principles of the land, and she feels she was “green” before it was the hip thing to do. Using her own guidelines to protect the environment, she never uses pesticides in the garden and even scarcely uses fertilizers to prevent runoff to the ocean.
To monetarily donate to Nancy Forrester’s cause, go to www.manaproject.org and follow the links to Network for Good’s safe and secure website before September 1. Like Nancy said, every penny counts and after September 1, she may no longer be able to financially keep the place afloat. You can also send your tax deductible donation to Mana Project, 518 Elizabeth Street Key West, FL 33040.
MY GROWTH OR EVOLUTION AS AN ARTIST
By 1980 I was disillusioned with the commodification and insularity of gallery displayed art, human
cluttered life and consumer culture. I stopped painting on canvas partly because my output was slow and laboruus.
My extremely detailed style of painting was tedious and painting alone in a studio all day was lonly
But of greater importance I stopped painting pictures of plants and animals on canvas because extinction of species was happening rapidly before my eyes
in my own back yard. In 1969 my yard was teaming with life By 1985, 16 years later half of its species where gone.
Time was running out for the beloved subjects of my paintings, the racoons, the reptiles (snakes, lizards, frogs, turtles, anoles, gecheos)
the land snails, the birds, the insects. I was horrified by the degragation of plant Earth, the rapid extinction of plants and animals and the
disruption of Earth natural cycles.
Stopping this mass extinction of plant and animal life was my greatest priority and I needed a new art medium and a bigger audience.
Like other artists of the time in the 60's and 70's I understood that art does not have to be an object for sale in a gallery or hung in a museum governed
by males in centurys old sexest society.
Today the global art world is still dominated by western, white patriarchal values and slow to take note of maverick women artists,
And the general public is slow to understand that museums and galleries as institutions o longer set the rules for artists and viewers and that art objects
do not have to be transportable, nomadic, exist in gallery, museum space and be objects of the market and commodification. Art can be an experience.
The appearance of land art in 1968 was a response by a generation of artists mostly in their late twenties to the heightened political activism of the year
and the emerging environmental and women's liberation movements. Art movements at that time centered around rejection of the commercialization
of art-making and enthusiasm with an emergent ecological movement including spiritual yearnings concerning the planet Earth as home to humanity.
Today art with ecology and socially engaged practices dealing with injustices and ecological problems such as water and soil pollution and health hazards;
relational aesthetics that involve sustainability are common.
INFLUNCES
Greatly influenced by Josephs Campbell's, Power of the myth, "Artists are the shammens of the world" Judy Chicago's, The Dinner Party
Bill McKibbon's "The End of Nature", Woman movement, Envioronment
movement, Sustainability, Charleston's Spoleto "Places with a Past" Site Specific art
visit to Malaysia and Indonesia-Java Bogar Botnical Gardens and Bali
visit to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park London "Soap box performance-oration" After thateperience, I called myself "a soap box artist"
Performance artist Carolee Schneemann who fused art and life.
ARTISTIC DISIPLINES I USE TO CREATE NFSG
I use a blend of artistic disciplines known as Site Specific Art, Environmental Art, Eco-art, Ecological ARt, Happenings,
Performance Art, Conceptual Art, Fusing art and life, Art with live animals. Each of these art movements has purpose and can effect the real world.
MY GOAL
Share publically my desire to transform the world through art. Generate a public reaction that aims to grow a strong feeling of love and understanding which leads to
environmental and sustainable activism on the part of the viewer or participant.
Save the last undevepoled wooded acre of land in the heart of old town KeyWest from Developement. Stop extinction of species. Stop abuse of parrots
METHOD To build empathy and to generate a reaction, sometimes with the support of performance,
improvisation and always with a sense of aesthetics.
WHAT I DO Offer thru performance my perception of life.
I Used themes commonly linked to my life experiences , issues of femininity, relationships, ideas of masculinity, or the need of
denunciation or social criticism and with a spirit of transformation.
Ecological artist, works of art that actually do have purpose and effect on the real world. my art sums up the intensity of my approach to friends, lovers, cats, parrots
my creative practice – all meshed into one great life work
THE HAPPENINGS.
these things came to pass after I began to perform Happenings on the site
Commercialiation Happened, local and international newspapers, books, travel guides, made for tv specials, videos produced for international and national audiences,
BOOKS HAPPENED
SOCIAL EVENTS HAPPENED
HORTICULURE EVENTS HAPPENED Once a yeaar Feb .plant Searle Brothers Plant Sales. Orchid Lady tours tours Llods Tropical Bicylce Tour Plant sales
SPIRITUAL EVENTS
weddings, dinners for VIP people, memorial services, burials, baptisms, barmitzahs, spiritual events, womans spiritual events, new moon events, cronings,
events for schools children, sea camp,
K W childrens library, the elderly, church group visits,
horticulural events, plant sales, commerate tree plantings events, collaboration with arisistand musicians. Slow food event with Hel Yourself.
ART HAPPENED atists collaborated shows happened. art in residence happenedlife drawing painting classes, poetry s dance music
COMMODIFICATION. Money happened and support my work. "Making Change" People paid one dollar for 3 quarters.
artists work together in what become teeming new spaces of co-creation
et’s consider a brief history of sabotage in the art world – in what ways have artists reckoned with the idea that the most
powerful acts of creation might be those of destruction? And moreover, if it is possible for artworks themselves to actually
interfere in political and social structures, what does that disruption look like
THE RESULTS or how it worked
WHAT HAPPENED A viewer-participatant could think I visited a botanical garden, or I visited a parrot rescue. They woould be on On the
Step 1 conceptual level they would be correct, My art invited them to take conceptual Step 2, 3 and 4+ some got it most did not!
My mission was to introduce them to much more.
1980 to 1985
I describe mself as an enviroment artist to provide Environmentally motivated theater. My Performance art is a way for me to depict the complicated relationships between artist,
audience and parrots; intelligence and use and the symbolic and the physical.
My performances are orchestrated by me, designed to be interact and allow onlookers to call the shots and interact, Parrot 101, Birdbrain, Laughter, Target trained, Talk
My conceptual art deals with issues of parrot abuse, capture in the wild, breeding for money, the parrot trade, the trama of being unwanted abandoned, orphaned
Ideas of, and trauma are picked apart in my performance art.I staged events and performative actions in the garden performance art,
in which artists use their own body to make their particular statements.
I attempt to build empathy, love and understand in my audience leading to the end of parrot abuse in captivity and in the wild.
Invite lead visitors in a varying range of topics and activities.
GOD KNOWS Site-specific performance art,
The site-specific nature of the work allowed me to interrogate the contemporary and historic reality of the Central Business District and
create work that allows the city's users to engage and interact with public spaces in new and memorable ways.
TEARS LOSS HE PAIN OF LOSING
It consists of a pile of gravel, chunks of asphalt, a stack of aluminin cans, tossed glass bottles In its simplicity of form and concentration on the materials themselves,
this and other pieces of land art have an affinity with minimalism. use of materials traditionally
considered "unartistic" or "worthless".Ecological artist and activist, merging art with ecology and socially engaged practices.
My garden was a renewable energy sculpture . direct-encounter artworks that involve natural phenomena such as water, weather, sunlight, or plants pedagogical artworks that
share information about environmental
Performance artist Carolee Schneemann
creating work with intensity and integrity, a feminist artist before the art world knew of
such a thing. ardent aattention to creative living, her art summing up the intensity of her approach to friends, lovers, cats
and her creative practice – all meshed into one great life work.
I first met Carolee when I was an avid newly minted feminist art historian in the mid 1990s. She invited me into her studio in Manhattan,
which, filled with paintings, sketches, paint, film and other materials bound to the myriad forms of her practice, struck me as epitomising
the creative space of a successful feminist artist. But the space and the art being made within it were only a small part of the thrill of the
the lived force of her embodied expression, in everything she did.
She taught performance scholars what it means to think, make, live through the body all day long every day as a visual artist.
collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of this world,"
I am thinking of Eleanor Krick maiden lady in her 70's
Head of Studiesat my high school and my english teacher.
She saw something in me something that inspire her (I did not recieve the English prize opon graduation) but she personally purchased,
signed and presented me at her own epense a book to encourage me to persue reading and writing.
Like other artists of the time I understood that art does not have to be an object for sale in a gallery or hung in a museum.
By 1980 I was disillusioned with the commodification and insularity of gallery displayed art, human
cluttered life and consumer culture. I stopped painting on canvas partly because my output was slow and laboruus.
My extremely detailed style of painting was tedious and painting alone in a studio all day was lonly
But of greater importance I stopped painting pictures of plants and animals on canvas because extinction of species was happening rapidly before my eyes
in my own back yard. In 1969 my yard was teaming with life By 1985, 16 years later half of its species where gone.
Time was running out for the beloved subjects of my paintings, the racoons, the reptiles (snakes, lizards, frogs, turtles, anoles, gecheos)
the land snails, the birds, the insects. I was horrified by the degragation of plant Earth, the rapid extinction of plants and animals and the
disruption of Earth natural cycles.
Stopping this mass extinction of plant and animal life was my greatest priority and I needed a new art medium and a bigger audience.
Like other artists of the time in the 60's and 70's I understood that art does not have to be an object for sale in a gallery or hung in a museum governed
by males in centurys old sexest society.
Today the global art world is still dominated by western, white patriarchal values and slow to take note of maverick women artists,
And the general public is slow to understand that museums and galleries as institutions o longer set the rules for artists and viewers and that art objects
do not have to be transportable, nomadic, exist in gallery, museum space and be objects of the market and commodification. Art can be an experience.
The appearance of land art in 1968 was a response by a generation of artists mostly in their late twenties to the heightened political activism of the year
and the emerging environmental and women's liberation movements. Art movements at that time centered around rejection of the commercialization
of art-making and enthusiasm with an emergent ecological movement including spiritual yearnings concerning the planet Earth as home to humanity.
Today art with ecology and socially engaged practices dealing with injustices and ecological problems such as water and soil pollution and health hazards;
relational aesthetics that involve sustainability are common.
INFLUNCES
Greatly influenced by Josephs Campbell's, Power of the myth, "Artists are the shammens of the world" Judy Chicago's, The Dinner Party
Bill McKibbon's "The End of Nature", Woman movement, Envioronment
movement, Sustainability, Charleston's Spoleto "Places with a Past" Site Specific art
visit to Malaysia and Indonesia-Java Bogar Botnical Gardens and Bali
visit to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park London "Soap box performance-oration" After thateperience, I called myself "a soap box artist"
Performance artist Carolee Schneemann who fused art and life.
ARTISTIC DISIPLINES I USE TO CREATE NFSG
I use a blend of artistic disciplines known as Site Specific Art, Environmental Art, Eco-art, Ecological ARt, Happenings,
Performance Art, Conceptual Art, Fusing art and life, Art with live animals. Each of these art movements has purpose and can effect the real world.
MY GOAL
Share publically my desire to transform the world through art. Generate a public reaction that aims to grow a strong feeling of love and understanding which leads to
environmental and sustainable activism on the part of the viewer or participant.
Save the last undevepoled wooded acre of land in the heart of old town KeyWest from Developement. Stop extinction of species. Stop abuse of parrots
METHOD To build empathy and to generate a reaction, sometimes with the support of performance,
improvisation and always with a sense of aesthetics.
WHAT I DO Offer thru performance my perception of life.
I Used themes commonly linked to my life experiences , issues of femininity, relationships, ideas of masculinity, or the need of
denunciation or social criticism and with a spirit of transformation.
Ecological artist, works of art that actually do have purpose and effect on the real world. my art sums up the intensity of my approach to friends, lovers, cats, parrots
my creative practice – all meshed into one great life work
THE HAPPENINGS.
these things came to pass after I began to perform Happenings on the site
Commercialiation Happened, local and international newspapers, books, travel guides, made for tv specials, videos produced for international and national audiences,
BOOKS HAPPENED
SOCIAL EVENTS HAPPENED
HORTICULURE EVENTS HAPPENED Once a yeaar Feb .plant Searle Brothers Plant Sales. Orchid Lady tours tours Llods Tropical Bicylce Tour Plant sales
SPIRITUAL EVENTS
weddings, dinners for VIP people, memorial services, burials, baptisms, barmitzahs, spiritual events, womans spiritual events, new moon events, cronings,
events for schools children, sea camp,
K W childrens library, the elderly, church group visits,
horticulural events, plant sales, commerate tree plantings events, collaboration with arisistand musicians. Slow food event with Hel Yourself.
ART HAPPENED atists collaborated shows happened. art in residence happenedlife drawing painting classes, poetry s dance music
COMMODIFICATION. Money happened and support my work. "Making Change" People paid one dollar for 3 quarters.
artists work together in what become teeming new spaces of co-creation
et’s consider a brief history of sabotage in the art world – in what ways have artists reckoned with the idea that the most
powerful acts of creation might be those of destruction? And moreover, if it is possible for artworks themselves to actually
interfere in political and social structures, what does that disruption look like
THE RESULTS or how it worked
WHAT HAPPENED A viewer-participatant could think I visited a botanical garden, or I visited a parrot rescue. They woould be on On the
Step 1 conceptual level they would be correct, My art invited them to take conceptual Step 2, 3 and 4+ some got it most did not!
My mission was to introduce them to much more.
1980 to 1985
I describe mself as an enviroment artist to provide Environmentally motivated theater. My Performance art is a way for me to depict the complicated relationships between artist,
audience and parrots; intelligence and use and the symbolic and the physical.
My performances are orchestrated by me, designed to be interact and allow onlookers to call the shots and interact, Parrot 101, Birdbrain, Laughter, Target trained, Talk
My conceptual art deals with issues of parrot abuse, capture in the wild, breeding for money, the parrot trade, the trama of being unwanted abandoned, orphaned
Ideas of, and trauma are picked apart in my performance art.I staged events and performative actions in the garden performance art,
in which artists use their own body to make their particular statements.
I attempt to build empathy, love and understand in my audience leading to the end of parrot abuse in captivity and in the wild.
Invite lead visitors in a varying range of topics and activities.
GOD KNOWS Site-specific performance art,
The site-specific nature of the work allowed me to interrogate the contemporary and historic reality of the Central Business District and
create work that allows the city's users to engage and interact with public spaces in new and memorable ways.
