Getting to Know the Place
2021
As part of my graduate work in PSU’s Art+Social Practice program, I wrote and designed the publication Getting to Know the Place, with very helpful editing by Mariah Berlanga-Shevchuk.. The book is meant to be an accessible, plain language introduction to how I approach place-based learning. In both the projects, I was particularly interested in how humans find meaning on lands that are perceived as damaged or ugly. The book presents two projects: work created at an artist residency at Strassel Farm, which has suffered from environmental degredation, and the curriculum developed for a university course titled Interpreting Place, which was created in response to a generic corporate real estate development that encircles a historic site. The book includes a series of activities and exercises that explore the role that socially engaged art can play to foster intimacy and connection with a place, in addition to artwork created by participants in both projects. Here’s a PDF excerpt that contains a number of place-based activities.
