North Temperate Lakes

Drawing Water - Using the Arts to Communicate and Educate
Thursday April 14, 2011, 1:00 - 4:00pm
Wisconsin Lake Convention

This interactive workshop will help you think on the “right side of your brain” as you consider ways to use the arts to educate lakeshore residents and visitors about the critical issues facing your lake. Artists and scientists involved in the exhibit, “ Drawing Water, Artists and Scientists Explore Northern Lakes”, will share their work in a guided tour of the exhibit. Workshop participants will explore ways to use creative writing, poetry, various art media, and children’s art as tools to communicate science with the public. Speakers John Bates (poet and naturalist) and Terry Daulton (pastel artist and biologist) will lead the session with special presentations by fiber artist Bonnie Peterson, and sculptor and environmental educator Jim Ramsdell. They will be joined by partner scientists from the University of Wisconsin – Center for Limnology. The goal of this session is to give you tools to draw on the creative inspiration your lake inspires and create your own community art/science collaboration.

Presenters:

• Terry Daulton, Painter and Biologist
• John Bates, Naturalist and Poet
• Jim Ramsdell, Sculptor
• Bonnie Peterson, Fiber Artist
• Ann Singsass, Watercolor Artist
• Mindy Schnell, Watercolor Artist
• Susan Knight, UW-Center for Limnology

Workshop June 17-19, 2010
Trout Lake Station

Six artists came together with scientists for a 3-day facilitated workshop at the Trout Lake Station. At this workshop, participants explored lakes in the north temperate lakes group, share artistic impressions and experiences, and learned about current scientific studies. The session included field trips, discussions and art activities. During the subsequent four months, artists have collaborated with scientists to create artwork. Our goal is to form teams of artist/scientists who will create both artwork and accompanying science information. The collaboration may include additional field work, brief artist-in-residencies at Trout Lake, or simply ongoing communication on research and arts projects. The specifics of these collaborations is determined by the teams. Deliverables include:

• Artists were asked to visit three of the LTER lakes and record their artistic impressions (journals, illustrated journals, video, etc).
• Artists created at least one art piece (visual, writings, film, etc). These will be exhibited at various venues.
• Artists were also asked to give brief presentations at these venues, and one additional talk with a scientist for a local civic group.
• Scientists are partnering with artists to create posters or visual aids (interpretation of the science) to accompany the artwork and will also participate in the presentations at exhibition venues and civic organization presentations.

Workshop Agenda