TEARS LOSS HE PAIN OF LOSING
It consists of a pile of gravel, chunks of asphalt, a stack of aluminin cans, tossed glass bottles In its simplicity of form and concentration on the materials themselves,
this and other pieces of land art have an affinity with minimalism. use of materials traditionally
considered "unartistic" or "worthless".Ecological artist and activist, merging art with ecology and socially engaged practices.
My garden was a renewable energy sculpture . direct-encounter artworks that involve natural phenomena such as water, weather, sunlight, or plants pedagogical artworks that
share information about environmental
Performance artist Carolee Schneemann
creating work with intensity and integrity, a feminist artist before the art world knew of
such a thing. ardent aattention to creative living, her art summing up the intensity of her approach to friends, lovers, cats
and her creative practice – all meshed into one great life work.
I first met Carolee when I was an avid newly minted feminist art historian in the mid 1990s. She invited me into her studio in Manhattan,
which, filled with paintings, sketches, paint, film and other materials bound to the myriad forms of her practice, struck me as epitomising
the creative space of a successful feminist artist. But the space and the art being made within it were only a small part of the thrill of the
the lived force of her embodied expression, in everything she did.
She taught performance scholars what it means to think, make, live through the body all day long every day as a visual artist.
collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of this world,"
I am thinking of Eleanor Krick maiden lady in her 70's
Head of Studiesat my high school and my english teacher.
She saw something in me something that inspire her (I did not recieve the English prize opon graduation) but she personally purchased,
signed and presented me at her own epense a book to encourage me to persue reading and writing.
Like other artists of the time I understood that art does not have to be an object for sale in a gallery or hung in a museum.
DEFINITIONS OF TYPES OF ART OR ARTISTIC DISIPLINES I USE TO CREATE NANCY FORRESTER'S SECRET GARDEN
SITE-SPECIFIC ART emerged in the 70s It is artwork created to exist in a certain place.
Outdoor site-specific artworks often include landscaping combined with permanently sited sculptural elements and often are linked with environmental art.
Outdoor site-specific artworks can also include performances created especially for the site.
Aside from this movement’s light applications in the visual arts, the concept of Site Specific Dance and Performance also exists.
Site Specific Art, which is sometimes referred to as Environment Art, pertains to a modern art form designed to exist only in a certain location.
The artists behind these contemporary art masterpieces always consider the location in which their modern art work will be installed,
including but not limited to its physical elements such as length, depth, height, weight, shape, temperature, walls, its sensory elements sound, taste
smell, lighting, its living inhabitants or visitors plants and animals, its historical, politial, ecomonic, cultural, environmental and sustainable values,
its natural forces wind, water, temperature, geography, topography, its urban setting, its history of use, its artistic and spiritual elements.
LAND ART, also known as Earth art, Environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s,
land art expanded boundaries of art by the materials used and the siting of the works. The materials used were often the materials of the Earth,
In the 1960s and 1970s land art protested "ruthless commercialization" of art in America. During this period, exponents of land art
rejected the museum or gallery as the setting of artistic activity and developed monumental landscape projects which were beyond the reach of traditional
transportable sculpture and the commercial art market,
Today "land art" is become part of mainstream public art
ECOLOGICAL ART or ECO-ART
Ecological art, also known as ecoart, is an artistic practice or discipline proposing paradigms sustainable with the life forms and resources of our planet.
It is composed of artists, scientists, philosophers and activists who are devoted to the practices of ecological art. Historical precedents include Earthworks,
Land Art, and landscape painting/photography. Eco-art is distinguished by a focus on systems and interrelationships within our environment: the ecological, geographic,
political, biological and cultural. Ecoart creates awareness, stimulates dialogue, changes human behavior towards other species, and encourages the long-term respect for
the natural systems we coexist with. It manifests as socially engaged, activist, community-based restorative or interventionist art. Ecological artist,
Ecological art is an art practice, often in collaboration with scientists, city planners, architects and others, that results in direct intervention
in environmental degradation.
There are numerous approaches to eco-art including but not limited to: representational artworks that address the environment through images and objects;
remediation projects that restore polluted environments; activist projects that engage others and activate change of behaviors and/or public policy;
time-based social sculptures that involves communities in monitoring their landscapes and taking a participatory role in sustainable practices;
ecopoetic projects that initiate a re-envisioning and re-enchantment with the natural world, inspiring healing and co-existence with other species;
direct-encounter artworks that involve natural phenomena such as water, weather, sunlight, or plants pedagogical artworks that share information about environmental
injustice and ecological problems such as water and soil pollution and health hazards; relational aesthetics that involve sustainable,
There is discussion and debate among ecoartists, if ecological art should be considered a discrete discipline within the arts, distinct from environmental art.
A current definition of ecological art, drafted collectively by the EcoArtNetwork is "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."[29] Artists who work in this field generally subscribe to one or more of the following principles: focus on the web of interrelationships in our environment—on the physical, biological, cultural, political, and historical aspects of ecological systems; create works that employ natural materials or engage with environmental forces such as wind, water, or sunlight; reclaim, restore, and remediate damaged environments; inform the public about ecological dynamics and the environmental problems we face; revise ecological relationships, creatively proposing new possibilities for coexistence, sustainability, and healing.
Contributions by women in the area of EcoArt are significant, many are cataloged in WEAD,
Women Environmental Artists Directory founded in 1995 by Jo Hanson, Susan Leibovitz Steinman and Estelle Akamine.
The work of ecofeminist writers inspired early male and female practitioners to address their concerns about a more horizontal relationship to environmental issues
in their own practices. The feminist art writer Lucy Lippard, writing for the Weather Report Show she curated in 2007 at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art,
which included many environmental, ecological and ecofeminist artists, commented on how many of those artists were women.
Sustainable art is produced with consideration for the wider impact of the work and its reception in relationship to its environments (social, economic, biophysical, historical,
and cultural). In this way the work of art arises out of a sensitivity towards habitat. Considering environmental impact
PERFORMANCE ART
Also known as artistic action, it has been developed through the years as a genre of its own in which art is presented live.
It had an important and fundamental role in 20th century avant garde art. Performance art, in which artists use their own body to make their particular statements.
Artworks or art exhibition created through actions performed executed by the artist or other participants, may be live or recorded,
spontaneous or scripted I is presented to a public in a Fine Arts context, traditionally interdisciplinary
Performance art is a way for artists to depict the tenuous relationships between artist and audience; body and canvas; the symbolic and the physical.
Some performances are fully orchestrated by the artists, others let the onlookers call the shots. It is linked to conceptual art.
It involves four basic elements: time, space, body, and presence of the artist, and the relation between the creator and the public.
These artist actions can happen in any kind of setting or space and during any time period.
Its goal is to generate a reaction, sometimes with the support of improvisation and a sense of aesthetics.
The themes are commonly linked to life experiences of the artist themselves, or the need of denunciation or social criticism and with a spirit of transformation.
The term "performance art" and "performance" became widely used in the 1970s, even though the history of performance in visual arts dates back to futurist productions
and cabarets from the 1910s in which artists use their own body to make their particular statements.
While the terms ‘performance’ and ‘performance art’ only became widely used in the 1970s, the history of performance in the visual arts is often traced back
to futurist productions and dada cabarets of the 1910s.
Throughout the twentieth century performance was often seen as a non-traditional way of making art. Live-ness, physical movement and impermanence offered artists
alternatives to the static permanence of painting and sculpture.
In the post-war period performance became aligned with conceptual art, because of its often immaterial nature.
It is now an accepted part of the visual art world,
the term has since been used to also describe film, video, photographic
and installation-based artworks through which the actions of artists, performers or the audience are conveyed.
More recently, performance has been understood as a way of engaging directly with social reality, the specifics of space and the politics of identity. In 2016,
theorist Jonah Westerman remarked ‘performance is not (and never was) a medium, not something that an artwork can be but rather a set of questions and concerns
about how art relates to people and the wider social world’.
Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants.
It may be live, through documentation, spontaneously or written, presented to a public in a Fine Arts context, traditionally interdisciplinary.[1]
It had an important and fundamental role in 20th century avant garde art.
It involves four basic elements: time, space, body, and presence of the artist, and the relation between the creator and the public.
The actions, generally developed in art galleries and museums, can take place in the street, any kind of setting or space and during any time period.[4]
Its goal is to generate a reaction, sometimes with the support of improvisation and a sense of aesthetics.
The themes are commonly linked to life experiences of the artist themselves, or the need of denunciation or social criticism and with a spirit of transformation.
The discipline of performance art is linked to happening, the Fluxus movement, body art and conceptual art.
More recently, performance has been understood as a way of engaging directly with social reality, the specifics of space and the politics of identity.
HAPPENINGS
A happening is a performance, event, or situation art.
The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events.
An event that could combine elements of painting, poetry, music, dance, and theatre and stage them as a live action.
Happenings is a descriptive term used often in the late 1960s. It is the presursser of performance art.
It evolved from the desire to operate in the much-discussed gap between art and life. The desire too fuse art and life
It is art defined by the action, activity, occasion, and/or experience that constitutes the Happening, which could be fundamentally fleeting
and immaterial. The purpose of Happenings was to confront and dismantle conventional views of the category of "art."
Happenings typically took place in an environment or installation created within the gallery and involved light, sound, slide projections
and an element of spectator participation. They proliferated through the 1960s but gave way to performance art in which the focus was
increasingly on the actions of the artist. A detailed account of early happenings can be found in Michael Kirby’s 1965 book, Happenings.
A Happening is a form of avant-garde art - a type of creative expression, closely associated with performance art, which itself has
its roots in twentieth century theories of conceptual art, derived largely from demonstrations organized by exponents of Dada,
In practice, it is not easy to distinguish between Performance and Happenings, both being a form of
carefully planned entertainment (albeit with elements of spontaneity) during which the artist performs (or manages) a theatrical artistic event.
Something which is more easily witnessed than described in words! At any rate, a Happening is basically a spontaneous piece of Performance art
which hovers between drama and visual art, and typically both invites and elicits a strong audience response. Given its Dadaist style of impermanence,
it was initially conceived as a radical alternative to traditional principles of craftsmanship, and the 'permanent art object.'
A detailed explanation of this new form of postmodernist art can be read in the book 'Happenings' (1965) by Michael Kirby.
This type of artistic event was particularly associated with the New York art scene circa 1960, and is still staged in the best galleries
of contemporary art around the world. Happenings proliferated through the 1960s but gave way to performance art in the 1970's
in which the focus was increasingly on the actions of the artist.
ECOLOGICAL ART
An art practice, often in collaboration with scientists, city planners, architects and others, that results in direct intervention
in environmental degradation. inspiring healing and co-existence with other species;
direct-encounter artworks that involve natural phenomena such as water, weather, sunlight, or plants pedagogical artworks that share information about environmental
injustice and ecological problems such as water and soil pollution and health hazards; relational aesthetics that involve sustainable,
ART WITH LIVE ANIMALS AND PARROTS
In recent decades, the physical use of living animals by artists has become common in artworks
This art ranges from performance to serious installation exhibits.
My statement about the living animal I work withAs an artist has a “I have very close relationships with other species which is an important part of their life.
I co-habit with the animals I work with. They are beloved members of my family. I am famously close to them.
The artwork I and the animals make together is made in the site we both inhabit. My artwork with them is humane. There is no exploitation or abuse,
The animals are taught and encouraged to express themselves and their needs. Their sophisticated social needs have given rise to
and presentations created by them embellished by me Birdbrain Wits End where they are free to act spontaniously, verbalize and teaach communicate to humans the
what is most important to them. Notice Me. Trust, Fear. No Mean Animals
SITE-SPECIFIC ART emerged in the 70s It is artwork created to exist in a certain place.
Outdoor site-specific artworks often include landscaping combined with permanently sited sculptural elements and often are linked with environmental art.
Outdoor site-specific artworks can also include performances created especially for the site.
Aside from this movement’s light applications in the visual arts, the concept of Site Specific Dance and Performance also exists.
Site Specific Art, which is sometimes referred to as Environment Art, pertains to a modern art form designed to exist only in a certain location.
The artists behind these contemporary art masterpieces always consider the location in which their modern art work will be installed,
including but not limited to its physical elements such as length, depth, height, weight, shape, temperature, walls, its sensory elements sound, taste
smell, lighting, its living inhabitants or visitors plants and animals, its historical, politial, ecomonic, cultural, environmental and sustainable values,
its natural forces wind, water, temperature, geography, topography, its urban setting, its history of use, its artistic and spiritual elements.
LAND ART, also known as Earth art, Environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s,
land art expanded boundaries of art by the materials used and the siting of the works. The materials used were often the materials of the Earth,
In the 1960s and 1970s land art protested "ruthless commercialization" of art in America. During this period, exponents of land art
rejected the museum or gallery as the setting of artistic activity and developed monumental landscape projects which were beyond the reach of traditional
transportable sculpture and the commercial art market,
Today "land art" is become part of mainstream public art
ECOLOGICAL ART or ECO-ART
Ecological art, also known as ecoart, is an artistic practice or discipline proposing paradigms sustainable with the life forms and resources of our planet.
It is composed of artists, scientists, philosophers and activists who are devoted to the practices of ecological art. Historical precedents include Earthworks,
Land Art, and landscape painting/photography. Eco-art is distinguished by a focus on systems and interrelationships within our environment: the ecological, geographic,
political, biological and cultural. Ecoart creates awareness, stimulates dialogue, changes human behavior towards other species, and encourages the long-term respect for
the natural systems we coexist with. It manifests as socially engaged, activist, community-based restorative or interventionist art. Ecological artist,
Ecological art is an art practice, often in collaboration with scientists, city planners, architects and others, that results in direct intervention
in environmental degradation.
There are numerous approaches to eco-art including but not limited to: representational artworks that address the environment through images and objects;
remediation projects that restore polluted environments; activist projects that engage others and activate change of behaviors and/or public policy;
time-based social sculptures that involves communities in monitoring their landscapes and taking a participatory role in sustainable practices;
ecopoetic projects that initiate a re-envisioning and re-enchantment with the natural world, inspiring healing and co-existence with other species;
direct-encounter artworks that involve natural phenomena such as water, weather, sunlight, or plants pedagogical artworks that share information about environmental
injustice and ecological problems such as water and soil pollution and health hazards; relational aesthetics that involve sustainable,
There is discussion and debate among ecoartists, if ecological art should be considered a discrete discipline within the arts, distinct from environmental art.
