Australia

This is the first of many posts over the next few months about my upcoming trip to Australia, where I will be joining some alumni of UNM's Land Arts program and its creator Bill Gilbert as guest artists for the Australia National University's School of Art Field Study program. This program was created and developed by John Reid through the Engaging Visions Research Project. Our travels will focus on two primary locations: a) the Far South Coast of New South Wales, centered around the town of Eden and b) Calperum Station, Riverland Biosphere Reserve, South Australia, north of Renmark.

The map below shows the 85 Biogeographic regions of Australia. We will be in A) Southeast Corner (Eden) and B) Murray Darling Basin (Calperum Station)

The passages below are quoted from ANU's Engaging Visions website:

The goal of the Engaging Visions Research Project was to configure a model procedure for visual artists to participate in, and/or engage with, Murray Darling Basin catchment communities to help address environmental concerns.

The subject of the Engaging Visions Research Project was an established ANU School of Art program called Field Studies. During a Field Studies program artists participate in a series of field trips to locations of artistic inspiration while interacting with and learning from communities in the area. Artworks generated through this experience are exhibited in the local community.

The Field Studies program was convened and coordinated by the Environment Studio at the ANU School of Art. The research evaluation component of Engaging Visions was conceived and conducted by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the ANU.

This research project was undertaken from 2007 to 2010. It focused on four Field Studies programs in the Murray Darling Basin: St George (Queensland 2007), Tumut (New South Wales 2008), Riverland (South Australia 2008) and Benalla (Victoria 2009).