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Art Celebrates Open Space and Community
Inside NAU, July 21, 2004
An art exhibit comprising paintings, sculpture, stained glass, poetry readings, and music opens at the NAU Art Museum on July 26. It's a collaboration between the Diablo Trust and the NAU Art Museum and runs through Aug. 25.
"Reflections of the Land-2004 offers a wide interpretation of the beauty of the natural landscape as seen through the eyes of artists working on site," said Jack Gron, director of the school of art at NAU. "The collaboration of community art with the tradition of ranching and issues of land management and ecology is as unique and varied as the "north country" itself. The NAU Art Museum is delighted to be a partner in presenting the creative efforts resulting from this marriage of art and the land."
In preparation for Reflections of the Land-2004, artists were invited to several sites in the Diablo Trust land area to provide interpretations of the land through their work, culminating in a community presentation. With partial funding from Flagstaff Cultural Partners, Diablo Trust participants - representatives from federal, state and local land management agencies- had provided artists with site-specific historical and biological overviews.
"Reflections of the Land; Diablo Trust Forum for the Arts originated from a desire to bring an enhanced awareness of the treasure of our rural open spaces to the greater Flagstaff community," said Mandy Roberts Metzger, Diablo Trust operations team member. Metzger said the Diablo Trust is constantly searching for innovative ways to meet "the challenge of keeping our rural landscapes open and our watersheds healthy. We don't always know how to honor the products of collaboration. Reflections of the Land is an effort to both recognize and encourage grassroots solutions."
Metzger said the trust's artist's program has been a gratifying way to bring people with diverse backgrounds together on the land. "I love seeing artists with their easels spread out in the mountain valley; listening to writers talk with visual artists about 'sense of place and community - it's exciting. I think sincere collaboration is the hope of the future." Contact: Derrick Widmark, (928) 523-0588. Diablo Trust website: www.diablotrust.org Kathleen Battali, (928) 523-3471. NAU Art Museum website: www.nau.edu/art_museum.
Learning from the land and sharing our knowledge...
So there will always be a West.