A current definition of ecological art, drafted collectively by the EcoArtNetwork is "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."[29] Artists who work in this field generally subscribe to one or more of the following principles: focus on the web of interrelationships in our environment—on the physical, biological, cultural, political, and historical aspects of ecological systems; create works that employ natural materials or engage with environmental forces such as wind, water, or sunlight; reclaim, restore, and remediate damaged environments; inform the public about ecological dynamics and the environmental problems we face; revise ecological relationships, creatively proposing new possibilities for coexistence, sustainability, and healing.
Contributions by women in the area of EcoArt are significant, many are cataloged in WEAD,
Women Environmental Artists Directory founded in 1995 by Jo Hanson, Susan Leibovitz Steinman and Estelle Akamine.
The work of ecofeminist writers inspired early male and female practitioners to address their concerns about a more horizontal relationship to environmental issues
in their own practices. The feminist art writer Lucy Lippard, writing for the Weather Report Show she curated in 2007 at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art,
which included many environmental, ecological and ecofeminist artists, commented on how many of those artists were women.
Sustainable art is produced with consideration for the wider impact of the work and its reception in relationship to its environments (social, economic, biophysical, historical,
and cultural). In this way the work of art arises out of a sensitivity towards habitat. Considering environmental impact
PERFORMANCE ART
Also known as artistic action, it has been developed through the years as a genre of its own in which art is presented live.
It had an important and fundamental role in 20th century avant garde art. Performance art, in which artists use their own body to make their particular statements.
Artworks or art exhibition created through actions performed executed by the artist or other participants, may be live or recorded,
spontaneous or scripted I is presented to a public in a Fine Arts context, traditionally interdisciplinary
Performance art is a way for artists to depict the tenuous relationships between artist and audience; body and canvas; the symbolic and the physical.
Some performances are fully orchestrated by the artists, others let the onlookers call the shots. It is linked to conceptual art.
It involves four basic elements: time, space, body, and presence of the artist, and the relation between the creator and the public.
These artist actions can happen in any kind of setting or space and during any time period.
Its goal is to generate a reaction, sometimes with the support of improvisation and a sense of aesthetics.
The themes are commonly linked to life experiences of the artist themselves, or the need of denunciation or social criticism and with a spirit of transformation.
The term "performance art" and "performance" became widely used in the 1970s, even though the history of performance in visual arts dates back to futurist productions
and cabarets from the 1910s in which artists use their own body to make their particular statements.
While the terms ‘performance’ and ‘performance art’ only became widely used in the 1970s, the history of performance in the visual arts is often traced back
to futurist productions and dada cabarets of the 1910s.
Throughout the twentieth century performance was often seen as a non-traditional way of making art. Live-ness, physical movement and impermanence offered artists
alternatives to the static permanence of painting and sculpture.
In the post-war period performance became aligned with conceptual art, because of its often immaterial nature.
It is now an accepted part of the visual art world,
the term has since been used to also describe film, video, photographic
and installation-based artworks through which the actions of artists, performers or the audience are conveyed.
More recently, performance has been understood as a way of engaging directly with social reality, the specifics of space and the politics of identity. In 2016,
theorist Jonah Westerman remarked ‘performance is not (and never was) a medium, not something that an artwork can be but rather a set of questions and concerns
about how art relates to people and the wider social world’.
Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants.
It may be live, through documentation, spontaneously or written, presented to a public in a Fine Arts context, traditionally interdisciplinary.[1]
It had an important and fundamental role in 20th century avant garde art.
It involves four basic elements: time, space, body, and presence of the artist, and the relation between the creator and the public.
The actions, generally developed in art galleries and museums, can take place in the street, any kind of setting or space and during any time period.[4]
Its goal is to generate a reaction, sometimes with the support of improvisation and a sense of aesthetics.
The themes are commonly linked to life experiences of the artist themselves, or the need of denunciation or social criticism and with a spirit of transformation.
The discipline of performance art is linked to happening, the Fluxus movement, body art and conceptual art.
More recently, performance has been understood as a way of engaging directly with social reality, the specifics of space and the politics of identity.
HAPPENINGS
A happening is a performance, event, or situation art.
The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events.
An event that could combine elements of painting, poetry, music, dance, and theatre and stage them as a live action.
Happenings is a descriptive term used often in the late 1960s. It is the presursser of performance art.
It evolved from the desire to operate in the much-discussed gap between art and life. The desire too fuse art and life
It is art defined by the action, activity, occasion, and/or experience that constitutes the Happening, which could be fundamentally fleeting
and immaterial. The purpose of Happenings was to confront and dismantle conventional views of the category of "art."
Happenings typically took place in an environment or installation created within the gallery and involved light, sound, slide projections
and an element of spectator participation. They proliferated through the 1960s but gave way to performance art in which the focus was
increasingly on the actions of the artist. A detailed account of early happenings can be found in Michael Kirby’s 1965 book, Happenings.
A Happening is a form of avant-garde art - a type of creative expression, closely associated with performance art, which itself has
its roots in twentieth century theories of conceptual art, derived largely from demonstrations organized by exponents of Dada,
In practice, it is not easy to distinguish between Performance and Happenings, both being a form of
carefully planned entertainment (albeit with elements of spontaneity) during which the artist performs (or manages) a theatrical artistic event.
Something which is more easily witnessed than described in words! At any rate, a Happening is basically a spontaneous piece of Performance art
which hovers between drama and visual art, and typically both invites and elicits a strong audience response. Given its Dadaist style of impermanence,
it was initially conceived as a radical alternative to traditional principles of craftsmanship, and the 'permanent art object.'
A detailed explanation of this new form of postmodernist art can be read in the book 'Happenings' (1965) by Michael Kirby.
This type of artistic event was particularly associated with the New York art scene circa 1960, and is still staged in the best galleries
of contemporary art around the world. Happenings proliferated through the 1960s but gave way to performance art in the 1970's
in which the focus was increasingly on the actions of the artist.
ECOLOGICAL ART
An art practice, often in collaboration with scientists, city planners, architects and others, that results in direct intervention
in environmental degradation. inspiring healing and co-existence with other species;
direct-encounter artworks that involve natural phenomena such as water, weather, sunlight, or plants pedagogical artworks that share information about environmental
injustice and ecological problems such as water and soil pollution and health hazards; relational aesthetics that involve sustainable,
ART WITH LIVE ANIMALS AND PARROTS
In recent decades, the physical use of living animals by artists has become common in artworks
This art ranges from performance to serious installation exhibits.
My statement about the living animal I work withAs an artist has a “I have very close relationships with other species which is an important part of their life.
I co-habit with the animals I work with. They are beloved members of my family. I am famously close to them.
The artwork I and the animals make together is made in the site we both inhabit. My artwork with them is humane. There is no exploitation or abuse,
The animals are taught and encouraged to express themselves and their needs. Their sophisticated social needs have given rise to
and presentations created by them embellished by me Birdbrain Wits End where they are free to act spontaniously, verbalize and teaach communicate to humans the
what is most important to them. Notice Me. Trust, Fear. No Mean Animals
A green museum is a museum that incorporates concepts of sustainability into its operations, programming, and facility. Many green museums use their
collections to produce exhibitions, events, classes, and other programming to educate the public about the natural environment. Many, but not all, green
museums reside in a building featuring sustainable architecture and technology. Green museums interpret their own sustainable practices and green design to
present a model of behavior.
Green museums strive to help people become more conscious of their world, its limitations, and how their actions affect it. The goal is to create positive
change by encouraging people to make sustainable choices in their daily lives. They use their position as community-centered institutions to create a culture of sustainability.
Museum
Museums make a "unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of this world," according to the American Alliance of Museums’
Code of Ethics. There are many types of museums that specialize in various fields, including anthropology, art, history, natural history, science, and can have living
collections such as public aquariums, botanical gardens, nature centers, and zoos, or no collections like planetariums, and children's museums.[1]
Museums are stewards of natural heritage and cultural heritage by preserving objects of importance to mankind on the community and global level. Museums communicate
and contribute to knowledge. They are mission-driven, serve the public, and usually have nonprofit legal statuses.
Green
In the concept of green museums, the word green means environmentally thoughtful practice. The terms "green" and "sustainable" are buzzwords often used interchangeably.
However, according to Brophy and Wylie, "green" and "sustainable" have distinctly different definitions. "Green refers to products and behaviors that are environmentally
benign, [...] while sustainable means practices that rely on renewable or reusable materials and processes that are green or environmentally benign."[2]
Another frequently cited definition for "sustainability" that is used in various contexts was developed by the United Nations (1987): "
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs."[3]
Sustainability reflects a complex system where components are closely linked and do not exist in isolation from one another. A sustainable system
affects and is affected by the individual and collective behaviors of its members. Sustainability, therefore, recognizes the human impact on the environment,
and aims to mitigate negative effects.[4]
Culture of sustainability
Green museums promote a culture of sustainability. Culture forms and holds humanity's deepest values, attitudes, and actions. Sustainability asks people to adapt
at a cultural level, changing their beliefs and behavior (Worts, 2006). Museums are in a unique role to establish and promote a culture of sustainability. "In their
role as places of authority and keepers of culture, museums have unequaled power and responsibility to model and to teach the methods of preserving ourselves,
our planet and our cultural resources" (45).[5]
Green museums are a relatively new phenomenon. Discussions within museums about environmental sustainability began in the 1990s and have continued to grow in momentum
to the present day. Currently, green museums are receiving a lot of attention from academia and the mass media. Some scholars believe that a focus on sustainability is a
way for museums to be relevant in the 21st century (Brophy & Wylie, 2006). However, most conventional museums are not engaged in sustainable practices.[7]
The green museum movement began in science and children's museums. Science museums found that environmental advocacy and education fit easily within their missions
and programming. Children's museums saw that using green design in their inside environments created a healthy playground for their young visitors. Once sustainability
became a topic of discussion in museum circles, zoos and aquariums realized that their existing missions and programming of species conservation was in essence
sustainable education.[8] Recently, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums revised its accreditation standards to include a requirement of environmental advocacy.[9]
With the green museum movement beginning in Children's Museums, The Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, IL, became the first LEED certified Children's Museum on
October 3, 2005, when it received a Silver certification.[10] The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY became the first LEED certified green museum in 2008, followed by
The Brooklyn Children's Museum, who achieved the LEED Silver certification in 2010. In addition, this museum used rapidly renewable and recycled features such as
bamboo and recycled rubber flooring to construct the building as well as used photovoltaics to generate electricity.[11] Other good examples of green museums include
The Boston Children's Museum who earned a LEED Gold certification in 2007, and Pittsburgh Children's Museum, who received a LEED Silver certification in 2006.[12]
Science museums and zoos were quick to follow Children's Museums in the green movement. One of the first science museums to adopt green initiatives was ECHO, Leahy Center
for Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, which was the first LEED certified building in Vermont.[13] The Natural History Museum of Utah is another museum that has taken
charge in the green museum movement. The Rio Tinto Center of the museum has been certified with a Gold LEED Certificate. [14]
Zoos and Botanical Gardens have also become leaders in the Green Museum field. The Denver Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, and Cincinnati Zoo all received Green Awards at the 2011
Association of Zoos and Aquariums Conference.[15] The Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens was given a LEED silver certification for its new Welcome Center, which "is
designed to evoke the geometry of the historic glass houses behind it." It has 11,000 square feet of lobby, ticketing, gift shop, and cafe space with a 34 ft high glass dome
that is insulated to control glare and heat. Architects partially built the structure into the terrain, with 14th feet of usable space below ground. It was determined that by
doing this, Phipps would save 40-50% of annual energy costs compared with an entirely above ground structure, and demonstrated that sustainable design could be created in ways
that were still sympathetic to historic settings.[16] Phipps will also be opening the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, which will house a center for education, research, and
administration. It is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012, and is planned to exceed the LEED platinum certification, and achieve the Living Building Challenge.[17]
Art Museums are now also joining the movement. The Grand Rapids Art Museum became the world's first LEED certified art museum complex in 2008 when it received LEED Gold
certification, which such innovative features as a heat recovery ventilator, CO2 sensors, and on site grey water reuse.[18][19]
Now all types of museums of all sizes are becoming green. In the last decade, over 20 American museums have constructed a new green building or have renovated an existing
building with sustainable features. Many others have developed green operations or programming. Some scholars believe that environmental sustainability will become a
professional expectation for all museums in the future (Wylie & Brophy, 2008).
One specific example of a "Green Museum" is The Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio. In 2007, the institution redefined its mission statement to focus on inspiring and informing
the public about conservation.[20] As part of their new mission, the Toledo Zoo committed to green construction, which was shown in the parking lot renovation project. T
he main parking lot was redesigned in order to increase parking capacity and aid traffic flow, and the project incorporated green elements such as rain gardens and
reusing concrete. The renovation also included a residential-sized wind turbine and three solar panels to power the ticket booths at the park's entrance.[20] The
wind-turbine and solar panels generate 3600 kilowatt hours per year, which can be redirected into the zoo's main power grid when the booths are not in use and
reduce the zoo's carbon footprint by 5600 pounds annually.[20]
Another project at the Toledo Zoo is the Solar Walk. The Solar Walk opened in November 2010 and includes over 1400 solar panels that produce 104,000 kilowatt hours per
year, the same amount of energy used by ten typical homes in Ohio.[21] The Toledo Zoo and the Solar Walk's design team wanted the project to be a visual reminder to all
zoo visitors and traffic from nearby highway of the zoo's commitment to conservation. In order to accomplish the project, the Toledo Zoo turned to a local companies, and
used funds from private contributions and an energy grant from ODOD to cover the $14,750,000 price.[22] Also, The Toledo Zoo, in keeping with their mission statement,
included informational panels on how the Solar Walk works and the amount of energy produced to date, so that visitors can be informed on the conservational value of the project.[22] The Solar Walk will reduce the Zoo's carbon footprint by over 75 metric tons each year, which is equivalent to 15 medium-sized cars.[23] The Toledo Zoo has further committed to incorporate green construction into its building plans through geothermal wells, environmentally friendly insulation and other renewable energy and green construction materials.[20]
Green exhibits
Museums are taking a more active approach to the project development of their exhibits. Children's museums initiated the green museum movement, mainly out of health c
oncerns for the young visitors. Using toxic materials and chemicals on structures intended for children became a high worry for both the museum staff and parents. "
In its 2004 expansion project the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh used only adhesives, sealants, paints, carpets, and composite wood that are certified formaldehyde
free with near-zero off-gassing."[24]
Before the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra became mainstream, a small number of museums had already begun promoting sustainable decision making thru exhibits. One museum
in particular, the Boston Children's Museum, developed a concept known as "The Recycle Shop". In 1970, this exhibit promoted the benefits of using manufactured waste
materials, and turning them into artistic creations. Students, teachers, and the general public were allowed to collect art materials not otherwise found in regular
stores. The Recycle Shop closed its doors after several years in operation, due to the recycling program that was later introduced across the United States.
Throughout the last several years, exhibit designers have expanded their businesses by building eco-friendly exhibits. Using environmentally safe materials such as low
Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paints, formaldehyde-free wood products and fiberwood (composite wood) are the trademark tools for defining green exhibits. Some exhibit
furniture products are also constructed to be shipped for flat packing. This helps to decrease shipping costs, reduce packing material, increase fuel efficiency which
minimizes the overall carbon footprint of the exhibition.
How does a museum understand the criteria that is required, needed to build green exhibits? Organizations are working to develop a standard rating system, for the
specific needs of green exhibitions. In 2007, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) created an aid to help museums assess the sustainability of their exhibits.
OMSI, a scientific, educational, and cultural resource center looked to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
rating system, to create the OMSI Green Exhibit Certification.
The guide provides a checklist for organizations who follows eight elements regularly used in exhibit design. After evaluation, they are awarded 0-4 points:
Green museums promote a culture of sustainability. Culture forms and holds humanity's deepest values, attitudes, and actions. Sustainability asks people to adapt at a
cultural level, changing their beliefs and behavior (Worts, 2006). Museums are in a unique role to establish and promote a culture of sustainability. "In their role as
places of authority and keepers of culture, museums have unequaled power and responsibility to model and to teach the methods of preserving ourselves, our planet and our
cultural resources" (45).[5]
Green museums strive to help people become more conscious of their world, its limitations, and how their actions affect it. The goal is to create positive
change by encouraging people to make sustainable choices in their daily lives. They use their position as community-centered institutions to create a culture of sustainability.
Museum
Museums make a "unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of this world," according to the American Alliance of Museums’
Code of Ethics. There are many types of museums that specialize in various fields, including anthropology, art, history, natural history, science, and can have living
collections such as public aquariums, botanical gardens, nature centers, and zoos, or no collections like planetariums, and children's museums.[1]
A green museum is a museum that incorporates concepts of sustainability into its operations, programming, and facility. Many green museums use their
collections to produce exhibitions, events, classes, and other programming to educate the public about the natural environment. Many, but not all, green
museums reside in a building featuring sustainable architecture and technology. Green museums interpret their own sustainable practices and green design to
present a model of behavior.
A green museum is a museum that incorporates concepts of sustainability into its operations, programming, and facility. Many green museums use their
collections to produce exhibitions, events, classes, and other programming to educate the public about the natural environment. Many, but not all, green
museums reside in a building featuring sustainable architecture and technology. Green museums interpret their own sustainable practices and green design to
present a model of behavior.
collections to produce exhibitions, events, classes, and other programming to educate the public about the natural environment. Many, but not all, green
museums reside in a building featuring sustainable architecture and technology. Green museums interpret their own sustainable practices and green design to
present a model of behavior.
Green museums strive to help people become more conscious of their world, its limitations, and how their actions affect it. The goal is to create positive
change by encouraging people to make sustainable choices in their daily lives. They use their position as community-centered institutions to create a culture of sustainability.
Museum
Museums make a "unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of this world," according to the American Alliance of Museums’
Code of Ethics. There are many types of museums that specialize in various fields, including anthropology, art, history, natural history, science, and can have living
collections such as public aquariums, botanical gardens, nature centers, and zoos, or no collections like planetariums, and children's museums.[1]
Museums are stewards of natural heritage and cultural heritage by preserving objects of importance to mankind on the community and global level. Museums communicate
and contribute to knowledge. They are mission-driven, serve the public, and usually have nonprofit legal statuses.
Green
In the concept of green museums, the word green means environmentally thoughtful practice. The terms "green" and "sustainable" are buzzwords often used interchangeably.
However, according to Brophy and Wylie, "green" and "sustainable" have distinctly different definitions. "Green refers to products and behaviors that are environmentally
benign, [...] while sustainable means practices that rely on renewable or reusable materials and processes that are green or environmentally benign."[2]
Another frequently cited definition for "sustainability" that is used in various contexts was developed by the United Nations (1987): "
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs."[3]
Sustainability reflects a complex system where components are closely linked and do not exist in isolation from one another. A sustainable system
affects and is affected by the individual and collective behaviors of its members. Sustainability, therefore, recognizes the human impact on the environment,
and aims to mitigate negative effects.[4]
Culture of sustainability
Green museums promote a culture of sustainability. Culture forms and holds humanity's deepest values, attitudes, and actions. Sustainability asks people to adapt
at a cultural level, changing their beliefs and behavior (Worts, 2006). Museums are in a unique role to establish and promote a culture of sustainability. "In their
role as places of authority and keepers of culture, museums have unequaled power and responsibility to model and to teach the methods of preserving ourselves,
our planet and our cultural resources" (45).[5]
Green museums are a relatively new phenomenon. Discussions within museums about environmental sustainability began in the 1990s and have continued to grow in momentum
to the present day. Currently, green museums are receiving a lot of attention from academia and the mass media. Some scholars believe that a focus on sustainability is a
way for museums to be relevant in the 21st century (Brophy & Wylie, 2006). However, most conventional museums are not engaged in sustainable practices.[7]
The green museum movement began in science and children's museums. Science museums found that environmental advocacy and education fit easily within their missions
and programming. Children's museums saw that using green design in their inside environments created a healthy playground for their young visitors. Once sustainability
became a topic of discussion in museum circles, zoos and aquariums realized that their existing missions and programming of species conservation was in essence
sustainable education.[8] Recently, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums revised its accreditation standards to include a requirement of environmental advocacy.[9]
With the green museum movement beginning in Children's Museums, The Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, IL, became the first LEED certified Children's Museum on
October 3, 2005, when it received a Silver certification.[10] The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY became the first LEED certified green museum in 2008, followed by
The Brooklyn Children's Museum, who achieved the LEED Silver certification in 2010. In addition, this museum used rapidly renewable and recycled features such as
bamboo and recycled rubber flooring to construct the building as well as used photovoltaics to generate electricity.[11] Other good examples of green museums include
The Boston Children's Museum who earned a LEED Gold certification in 2007, and Pittsburgh Children's Museum, who received a LEED Silver certification in 2006.[12]
Science museums and zoos were quick to follow Children's Museums in the green movement. One of the first science museums to adopt green initiatives was ECHO, Leahy Center
for Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, which was the first LEED certified building in Vermont.[13] The Natural History Museum of Utah is another museum that has taken
charge in the green museum movement. The Rio Tinto Center of the museum has been certified with a Gold LEED Certificate. [14]
Zoos and Botanical Gardens have also become leaders in the Green Museum field. The Denver Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, and Cincinnati Zoo all received Green Awards at the 2011
Association of Zoos and Aquariums Conference.[15] The Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens was given a LEED silver certification for its new Welcome Center, which "is
designed to evoke the geometry of the historic glass houses behind it." It has 11,000 square feet of lobby, ticketing, gift shop, and cafe space with a 34 ft high glass dome
that is insulated to control glare and heat. Architects partially built the structure into the terrain, with 14th feet of usable space below ground. It was determined that by
doing this, Phipps would save 40-50% of annual energy costs compared with an entirely above ground structure, and demonstrated that sustainable design could be created in ways
that were still sympathetic to historic settings.[16] Phipps will also be opening the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, which will house a center for education, research, and
administration. It is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012, and is planned to exceed the LEED platinum certification, and achieve the Living Building Challenge.[17]
Art Museums are now also joining the movement. The Grand Rapids Art Museum became the world's first LEED certified art museum complex in 2008 when it received LEED Gold
certification, which such innovative features as a heat recovery ventilator, CO2 sensors, and on site grey water reuse.[18][19]
Now all types of museums of all sizes are becoming green. In the last decade, over 20 American museums have constructed a new green building or have renovated an existing
building with sustainable features. Many others have developed green operations or programming. Some scholars believe that environmental sustainability will become a
professional expectation for all museums in the future (Wylie & Brophy, 2008).
One specific example of a "Green Museum" is The Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio. In 2007, the institution redefined its mission statement to focus on inspiring and informing
the public about conservation.[20] As part of their new mission, the Toledo Zoo committed to green construction, which was shown in the parking lot renovation project. T
he main parking lot was redesigned in order to increase parking capacity and aid traffic flow, and the project incorporated green elements such as rain gardens and
reusing concrete. The renovation also included a residential-sized wind turbine and three solar panels to power the ticket booths at the park's entrance.[20] The
wind-turbine and solar panels generate 3600 kilowatt hours per year, which can be redirected into the zoo's main power grid when the booths are not in use and
reduce the zoo's carbon footprint by 5600 pounds annually.[20]
Another project at the Toledo Zoo is the Solar Walk. The Solar Walk opened in November 2010 and includes over 1400 solar panels that produce 104,000 kilowatt hours per
year, the same amount of energy used by ten typical homes in Ohio.[21] The Toledo Zoo and the Solar Walk's design team wanted the project to be a visual reminder to all
zoo visitors and traffic from nearby highway of the zoo's commitment to conservation. In order to accomplish the project, the Toledo Zoo turned to a local companies, and
used funds from private contributions and an energy grant from ODOD to cover the $14,750,000 price.[22] Also, The Toledo Zoo, in keeping with their mission statement,
included informational panels on how the Solar Walk works and the amount of energy produced to date, so that visitors can be informed on the conservational value of the project.[22] The Solar Walk will reduce the Zoo's carbon footprint by over 75 metric tons each year, which is equivalent to 15 medium-sized cars.[23] The Toledo Zoo has further committed to incorporate green construction into its building plans through geothermal wells, environmentally friendly insulation and other renewable energy and green construction materials.[20]
Green exhibits
Museums are taking a more active approach to the project development of their exhibits. Children's museums initiated the green museum movement, mainly out of health c
oncerns for the young visitors. Using toxic materials and chemicals on structures intended for children became a high worry for both the museum staff and parents. "
In its 2004 expansion project the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh used only adhesives, sealants, paints, carpets, and composite wood that are certified formaldehyde
free with near-zero off-gassing."[24]
Before the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra became mainstream, a small number of museums had already begun promoting sustainable decision making thru exhibits. One museum
in particular, the Boston Children's Museum, developed a concept known as "The Recycle Shop". In 1970, this exhibit promoted the benefits of using manufactured waste
materials, and turning them into artistic creations. Students, teachers, and the general public were allowed to collect art materials not otherwise found in regular
stores. The Recycle Shop closed its doors after several years in operation, due to the recycling program that was later introduced across the United States.
Throughout the last several years, exhibit designers have expanded their businesses by building eco-friendly exhibits. Using environmentally safe materials such as low
Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paints, formaldehyde-free wood products and fiberwood (composite wood) are the trademark tools for defining green exhibits. Some exhibit
furniture products are also constructed to be shipped for flat packing. This helps to decrease shipping costs, reduce packing material, increase fuel efficiency which
minimizes the overall carbon footprint of the exhibition.
How does a museum understand the criteria that is required, needed to build green exhibits? Organizations are working to develop a standard rating system, for the
specific needs of green exhibitions. In 2007, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) created an aid to help museums assess the sustainability of their exhibits.
OMSI, a scientific, educational, and cultural resource center looked to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
rating system, to create the OMSI Green Exhibit Certification.
The guide provides a checklist for organizations who follows eight elements regularly used in exhibit design. After evaluation, they are awarded 0-4 points:
Green museums promote a culture of sustainability. Culture forms and holds humanity's deepest values, attitudes, and actions. Sustainability asks people to adapt at a
cultural level, changing their beliefs and behavior (Worts, 2006). Museums are in a unique role to establish and promote a culture of sustainability. "In their role as
places of authority and keepers of culture, museums have unequaled power and responsibility to model and to teach the methods of preserving ourselves, our planet and our
cultural resources" (45).[5]
Green museums strive to help people become more conscious of their world, its limitations, and how their actions affect it. The goal is to create positive
change by encouraging people to make sustainable choices in their daily lives. They use their position as community-centered institutions to create a culture of sustainability.
Museum
Museums make a "unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of this world," according to the American Alliance of Museums’
Code of Ethics. There are many types of museums that specialize in various fields, including anthropology, art, history, natural history, science, and can have living
collections such as public aquariums, botanical gardens, nature centers, and zoos, or no collections like planetariums, and children's museums.[1]
A green museum is a museum that incorporates concepts of sustainability into its operations, programming, and facility. Many green museums use their
collections to produce exhibitions, events, classes, and other programming to educate the public about the natural environment. Many, but not all, green
museums reside in a building featuring sustainable architecture and technology. Green museums interpret their own sustainable practices and green design to
present a model of behavior.
A green museum is a museum that incorporates concepts of sustainability into its operations, programming, and facility. Many green museums use their
collections to produce exhibitions, events, classes, and other programming to educate the public about the natural environment. Many, but not all, green
museums reside in a building featuring sustainable architecture and technology. Green museums interpret their own sustainable practices and green design to
present a model of behavior.
HAPPENINGS tell e story of woman who could not relate to no signage.
EVENTS AT NFSG
OPENING CEREMONY RITUAL PERFORMANCE BY ME.
PRESS HAPPENED Key West Citizen, Key West the Newspaper, Keynoter, Solaris Hill under Marc Howell and vaious other local newswpapers
Travel Guides happened AAA, Lonely Planet, Atlas Obscura
Magazines Articles Happeded
Commercialiation Happened, local and international newspapers, magazines books, made for tv specials, videos produced for international and national audiences,
BOOKS HAPPENED Charles Kuralt's America, Gardens of Key West, Key West Photographer, Oct 01, 2000 · Key West Gardens and Their Stories: Janis Frawley-Holler, Rob O'Neil books,
VIDEOS HAPPENED videos produced for international and national audiences.
Artiicles in Magazines happened Common Ground, Hoticulture magazine in the Check Republic
SOCIAL EVENTS HAPPENED Slow food event with Charlie from Help Yourself.
HORTICULURE EVENTS HAPPENED Yearly plant sale (for 18 years in Feb) Jeff and Larry Searle of Searle Brothers Nursery offered Rare and endangered p;lants
Tours given by plant experts Pat Tierny, Pat Rogers, Peter Whelan, Andre Joris, Nancy Forrester
Orchid Lady Tours placed massive amount of blooming orchids in the garden and held tours here three times a week
Lloyds Tropical Bicylce Tour toured everyday with two tours a day
Commerate Fruit tree plantings events, JACKfruit acuisition and Planting attended by Mayor Jimmy Weekly
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS HAPPENED weddings, memorial services, burials, baptisms, barmitzahs,
SPIRITUAL EVENTS HAPPENED weddings, memorial services, burials, baptisms, barmitzahs, spiritual events, womans spiritual events, new moon events, cronings,
Enviromental events happened
CATERED DINNERS HAPPENED. dinners for VIP people EXXON BOARD OF DIRECTORS
EDUCATIONAL EVENTS HAPPENED for schools children, sea camp, boy scouts, K W childrens library, the elderly, church group visits, Miagration Mania at Key West Botanical gargen
COLLABORATION with ARTISTS and musicians. Slow food event with Charlie from Help Yourself.
ART HAPPENED GALLERY SHOwS HAPPENED for empasising the work of Environment Artists JenniferStracken, Life Drawing by Steve Lohman,
environment ARTistsatists collaborated shows happened. art in residence happenedlife drawing painting classes, painting classes,
poetry s dance musicartists work together in what become teeming new spaces of co-creation Writing in the Garden by KProfessor of creatinive writing happened every year
COMMODIFICATION Happened In order to participate A Fee of $6 (later raised to $10) per hunan was charged (including babies in arms)
Performance ART "The Fee is what it is" "Making Change" "Cheat or Be Honest" accompanied by an Art Exhibit called "One dollar for 3 quarters"
PARROTS HAPPENED. As native life dwindled. Unwanted Exotic animals of all types were offered to me. Parrots were often snuck in and abandoned in my garden
et’s consider a brief history of sabotage in the art world – in what ways have artists reckoned with the idea that the most
powerful acts of creation might be those of destruction? And moreover, if it is possible for artworks themselves to actually
interfere in political and social structures, what does that disruption look like
THE RESULTS or how it worked
A COMMON CONSCEPT Often viewer-participatants think they are visiting a botanical garden, or visiting a parrot rescue. On that level they could be right
Step 1 conceptual lel they would be correct, My art invites them to take conceptual Step 2, 3 and 4+ some got it most did not!
My art is to introduce them to much more.
I describe mself as an enviroment artist I provide Environmentally motivated theater. My Performance art is a way for me to depict the complicated relationships between artist,
audience and parrots; intelligence and use and the symbolic and the physical.
My performances are orchestrated by me, designed to be interact and allow onlookers to call the shots and interact, Parrot 101, Birdbrain, Laughter, Target trained, Talk
My conceptual art deals with issues of parrot abuse, capture in the wild, breeding for money, the parrot trade, the trama of being unwanted abandoned, orphaned
Ideas of, and trauma are picked apart in my performance art.I staged events and performative actions in the garden performance art,
in which artists use their own body to make their particular statements.
I attempt to build empathy, love and understand in my audience leading to the end of parrot abuse in captivity and in the wild.
Invite lead visitors in a varying range of topics and activities.
GOD KNOWS Site-specific performance art,
The site-specific nature of the work allowed me to interrogate the contemporary and historic reality of the Central Business District and
create work that allows the city's users to engage and interact with public spaces in new and memorable ways.
TEARS LOSS HE PAIN OF LOSING
ART SHOWS HAPPENDIt consists of a pile of gravel, chunks of asphalt, a stack of aluminin cans, tossed glass bottles In its simplicity of form and concentration on the materials themselves,
this and other pieces of land art have an affinity with minimalism. use of materials traditionally
considered "unartistic" or "worthless".Ecological artist and activist, merging art with ecology and socially engaged practices.
My garden was a renewable energy sculpture . it offeredd direct-encounter artworks that involve natural phenomena such as water, weather, sunlight, or plants pedagogical artworks that
share information about environmental
EVENTS AT NFSG
OPENING CEREMONY RITUAL PERFORMANCE BY ME.
PRESS HAPPENED Key West Citizen, Key West the Newspaper, Keynoter, Solaris Hill under Marc Howell and vaious other local newswpapers
Travel Guides happened AAA, Lonely Planet, Atlas Obscura
Magazines Articles Happeded
Commercialiation Happened, local and international newspapers, magazines books, made for tv specials, videos produced for international and national audiences,
BOOKS HAPPENED Charles Kuralt's America, Gardens of Key West, Key West Photographer, Oct 01, 2000 · Key West Gardens and Their Stories: Janis Frawley-Holler, Rob O'Neil books,
VIDEOS HAPPENED videos produced for international and national audiences.
Artiicles in Magazines happened Common Ground, Hoticulture magazine in the Check Republic
SOCIAL EVENTS HAPPENED Slow food event with Charlie from Help Yourself.
HORTICULURE EVENTS HAPPENED Yearly plant sale (for 18 years in Feb) Jeff and Larry Searle of Searle Brothers Nursery offered Rare and endangered p;lants
Tours given by plant experts Pat Tierny, Pat Rogers, Peter Whelan, Andre Joris, Nancy Forrester
Orchid Lady Tours placed massive amount of blooming orchids in the garden and held tours here three times a week
Lloyds Tropical Bicylce Tour toured everyday with two tours a day
Commerate Fruit tree plantings events, JACKfruit acuisition and Planting attended by Mayor Jimmy Weekly
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS HAPPENED weddings, memorial services, burials, baptisms, barmitzahs,
SPIRITUAL EVENTS HAPPENED weddings, memorial services, burials, baptisms, barmitzahs, spiritual events, womans spiritual events, new moon events, cronings,
Enviromental events happened
CATERED DINNERS HAPPENED. dinners for VIP people EXXON BOARD OF DIRECTORS
EDUCATIONAL EVENTS HAPPENED for schools children, sea camp, boy scouts, K W childrens library, the elderly, church group visits, Miagration Mania at Key West Botanical gargen
COLLABORATION with ARTISTS and musicians. Slow food event with Charlie from Help Yourself.
ART HAPPENED GALLERY SHOwS HAPPENED for empasising the work of Environment Artists JenniferStracken, Life Drawing by Steve Lohman,
environment ARTistsatists collaborated shows happened. art in residence happenedlife drawing painting classes, painting classes,
poetry s dance musicartists work together in what become teeming new spaces of co-creation Writing in the Garden by KProfessor of creatinive writing happened every year
COMMODIFICATION Happened In order to participate A Fee of $6 (later raised to $10) per hunan was charged (including babies in arms)
Performance ART "The Fee is what it is" "Making Change" "Cheat or Be Honest" accompanied by an Art Exhibit called "One dollar for 3 quarters"
PARROTS HAPPENED. As native life dwindled. Unwanted Exotic animals of all types were offered to me. Parrots were often snuck in and abandoned in my garden
et’s consider a brief history of sabotage in the art world – in what ways have artists reckoned with the idea that the most
powerful acts of creation might be those of destruction? And moreover, if it is possible for artworks themselves to actually
interfere in political and social structures, what does that disruption look like
THE RESULTS or how it worked
A COMMON CONSCEPT Often viewer-participatants think they are visiting a botanical garden, or visiting a parrot rescue. On that level they could be right
Step 1 conceptual lel they would be correct, My art invites them to take conceptual Step 2, 3 and 4+ some got it most did not!
My art is to introduce them to much more.
I describe mself as an enviroment artist I provide Environmentally motivated theater. My Performance art is a way for me to depict the complicated relationships between artist,
audience and parrots; intelligence and use and the symbolic and the physical.
My performances are orchestrated by me, designed to be interact and allow onlookers to call the shots and interact, Parrot 101, Birdbrain, Laughter, Target trained, Talk
My conceptual art deals with issues of parrot abuse, capture in the wild, breeding for money, the parrot trade, the trama of being unwanted abandoned, orphaned
Ideas of, and trauma are picked apart in my performance art.I staged events and performative actions in the garden performance art,
in which artists use their own body to make their particular statements.
I attempt to build empathy, love and understand in my audience leading to the end of parrot abuse in captivity and in the wild.
Invite lead visitors in a varying range of topics and activities.
GOD KNOWS Site-specific performance art,
The site-specific nature of the work allowed me to interrogate the contemporary and historic reality of the Central Business District and
create work that allows the city's users to engage and interact with public spaces in new and memorable ways.
TEARS LOSS HE PAIN OF LOSING
ART SHOWS HAPPENDIt consists of a pile of gravel, chunks of asphalt, a stack of aluminin cans, tossed glass bottles In its simplicity of form and concentration on the materials themselves,
this and other pieces of land art have an affinity with minimalism. use of materials traditionally
considered "unartistic" or "worthless".Ecological artist and activist, merging art with ecology and socially engaged practices.
My garden was a renewable energy sculpture . it offeredd direct-encounter artworks that involve natural phenomena such as water, weather, sunlight, or plants pedagogical artworks that
share information about environmental
Qupotes for happenings
My art is the result of a deeply personal, infinitly complex and still essentially myterious, eploration of eperience. No words will ever touch it George Brecht
The line between Happenings and daily life should be kept as fluid and perhaps indistinct, as possible Allan Kaprow
Words, sounds, human beings in motion, painted constructions, electric lights, movies and slides -
and perhaps in the future smells- all in continous space involving the spectator or audience; those are ingrediants.
Several or all of them may be used in combination at any one time, which permits me a great range of possibilities Alan Kaprow
It was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of pure abstract painting. Nobody knew what the work could or should look like. Each individuals freedom was
encouraged. Since nobody knew what the new art should look like, each of us was free to invent ourown solution. George Segal
What began as a challenge to the category of "art" initiated by the Futurists and Dadaists in the 1910s and 1920s came to fruition with Performance Art,
one branch of which was referred to as Happenings. Happenings involved more than the detached observation of the viewer; the artist engaged with Happenings
required the viewer to actively participate in each piece. There was not a definite or consistent style for Happenings, as they greatly varied in size and intricacy.
However, all artists staging Happenings operated with the fundamental belief that art could be brought into the realm of everyday life.
This turn toward performance was a reaction against the long-standing dominance of the technical aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism
and was a new art form that grew out of the social changes occurring in the 1950s and 1960s.
A main component of Happenings was the involvement of the viewer. Each instance a Happening occurred the viewer was used to add in an element of chance so, every time a piece was performed or exhibited it would never be the same as the previous time. Unlike preceding works of art which were, by definition, static, Happenings could evolve and provide a unique encounter for each individual who partook in the experience.
The concept of the ephemeral was important to Happenings, as the performance was a temporary experience, and, as such could not be exhibited in a museum in the traditional sense. The only artifacts remaining from original Happenings are photographs and oral histories. This was a challenge to the art that had previously been defined by the art object itself. Art was now defined by the action, activity, occasion, and/or experience that constituted the Happening, which was fundamentally fleeting and immaterial.
The purpose of Happenings was to confront and dismantle conventional views of the category of "art." These performances were so influential to the art world that they raised the specter of the "death" of painting.
Kaprow's pieces often involved materials from everyday life, including people; Kaprow stated, "Life is much more interesting than art." Yard, like many Happenings,
has been recreated several times since Kaprow's initial installation, and each time a unique artwork is produced.
This piece differs from many other Happenings for the smaller, more intimate scale and for the fact that the viewer was interacting with an object as opposed to a person. Also, unlike many other Happenings that eschewed the traditional art object, it should be noted that by interacting with the Stamp Vendor, the viewer was then able to take with them a work of art: the stamp created by Watts.
Performance THE BIRD LADY
Freestar
Beginnings of Happenings
Happenings were inspired by the performances of Futurists who would enact short avant-garde plays and read their manifestoes and poetry on stage.
The Futurist tendency to break the "fourth wall" and elicit audience participation became a central idea in the Happening:
the absence of boundaries between the viewer and the artwork meant the artwork became defined by the action as opposed to the physical, or resulting, object.
The Dadaists who declared that art did not have to meet expectations about what "art" was supposed to look like also influenced the artists who created Happenings. Additionally, the Dadaist use of the element of chance heavily guided the evolution of Happenings as an art form. The ideas of composer John Cage and the teachings of instructors at Black Mountain College including Josef and Anni Albers, Merce Cunningham, Robert Motherwell and Buckminster Fuller further impacted the views of Happenings artists in their belief that learning should be a continual process, with no distinction between making or learning about art and routine aspects of day-to-day life.
There was an emphasis on the perpetual state of learning and creating; an appreciation for the prosaic, which influenced many artists of the time, particularly Allan Kaprow, who coined the term "Happening" while describing performance events that had taken place on George Segal's farm in 1957.
Freestar
These aforementioned theories and ideas led to the creation of the Happening which was a combination of Performance Art and Installation Art. Happenings fully evolved from Kaprow's "environments," which were installation pieces that involved large sculptural collages. After taking John Cage's class Kaprow introduced the element of sound into his work and from there came the first Happening by Kaprow. It was untitled and performed at Voorhees Chapel at Douglass Campus on April 22, 1958.
Happenings: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
The audience participation in Happenings incorporated the aspect of chance, as anything could happen at any time and each performance would be completely unique from the one before. This was the critical difference between Happenings and other performance art of the time, which emphasized a more theatrical and repeatable ethos. Happenings could be enacted anywhere; sometimes they were staged in galleries, but they were performed just as often in a theater setting, on the street, on a farm or even in one instance, a cave.
Freestar
Happenings were both large-scale and elaborate or small and intimate depending upon the artist. For example, Allan Kaprow had started out looking for a way to extend the action of painting beyond the canvas and into the space of the viewer. He achieved this by building environments for viewers to be inside of and adding sound and various objects for the viewer to interact with. Robert Watts also created pieces similar in size and scale, utilizing created environments that the audience would partake in.
Happenings artists such as George Brecht worked in a smaller scale, creating games that the viewer interacted with. Brecht wanted these pieces to reflect Zen Buddhist philosophical ideas. Brecht would also write "event scores" where he would leave directions as to what the viewer should do, which then turned the viewer into the performer. As with many movements, Happenings artists each brought a slightly different viewpoint to the table and approached the creative process with their own personal agenda.
Freestar
Happenings and Fluxus
There was much cross-over between Happenings artists and the Fluxus group; Allan Kaprow and George Brecht especially were involved in both movements. It is therefore difficult to definitively categorize them as two entirely separate entities especially because Fluxus held several events at Rutgers University where Happenings had originated. Happenings usually involved artists who would later become known as the "Rutgers Group:" Allan Kaprow, George Segal, Robert Watts and George Brecht. Fluxus emerged in New York led by artist George Maciunas, and there were also Fluxus groups in Europe and Japan. The Happenings artists were not part of an organized group with a leader like the Fluxus group and the term Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces.
Happenings and Fluxus both integrated the use of audience participation to contribute to the outcome of the art, however they differed in several significant ways.
Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces that were generally more complicated and outlined than Fluxus events, like an
improvisational theatrical work that involved the audience. They were more expressionistic and symbolic than Fluxus performances. Fluxus events were usually loosely outlined
or not outlined at all. They involved a sardonic sense of humor often leaving the viewer in the position of being the victim of a practical joke. For instance, one Fluxus piece
consisted of sending out invitations to nonexistent performances where the viewer would arrive to find nothing.
These aforementioned theories and ideas led to the creation of the Happening which was a combination of Performance Art and Installation Art. Happenings fully evolved from Kaprow's "environments," which were installation pieces that involved large sculptural collages. After taking John Cage's class Kaprow introduced the element of sound into his work and from there came the first Happening by Kaprow. It was untitled and performed at Voorhees Chapel at Douglass Campus on April 22, 1958.
Happenings: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
The audience participation in Happenings incorporated the aspect of chance, as anything could happen at any time and each performance would be completely unique from the one before. This was the critical difference between Happenings and other performance art of the time, which emphasized a more theatrical and repeatable ethos. Happenings could be enacted anywhere; sometimes they were staged in galleries, but they were performed just as often in a theater setting, on the street, on a farm or even in one instance, a cave.
Freestar
Beginnings of Happenings
Happenings were inspired by the performances of Futurists who would enact short avant-garde plays and read their manifestoes and poetry on stage. The Futurist tendency to break the "fourth wall" and elicit audience participation became a central idea in the Happening: the absence of boundaries between the viewer and the artwork meant the artwork became defined by the action as opposed to the physical, or resulting, object.
The Dadaists who declared that art did not have to meet expectations about what "art" was supposed to look like also influenced the artists who created Happenings. Additionally, the Dadaist use of the element of chance heavily guided the evolution of Happenings as an art form. The ideas of composer John Cage and the teachings of instructors at Black Mountain College including Josef and Anni Albers, Merce Cunningham, Robert Motherwell and Buckminster Fuller further impacted the views of Happenings artists in their belief that learning should be a continual process, with no distinction between making or learning about art and routine aspects of day-to-day life. There was an emphasis on the perpetual state of learning and creating; an appreciation for the prosaic, which influenced many artists of the time, particularly Allan Kaprow, who coined the term "Happening" while describing performance events that had taken place on George Segal's farm in 1957.
Freestar
These aforementioned theories and ideas led to the creation of the Happening which was a combination of Performance Art and Installation Art. Happenings fully evolved from Kaprow's "environments," which were installation pieces that involved large sculptural collages. After taking John Cage's class Kaprow introduced the element of sound into his work and from there came the first Happening by Kaprow. It was untitled and performed at Voorhees Chapel at Douglass Campus on April 22, 1958.
Happenings: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
The audience participation in Happenings incorporated the aspect of chance, as anything could happen at any time and each performance would be completely unique from the one before. This was the critical difference between Happenings and other performance art of the time, which emphasized a more theatrical and repeatable ethos. Happenings could be enacted anywhere; sometimes they were staged in galleries, but they were performed just as often in a theater setting, on the street, on a farm or even in one instance, a cave.
Freestar
Happenings were both large-scale and elaborate or small and intimate depending upon the artist. For example, Allan Kaprow had started out looking for a way to extend the action of painting beyond the canvas and into the space of the viewer. He achieved this by building environments for viewers to be inside of and adding sound and various objects for the viewer to interact with. Robert Watts also created pieces similar in size and scale, utilizing created environments that the audience would partake in.
Happenings artists such as George Brecht worked in a smaller scale, creating games that the viewer interacted with. Brecht wanted these pieces to reflect Zen Buddhist philosophical ideas. Brecht would also write "event scores" where he would leave directions as to what the viewer should do, which then turned the viewer into the performer. As with many movements, Happenings artists each brought a slightly different viewpoint to the table and approached the creative process with their own personal agenda.
Happenings and Fluxus
There was much cross-over between Happenings artists and the Fluxus group; Allan Kaprow and George Brecht especially were involved in both movements. It is therefore difficult to definitively categorize them as two entirely separate entities especially because Fluxus held several events at Rutgers University where Happenings had originated. Happenings usually involved artists who would later become known as the "Rutgers Group:" Allan Kaprow, George Segal, Robert Watts and George Brecht. Fluxus emerged in New York led by artist George Maciunas, and there were also Fluxus groups in Europe and Japan. The Happenings artists were not part of an organized group with a leader like the Fluxus group and the term Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces.
Happenings and Fluxus both integrated the use of audience participation to contribute to the outcome of the art, however they differed in several significant ways. Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces that were generally more complicated and outlined than Fluxus events, like an improvisational theatrical work that involved the audience. They were more expressionistic and symbolic than Fluxus performances. Fluxus events were usually loosely outlined or not outlined at all. They involved a sardonic sense of humor often leaving the viewer in the position of being the victim of a practical joke. For instance, one Fluxus piece consisted of sending out invitations to nonexistent performances where the viewer would arrive to find nothing.
Freestar
Beginnings of Happenings
Happenings were inspired by the performances of Futurists who would enact short avant-garde plays and read their manifestoes and poetry on stage. The Futurist tendency to break the "fourth wall" and elicit audience participation became a central idea in the Happening: the absence of boundaries between the viewer and the artwork meant the artwork became defined by the action as opposed to the physical, or resulting, object.
The Dadaists who declared that art did not have to meet expectations about what "art" was supposed to look like also influenced the artists who created Happenings. Additionally, the Dadaist use of the element of chance heavily guided the evolution of Happenings as an art form. The ideas of composer John Cage and the teachings of instructors at Black Mountain College including Josef and Anni Albers, Merce Cunningham, Robert Motherwell and Buckminster Fuller further impacted the views of Happenings artists in their belief that learning should be a continual process, with no distinction between making or learning about art and routine aspects of day-to-day life. There was an emphasis on the perpetual state of learning and creating; an appreciation for the prosaic, which influenced many artists of the time, particularly Allan Kaprow, who coined the term "Happening" while describing performance events that had taken place on George Segal's farm in 1957.
Freestar
These aforementioned theories and ideas led to the creation of the Happening which was a combination of Performance Art and Installation Art. Happenings fully evolved from Kaprow's "environments," which were installation pieces that involved large sculptural collages. After taking John Cage's class Kaprow introduced the element of sound into his work and from there came the first Happening by Kaprow. It was untitled and performed at Voorhees Chapel at Douglass Campus on April 22, 1958.
Happenings: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
The audience participation in Happenings incorporated the aspect of chance, as anything could happen at any time and each performance would be completely unique from the one before. This was the critical difference between Happenings and other performance art of the time, which emphasized a more theatrical and repeatable ethos. Happenings could be enacted anywhere; sometimes they were staged in galleries, but they were performed just as often in a theater setting, on the street, on a farm or even in one instance, a cave.
Freestar
Happenings were both large-scale and elaborate or small and intimate depending upon the artist. For example, Allan Kaprow had started out looking for a way to extend the action of painting beyond the canvas and into the space of the viewer. He achieved this by building environments for viewers to be inside of and adding sound and various objects for the viewer to interact with. Robert Watts also created pieces similar in size and scale, utilizing created environments that the audience would partake in.
Happenings artists such as George Brecht worked in a smaller scale, creating games that the viewer interacted with. Brecht wanted these pieces to reflect Zen Buddhist philosophical ideas. Brecht would also write "event scores" where he would leave directions as to what the viewer should do, which then turned the viewer into the performer. As with many movements, Happenings artists each brought a slightly different viewpoint to the table and approached the creative process with their own personal agenda.
Freestar
Happenings and Fluxus
There was much cross-over between Happenings artists and the Fluxus group; Allan Kaprow and George Brecht especially were involved in both movements. It is therefore difficult to definitively categorize them as two entirely separate entities especially because Fluxus held several events at Rutgers University where Happenings had originated. Happenings usually involved artists who would later become known as the "Rutgers Group:" Allan Kaprow, George Segal, Robert Watts and George Brecht. Fluxus emerged in New York led by artist George Maciunas, and there were also Fluxus groups in Europe and Japan. The Happenings artists were not part of an organized group with a leader like the Fluxus group and the term Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces.
Happenings and Fluxus both integrated the use of audience participation to contribute to the outcome of the art, however they differed in several significant ways. Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces that were generally more complicated and outlined than Fluxus events, like an improvisational theatrical work that involved the audience. They were more expressionistic and symbolic than Fluxus performances. Fluxus events were usually loosely outlined or not outlined at all. They involved a sardonic sense of humor often leaving the viewer in the position of being the victim of a practical joke. For instance, one Fluxus piece consisted of sending out invitations to nonexistent performances where the viewer would arrive to find nothing.
Freestar
Later Developments - After Happenings
Happenings culminated with the infamous 1963 Yam Festival, a month-long series of events held on George Segal's farm and in other locations in and around New York.
After this event, Happenings began to dwindle in the mid sixties as other new art forms and theories gained prominence, such as conceptual art, body art and feminist art.
Nevertheless, most of these newer movements had some roots in Happenings in their emphasis on interaction and embodied experience.
My art is the result of a deeply personal, infinitly complex and still essentially myterious, eploration of eperience. No words will ever touch it George Brecht
The line between Happenings and daily life should be kept as fluid and perhaps indistinct, as possible Allan Kaprow
Words, sounds, human beings in motion, painted constructions, electric lights, movies and slides -
and perhaps in the future smells- all in continous space involving the spectator or audience; those are ingrediants.
Several or all of them may be used in combination at any one time, which permits me a great range of possibilities Alan Kaprow
It was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of pure abstract painting. Nobody knew what the work could or should look like. Each individuals freedom was
encouraged. Since nobody knew what the new art should look like, each of us was free to invent ourown solution. George Segal
What began as a challenge to the category of "art" initiated by the Futurists and Dadaists in the 1910s and 1920s came to fruition with Performance Art,
one branch of which was referred to as Happenings. Happenings involved more than the detached observation of the viewer; the artist engaged with Happenings
required the viewer to actively participate in each piece. There was not a definite or consistent style for Happenings, as they greatly varied in size and intricacy.
However, all artists staging Happenings operated with the fundamental belief that art could be brought into the realm of everyday life.
This turn toward performance was a reaction against the long-standing dominance of the technical aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism
and was a new art form that grew out of the social changes occurring in the 1950s and 1960s.
A main component of Happenings was the involvement of the viewer. Each instance a Happening occurred the viewer was used to add in an element of chance so, every time a piece was performed or exhibited it would never be the same as the previous time. Unlike preceding works of art which were, by definition, static, Happenings could evolve and provide a unique encounter for each individual who partook in the experience.
The concept of the ephemeral was important to Happenings, as the performance was a temporary experience, and, as such could not be exhibited in a museum in the traditional sense. The only artifacts remaining from original Happenings are photographs and oral histories. This was a challenge to the art that had previously been defined by the art object itself. Art was now defined by the action, activity, occasion, and/or experience that constituted the Happening, which was fundamentally fleeting and immaterial.
The purpose of Happenings was to confront and dismantle conventional views of the category of "art." These performances were so influential to the art world that they raised the specter of the "death" of painting.
Kaprow's pieces often involved materials from everyday life, including people; Kaprow stated, "Life is much more interesting than art." Yard, like many Happenings,
has been recreated several times since Kaprow's initial installation, and each time a unique artwork is produced.
This piece differs from many other Happenings for the smaller, more intimate scale and for the fact that the viewer was interacting with an object as opposed to a person. Also, unlike many other Happenings that eschewed the traditional art object, it should be noted that by interacting with the Stamp Vendor, the viewer was then able to take with them a work of art: the stamp created by Watts.
Performance THE BIRD LADY
Freestar
Beginnings of Happenings
Happenings were inspired by the performances of Futurists who would enact short avant-garde plays and read their manifestoes and poetry on stage.
The Futurist tendency to break the "fourth wall" and elicit audience participation became a central idea in the Happening:
the absence of boundaries between the viewer and the artwork meant the artwork became defined by the action as opposed to the physical, or resulting, object.
The Dadaists who declared that art did not have to meet expectations about what "art" was supposed to look like also influenced the artists who created Happenings. Additionally, the Dadaist use of the element of chance heavily guided the evolution of Happenings as an art form. The ideas of composer John Cage and the teachings of instructors at Black Mountain College including Josef and Anni Albers, Merce Cunningham, Robert Motherwell and Buckminster Fuller further impacted the views of Happenings artists in their belief that learning should be a continual process, with no distinction between making or learning about art and routine aspects of day-to-day life.
There was an emphasis on the perpetual state of learning and creating; an appreciation for the prosaic, which influenced many artists of the time, particularly Allan Kaprow, who coined the term "Happening" while describing performance events that had taken place on George Segal's farm in 1957.
Freestar
These aforementioned theories and ideas led to the creation of the Happening which was a combination of Performance Art and Installation Art. Happenings fully evolved from Kaprow's "environments," which were installation pieces that involved large sculptural collages. After taking John Cage's class Kaprow introduced the element of sound into his work and from there came the first Happening by Kaprow. It was untitled and performed at Voorhees Chapel at Douglass Campus on April 22, 1958.
Happenings: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
The audience participation in Happenings incorporated the aspect of chance, as anything could happen at any time and each performance would be completely unique from the one before. This was the critical difference between Happenings and other performance art of the time, which emphasized a more theatrical and repeatable ethos. Happenings could be enacted anywhere; sometimes they were staged in galleries, but they were performed just as often in a theater setting, on the street, on a farm or even in one instance, a cave.
Freestar
Happenings were both large-scale and elaborate or small and intimate depending upon the artist. For example, Allan Kaprow had started out looking for a way to extend the action of painting beyond the canvas and into the space of the viewer. He achieved this by building environments for viewers to be inside of and adding sound and various objects for the viewer to interact with. Robert Watts also created pieces similar in size and scale, utilizing created environments that the audience would partake in.
Happenings artists such as George Brecht worked in a smaller scale, creating games that the viewer interacted with. Brecht wanted these pieces to reflect Zen Buddhist philosophical ideas. Brecht would also write "event scores" where he would leave directions as to what the viewer should do, which then turned the viewer into the performer. As with many movements, Happenings artists each brought a slightly different viewpoint to the table and approached the creative process with their own personal agenda.
Freestar
Happenings and Fluxus
There was much cross-over between Happenings artists and the Fluxus group; Allan Kaprow and George Brecht especially were involved in both movements. It is therefore difficult to definitively categorize them as two entirely separate entities especially because Fluxus held several events at Rutgers University where Happenings had originated. Happenings usually involved artists who would later become known as the "Rutgers Group:" Allan Kaprow, George Segal, Robert Watts and George Brecht. Fluxus emerged in New York led by artist George Maciunas, and there were also Fluxus groups in Europe and Japan. The Happenings artists were not part of an organized group with a leader like the Fluxus group and the term Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces.
Happenings and Fluxus both integrated the use of audience participation to contribute to the outcome of the art, however they differed in several significant ways.
Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces that were generally more complicated and outlined than Fluxus events, like an
improvisational theatrical work that involved the audience. They were more expressionistic and symbolic than Fluxus performances. Fluxus events were usually loosely outlined
or not outlined at all. They involved a sardonic sense of humor often leaving the viewer in the position of being the victim of a practical joke. For instance, one Fluxus piece
consisted of sending out invitations to nonexistent performances where the viewer would arrive to find nothing.
These aforementioned theories and ideas led to the creation of the Happening which was a combination of Performance Art and Installation Art. Happenings fully evolved from Kaprow's "environments," which were installation pieces that involved large sculptural collages. After taking John Cage's class Kaprow introduced the element of sound into his work and from there came the first Happening by Kaprow. It was untitled and performed at Voorhees Chapel at Douglass Campus on April 22, 1958.
Happenings: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
The audience participation in Happenings incorporated the aspect of chance, as anything could happen at any time and each performance would be completely unique from the one before. This was the critical difference between Happenings and other performance art of the time, which emphasized a more theatrical and repeatable ethos. Happenings could be enacted anywhere; sometimes they were staged in galleries, but they were performed just as often in a theater setting, on the street, on a farm or even in one instance, a cave.
Freestar
Beginnings of Happenings
Happenings were inspired by the performances of Futurists who would enact short avant-garde plays and read their manifestoes and poetry on stage. The Futurist tendency to break the "fourth wall" and elicit audience participation became a central idea in the Happening: the absence of boundaries between the viewer and the artwork meant the artwork became defined by the action as opposed to the physical, or resulting, object.
The Dadaists who declared that art did not have to meet expectations about what "art" was supposed to look like also influenced the artists who created Happenings. Additionally, the Dadaist use of the element of chance heavily guided the evolution of Happenings as an art form. The ideas of composer John Cage and the teachings of instructors at Black Mountain College including Josef and Anni Albers, Merce Cunningham, Robert Motherwell and Buckminster Fuller further impacted the views of Happenings artists in their belief that learning should be a continual process, with no distinction between making or learning about art and routine aspects of day-to-day life. There was an emphasis on the perpetual state of learning and creating; an appreciation for the prosaic, which influenced many artists of the time, particularly Allan Kaprow, who coined the term "Happening" while describing performance events that had taken place on George Segal's farm in 1957.
Freestar
These aforementioned theories and ideas led to the creation of the Happening which was a combination of Performance Art and Installation Art. Happenings fully evolved from Kaprow's "environments," which were installation pieces that involved large sculptural collages. After taking John Cage's class Kaprow introduced the element of sound into his work and from there came the first Happening by Kaprow. It was untitled and performed at Voorhees Chapel at Douglass Campus on April 22, 1958.
Happenings: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
The audience participation in Happenings incorporated the aspect of chance, as anything could happen at any time and each performance would be completely unique from the one before. This was the critical difference between Happenings and other performance art of the time, which emphasized a more theatrical and repeatable ethos. Happenings could be enacted anywhere; sometimes they were staged in galleries, but they were performed just as often in a theater setting, on the street, on a farm or even in one instance, a cave.
Freestar
Happenings were both large-scale and elaborate or small and intimate depending upon the artist. For example, Allan Kaprow had started out looking for a way to extend the action of painting beyond the canvas and into the space of the viewer. He achieved this by building environments for viewers to be inside of and adding sound and various objects for the viewer to interact with. Robert Watts also created pieces similar in size and scale, utilizing created environments that the audience would partake in.
Happenings artists such as George Brecht worked in a smaller scale, creating games that the viewer interacted with. Brecht wanted these pieces to reflect Zen Buddhist philosophical ideas. Brecht would also write "event scores" where he would leave directions as to what the viewer should do, which then turned the viewer into the performer. As with many movements, Happenings artists each brought a slightly different viewpoint to the table and approached the creative process with their own personal agenda.
Happenings and Fluxus
There was much cross-over between Happenings artists and the Fluxus group; Allan Kaprow and George Brecht especially were involved in both movements. It is therefore difficult to definitively categorize them as two entirely separate entities especially because Fluxus held several events at Rutgers University where Happenings had originated. Happenings usually involved artists who would later become known as the "Rutgers Group:" Allan Kaprow, George Segal, Robert Watts and George Brecht. Fluxus emerged in New York led by artist George Maciunas, and there were also Fluxus groups in Europe and Japan. The Happenings artists were not part of an organized group with a leader like the Fluxus group and the term Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces.
Happenings and Fluxus both integrated the use of audience participation to contribute to the outcome of the art, however they differed in several significant ways. Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces that were generally more complicated and outlined than Fluxus events, like an improvisational theatrical work that involved the audience. They were more expressionistic and symbolic than Fluxus performances. Fluxus events were usually loosely outlined or not outlined at all. They involved a sardonic sense of humor often leaving the viewer in the position of being the victim of a practical joke. For instance, one Fluxus piece consisted of sending out invitations to nonexistent performances where the viewer would arrive to find nothing.
Freestar
Beginnings of Happenings
Happenings were inspired by the performances of Futurists who would enact short avant-garde plays and read their manifestoes and poetry on stage. The Futurist tendency to break the "fourth wall" and elicit audience participation became a central idea in the Happening: the absence of boundaries between the viewer and the artwork meant the artwork became defined by the action as opposed to the physical, or resulting, object.
The Dadaists who declared that art did not have to meet expectations about what "art" was supposed to look like also influenced the artists who created Happenings. Additionally, the Dadaist use of the element of chance heavily guided the evolution of Happenings as an art form. The ideas of composer John Cage and the teachings of instructors at Black Mountain College including Josef and Anni Albers, Merce Cunningham, Robert Motherwell and Buckminster Fuller further impacted the views of Happenings artists in their belief that learning should be a continual process, with no distinction between making or learning about art and routine aspects of day-to-day life. There was an emphasis on the perpetual state of learning and creating; an appreciation for the prosaic, which influenced many artists of the time, particularly Allan Kaprow, who coined the term "Happening" while describing performance events that had taken place on George Segal's farm in 1957.
Freestar
These aforementioned theories and ideas led to the creation of the Happening which was a combination of Performance Art and Installation Art. Happenings fully evolved from Kaprow's "environments," which were installation pieces that involved large sculptural collages. After taking John Cage's class Kaprow introduced the element of sound into his work and from there came the first Happening by Kaprow. It was untitled and performed at Voorhees Chapel at Douglass Campus on April 22, 1958.
Happenings: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
The audience participation in Happenings incorporated the aspect of chance, as anything could happen at any time and each performance would be completely unique from the one before. This was the critical difference between Happenings and other performance art of the time, which emphasized a more theatrical and repeatable ethos. Happenings could be enacted anywhere; sometimes they were staged in galleries, but they were performed just as often in a theater setting, on the street, on a farm or even in one instance, a cave.
Freestar
Happenings were both large-scale and elaborate or small and intimate depending upon the artist. For example, Allan Kaprow had started out looking for a way to extend the action of painting beyond the canvas and into the space of the viewer. He achieved this by building environments for viewers to be inside of and adding sound and various objects for the viewer to interact with. Robert Watts also created pieces similar in size and scale, utilizing created environments that the audience would partake in.
Happenings artists such as George Brecht worked in a smaller scale, creating games that the viewer interacted with. Brecht wanted these pieces to reflect Zen Buddhist philosophical ideas. Brecht would also write "event scores" where he would leave directions as to what the viewer should do, which then turned the viewer into the performer. As with many movements, Happenings artists each brought a slightly different viewpoint to the table and approached the creative process with their own personal agenda.
Freestar
Happenings and Fluxus
There was much cross-over between Happenings artists and the Fluxus group; Allan Kaprow and George Brecht especially were involved in both movements. It is therefore difficult to definitively categorize them as two entirely separate entities especially because Fluxus held several events at Rutgers University where Happenings had originated. Happenings usually involved artists who would later become known as the "Rutgers Group:" Allan Kaprow, George Segal, Robert Watts and George Brecht. Fluxus emerged in New York led by artist George Maciunas, and there were also Fluxus groups in Europe and Japan. The Happenings artists were not part of an organized group with a leader like the Fluxus group and the term Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces.
Happenings and Fluxus both integrated the use of audience participation to contribute to the outcome of the art, however they differed in several significant ways. Happenings is not the name of a movement but the name of certain performance pieces that were generally more complicated and outlined than Fluxus events, like an improvisational theatrical work that involved the audience. They were more expressionistic and symbolic than Fluxus performances. Fluxus events were usually loosely outlined or not outlined at all. They involved a sardonic sense of humor often leaving the viewer in the position of being the victim of a practical joke. For instance, one Fluxus piece consisted of sending out invitations to nonexistent performances where the viewer would arrive to find nothing.
Freestar
Later Developments - After Happenings
Happenings culminated with the infamous 1963 Yam Festival, a month-long series of events held on George Segal's farm and in other locations in and around New York.
After this event, Happenings began to dwindle in the mid sixties as other new art forms and theories gained prominence, such as conceptual art, body art and feminist art.
Nevertheless, most of these newer movements had some roots in Happenings in their emphasis on interaction and embodied experience.
STATEMENT BY NANCY FORRESTER ENVIRONMENT ARTIST-ACTIVIST 2-22-2021 AS IT PERTAINS TO MY ZONING WOES.
518 Elizabeth Street, Key West, Florida is my home.(1969 to present) It has been my legal residence since 1969 (50+ years) and place of business since 1975 (45+ years)
I owned the house at 518 Elizabeth (residential area) and two adjoining lots (both in residential area), one vacant and one double size with a small historical cottage.
(1969 to 2012)
The two adjacent lots had access from Free School Lane off of Simonton Street. Combined all 3 lots created the last acre of wooded land in the heart of Old Town Key West
Together they all had access from Elizabeth St and Free School Lane
During my ownership I received zoning variences for all the lots at two seperate times and for different art related reasons. In 1975 receiving a varience for 518 was easy.
1985 receiving a varience was harder. I had awesome support from my community for the second zoning varience.
Unsolicitated by me Letters, a petition with 2,000 signitures, front page news coverage in the The Citizen (Key West's newspaper) and Key West the Newspaper
(a weekly publication by Dennis Reeves Cooper) all help greatly.
Droves of people and artist friends carrying banana leaves, palm leaves and dressed in greenery flooded City Hall for the commisioners meeting when the final vote came down.
THE RECENT PROBLEM ZONING
It appears I have incurred a zoning problem with two issues. Both issues have the potential of closing me down and being fatal to my work.
This problem jeapories the continuation of my lifes work at 518 Elizabeth and my ability to support myself.
I love what I do, and I am fearful of losing my right to continue to teach-practice my "ART" (my type of art is described later)
Problem 1. I received notice from Noah Singh on FEB 10 2021 stating "Nancy it appears the city of key west has put a code violation on the property for the tour business for
not having a business tax receipt". (photo exhibit he set me is enclosed). It is my business at 518 that is in question.
To date I have never received a notice of violation from the city. Ann Johnson LLC and owners Pritam Singh and or Noah Singh bought the 518 building and its two adjoinong lots in 2012.
The building resides in a residential area. Does the new owner of 518 need to hold a business zoning varience for my (45+ year) business in their building?
I have a legal document from them defining my life estate and the right to carry on my NFSG business at 518 Elizabeth
Problem 2. I was granted a varience for 518 for my business a very long time ago (circa 1975) That business was called Nancy Forrester Botanical and Zoological Paintings.
Today, this is my only existing licence. It is antiquated
It describes the work I did way back then in my early days as an artist. It does not adequately describe the work I have been doing for the last at 35 years.
I was granted additional variance from the city for the two adjoining lots in order to open my Visionary Environment dba Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden.
The 1985 varience-licence more adequately described the work I do today.
That second variance was granted circa 1985. When the property tranfered to Ann Johnson LLC in 2012. At their request I was asked to continued to operate
Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden. I did this on all three lots as usual for another year. Then I was asked to vacate the two adjoining lots and scale
back my practice to the 518 property where it contiues to happen since its inception in circa 1985.
ABOUT ME
Since childhood I have been a passionate lover and activist for all plants, all animals, all Earths natural habitats, bio-systems
and the interconectivness of everything for the health of all. My focus is to change the destructive impact humans have on the natural world. I am a sustainability activist
At 82, I continue to learn, grow and metamorphise. My lifestyle and the type of art I do has undergone many paradygm shifts.
HISTORY OF MY ART PRACTICE
1961 I received a Bachelor of Science in Design from University of Michigan in 1961 with a major in painting and minor in ceramics.
In order to graduate from the college of Architecture and Design, I had to adhere to the practice of Abstract Expressionism enforced by a
very sexist all male faculty I was required to learn the entire History of Art (14th century to 20th century) which only mentioned two female artists at the time.
Instructor Frede Vidar said my paintings were to Feminine. I warned by another instructor not to sign my pantings with my last name only in order to hide my sex.
My instructors said, "woman painters are never taken seriously" Tom McClure gave me a B after I got straigt A's and my male counterpart who got straight B's got an A. McClure said,
He is going to need it to be a professional artist, you don't because you will probably end up teaching.
1962-1964 After gradation I did the "formula" most painters did back then. I lived in NYC to "make it", secure a gallery where I could show and sell my paintings,
My work was accepted by a gallery in Greenich Village in NYC. I will never forgetten what that owner said to me. "I like your work, I will give you a show.
but only if you change the color of the background in your painting "Leafbud of an Ash Tree". WHAT? I fervantly believed in my choise of background color, I left.
I never changed it. I have that painting today and marvel at how I still love and believe in that color!
Yeilding to the financial pressures from the commodies market was not to erode my soul as an artist. I am proud to say I have never let that happen to me!
While in NYC, I received a pretigious purchase award from The National Acedemy of Design, for my painting "Black Organic Form"
1965 I opened a gallery specializing in wildlife painting in Clinton, NJ
1969 Moved to Key West and settled into 518 Elizabeth Steet, my legal residence and home and place of business for the last 50+ years
1975 I opened a gallery in my home at 518 Elizabeth Street known as Nancy Forrester Botanical and Zoological Paintings.
I sold my paintings, wildlife art by others and original antique prints pertaining to natural history.
Botanical and zoological prints by the worlds greatest artists, explorers and printer makers Circa 1770 to 1890.
1985 to present, Site-specific art (installation art), Eco-art, Happenings, Performance Art, Live Animal Art dba as Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden.
I planted a rainforest, I created a dense booming green biomass by using trees, arroids, ferns, orchids and other exotic tropicals.
Over many years, I planted many hundreds of trees, including rare and endangered species. How did I come to have parrots?
"Birds come to gardens for different reasons"
MY GROWTH OR EVOLUTION AS AN ARTIST
By 1980 I was disillusioned with the commodification and insularity of gallery displayed art, human
cluttered life and consumer culture. I stopped painting on canvas partly because my output was slow and laborius.
My extremely detailed style of painting was tedious and painting alone in a studio most days was lonly
But of greater importance I stopped painting pictures of plants and animals on canvas because extinction of species was happening rapidly before my eyes
in my own back yard. In 1969 my yard was teaming with life By 1985, 16 years later half of its species where gone.
Time was running out for the beloved subjects of my paintings, the racoons, the reptiles (snakes, lizards, frogs, turtles, anoles, gecheos)
the land snails, the birds, the insects. I was horrified by the degragation of plant Earth, the rapid extinction of plants and animals and the
disruption of Earth natural cycles.
Stopping this mass extinction of plant and animal life became my greatest priority and I needed a new art medium and a bigger audience.
Like other artists of the time in the 60's and 70's I understood that art does not have to be an object for sale in a gallery or hung in a museum governed
by males in our centuries old sexest society.
Today the global art world is still dominated by western, white patriarchal values and slow to take note of maverick women artists,
The general public is slow to understand that museums and galleries as institutions no longer set the rules for artists and viewers and that art objects
do not have to be transportable, nomadic, exist in gallery, museum space and be objects of the market and commodification. Art can be an experience.
The appearance of land art in 1968 was a response by a generation of artists mostly in their late twenties to the heightened political activism of the year
and the emerging environmental and women's liberation movements. Art movements at that time centered around rejection of the commercialization
of art-making and enthusiasm with an emergent ecological movement including spiritual yearnings concerning the planet Earth as home to humanity.
Today art with ecology and socially engaged practices dealing with injustices and ecological problems such as water and soil pollution and health hazards and
relational aesthetics that involve sustainability are common.
INFLUENCES
Rachel Carson's "The Silent Spring", Josephs Campbell's, Power of the Myth, Campbell "Artists are the shamans of the world", Judy Chicago's, The Dinner Party
Bill McKibbon's "The End of Nature", The Woman's Movement, The Envioronmental Movement, The Sustainability Movement, Performance artist Carolee Schneemann who fused art and life.
The Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C. 1991, Site Specific art "Places With a Past" curated by Mary Jane Jacob, Jane Goodall, Gretta Thornberg
My visit to the rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia Bogar Botanical Gardens and the island of Bali
My visit to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park London "Soap box performance-oration" After this eperience, I called myself "a soap box artist"
Bio-Art.
MY GOAL
Share publically my desire to transform the world through art. Generate a public reaction that aims to grow a strong feeling of love and understanding which leads to
environmental and sustainable activism on the part of the viewer or participant. Stop extinction of species. Stop abuse of parrots
Save the last undevepoled wooded acre of land in the heart of old town Key West from developement.(1969-2012)
CREATING NFSG
I use a blend of artistic disciplines known as Site Specific Art, Environmental Art, Eco-art, Ecological Art, Happenings,
Performance Art, Conceptual Art, Fusing art and life, Interactive Art, Art with live animals. Each of these art movements has purpose and can effect the real world.
518 Elizabeth Street, Key West, Florida is my home.(1969 to present) It has been my legal residence since 1969 (50+ years) and place of business since 1975 (45+ years)
I owned the house at 518 Elizabeth (residential area) and two adjoining lots (both in residential area), one vacant and one double size with a small historical cottage.
(1969 to 2012)
The two adjacent lots had access from Free School Lane off of Simonton Street. Combined all 3 lots created the last acre of wooded land in the heart of Old Town Key West
Together they all had access from Elizabeth St and Free School Lane
During my ownership I received zoning variences for all the lots at two seperate times and for different art related reasons. In 1975 receiving a varience for 518 was easy.
1985 receiving a varience was harder. I had awesome support from my community for the second zoning varience.
Unsolicitated by me Letters, a petition with 2,000 signitures, front page news coverage in the The Citizen (Key West's newspaper) and Key West the Newspaper
(a weekly publication by Dennis Reeves Cooper) all help greatly.
Droves of people and artist friends carrying banana leaves, palm leaves and dressed in greenery flooded City Hall for the commisioners meeting when the final vote came down.
THE RECENT PROBLEM ZONING
It appears I have incurred a zoning problem with two issues. Both issues have the potential of closing me down and being fatal to my work.
This problem jeapories the continuation of my lifes work at 518 Elizabeth and my ability to support myself.
I love what I do, and I am fearful of losing my right to continue to teach-practice my "ART" (my type of art is described later)
Problem 1. I received notice from Noah Singh on FEB 10 2021 stating "Nancy it appears the city of key west has put a code violation on the property for the tour business for
not having a business tax receipt". (photo exhibit he set me is enclosed). It is my business at 518 that is in question.
To date I have never received a notice of violation from the city. Ann Johnson LLC and owners Pritam Singh and or Noah Singh bought the 518 building and its two adjoinong lots in 2012.
The building resides in a residential area. Does the new owner of 518 need to hold a business zoning varience for my (45+ year) business in their building?
I have a legal document from them defining my life estate and the right to carry on my NFSG business at 518 Elizabeth
Problem 2. I was granted a varience for 518 for my business a very long time ago (circa 1975) That business was called Nancy Forrester Botanical and Zoological Paintings.
Today, this is my only existing licence. It is antiquated
It describes the work I did way back then in my early days as an artist. It does not adequately describe the work I have been doing for the last at 35 years.
I was granted additional variance from the city for the two adjoining lots in order to open my Visionary Environment dba Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden.
The 1985 varience-licence more adequately described the work I do today.
That second variance was granted circa 1985. When the property tranfered to Ann Johnson LLC in 2012. At their request I was asked to continued to operate
Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden. I did this on all three lots as usual for another year. Then I was asked to vacate the two adjoining lots and scale
back my practice to the 518 property where it contiues to happen since its inception in circa 1985.
ABOUT ME
Since childhood I have been a passionate lover and activist for all plants, all animals, all Earths natural habitats, bio-systems
and the interconectivness of everything for the health of all. My focus is to change the destructive impact humans have on the natural world. I am a sustainability activist
At 82, I continue to learn, grow and metamorphise. My lifestyle and the type of art I do has undergone many paradygm shifts.
HISTORY OF MY ART PRACTICE
1961 I received a Bachelor of Science in Design from University of Michigan in 1961 with a major in painting and minor in ceramics.
In order to graduate from the college of Architecture and Design, I had to adhere to the practice of Abstract Expressionism enforced by a
very sexist all male faculty I was required to learn the entire History of Art (14th century to 20th century) which only mentioned two female artists at the time.
Instructor Frede Vidar said my paintings were to Feminine. I warned by another instructor not to sign my pantings with my last name only in order to hide my sex.
My instructors said, "woman painters are never taken seriously" Tom McClure gave me a B after I got straigt A's and my male counterpart who got straight B's got an A. McClure said,
He is going to need it to be a professional artist, you don't because you will probably end up teaching.
1962-1964 After gradation I did the "formula" most painters did back then. I lived in NYC to "make it", secure a gallery where I could show and sell my paintings,
My work was accepted by a gallery in Greenich Village in NYC. I will never forgetten what that owner said to me. "I like your work, I will give you a show.
but only if you change the color of the background in your painting "Leafbud of an Ash Tree". WHAT? I fervantly believed in my choise of background color, I left.
I never changed it. I have that painting today and marvel at how I still love and believe in that color!
Yeilding to the financial pressures from the commodies market was not to erode my soul as an artist. I am proud to say I have never let that happen to me!
While in NYC, I received a pretigious purchase award from The National Acedemy of Design, for my painting "Black Organic Form"
1965 I opened a gallery specializing in wildlife painting in Clinton, NJ
1969 Moved to Key West and settled into 518 Elizabeth Steet, my legal residence and home and place of business for the last 50+ years
1975 I opened a gallery in my home at 518 Elizabeth Street known as Nancy Forrester Botanical and Zoological Paintings.
I sold my paintings, wildlife art by others and original antique prints pertaining to natural history.
Botanical and zoological prints by the worlds greatest artists, explorers and printer makers Circa 1770 to 1890.
1985 to present, Site-specific art (installation art), Eco-art, Happenings, Performance Art, Live Animal Art dba as Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden.
I planted a rainforest, I created a dense booming green biomass by using trees, arroids, ferns, orchids and other exotic tropicals.
Over many years, I planted many hundreds of trees, including rare and endangered species. How did I come to have parrots?
"Birds come to gardens for different reasons"
MY GROWTH OR EVOLUTION AS AN ARTIST
By 1980 I was disillusioned with the commodification and insularity of gallery displayed art, human
cluttered life and consumer culture. I stopped painting on canvas partly because my output was slow and laborius.
My extremely detailed style of painting was tedious and painting alone in a studio most days was lonly
But of greater importance I stopped painting pictures of plants and animals on canvas because extinction of species was happening rapidly before my eyes
in my own back yard. In 1969 my yard was teaming with life By 1985, 16 years later half of its species where gone.
Time was running out for the beloved subjects of my paintings, the racoons, the reptiles (snakes, lizards, frogs, turtles, anoles, gecheos)
the land snails, the birds, the insects. I was horrified by the degragation of plant Earth, the rapid extinction of plants and animals and the
disruption of Earth natural cycles.
Stopping this mass extinction of plant and animal life became my greatest priority and I needed a new art medium and a bigger audience.
Like other artists of the time in the 60's and 70's I understood that art does not have to be an object for sale in a gallery or hung in a museum governed
by males in our centuries old sexest society.
Today the global art world is still dominated by western, white patriarchal values and slow to take note of maverick women artists,
The general public is slow to understand that museums and galleries as institutions no longer set the rules for artists and viewers and that art objects
do not have to be transportable, nomadic, exist in gallery, museum space and be objects of the market and commodification. Art can be an experience.
The appearance of land art in 1968 was a response by a generation of artists mostly in their late twenties to the heightened political activism of the year
and the emerging environmental and women's liberation movements. Art movements at that time centered around rejection of the commercialization
of art-making and enthusiasm with an emergent ecological movement including spiritual yearnings concerning the planet Earth as home to humanity.
Today art with ecology and socially engaged practices dealing with injustices and ecological problems such as water and soil pollution and health hazards and
relational aesthetics that involve sustainability are common.
INFLUENCES
Rachel Carson's "The Silent Spring", Josephs Campbell's, Power of the Myth, Campbell "Artists are the shamans of the world", Judy Chicago's, The Dinner Party
Bill McKibbon's "The End of Nature", The Woman's Movement, The Envioronmental Movement, The Sustainability Movement, Performance artist Carolee Schneemann who fused art and life.
The Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C. 1991, Site Specific art "Places With a Past" curated by Mary Jane Jacob, Jane Goodall, Gretta Thornberg
My visit to the rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia Bogar Botanical Gardens and the island of Bali
My visit to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park London "Soap box performance-oration" After this eperience, I called myself "a soap box artist"
Bio-Art.
MY GOAL
Share publically my desire to transform the world through art. Generate a public reaction that aims to grow a strong feeling of love and understanding which leads to
environmental and sustainable activism on the part of the viewer or participant. Stop extinction of species. Stop abuse of parrots
Save the last undevepoled wooded acre of land in the heart of old town Key West from developement.(1969-2012)
CREATING NFSG
I use a blend of artistic disciplines known as Site Specific Art, Environmental Art, Eco-art, Ecological Art, Happenings,
Performance Art, Conceptual Art, Fusing art and life, Interactive Art, Art with live animals. Each of these art movements has purpose and can effect the real world.
I Would Love to Have You Visit Soon!
Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden
Home of Key West Parrots
518 Elizabeth Street, Key West, Florida 33040
HoursEveryday: Including Holidays 10 am - 3 pm
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Telephone305-294-0015
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