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Earth Day 2020 Visiting Artist

For Earth Day 2020, MCAD will be virtually hosting Christine Baeumler, a community-based artist focused on ecological restoration. An associate professor at the University of Minnesota in the Studio Arts department, Baeumler has worked on various green spaces within the Twin Cities and abroad, including the rooftop Tamarack Bog at MCAD! To join the Google Meet for the Visiting Artist lecture, use the following information:

Google Meet Room: Christine Baeumler Lecture

Link: https://meet.google.com/hfy-gxsp-swt

Phone, dial 601-935-4191

PIN: 220 663 421#

To lead into this talk, I asked Christine a couple of questions regarding both her work and the current global situation. 

First of all, what are you currently working on?

Currently, I am focusing on the intergenerational as well as the interdisciplinary dimension of my collaborative practice. For example, in the Buzz Lab youth internship program at the Plains Art Museum and in the Backyard Phenology project, I am focused on appreciating how those projects can bring people from different backgrounds and age groups together. We all have so much to learn and gain from each other’s experiences. 

You often work to improve urban green spaces. What are some examples of what you believe is a well done/designed green space? Any in the Twin Cities specifically?

I am most interested in urban green spaces that are not “designed” but intentionally create the conditions for increased habitat, biodiversity, and water quality considerations. This may mean managing plants introduced from elsewhere that thrive here to give the native plants a chance to re-establish, but also considering plants that are beneficial for pollinators and other species.  These places may not appear designed to an outside observer, but a lot of labor goes into creating a thriving space. I acknowledge, however, it is not possible to fully restore our ecosystems given the damage humans have done to the land, water, and soil, at least in a short time frame. 

Several places I particularly appreciate are the Quaking Bog at Theodore Wirth Park, (which inspired the Rooftop Bog at MCAD). It’s a tamarack bog with a walkway so that people can enjoy the bog but won’t disturb the delicate bog ecosystem there.  The Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in St Paul below Iminija Ska (the White Cliffs)  is an ongoing oak savanna restoration  of a railroad brownfield, managed by the Parks and Recreation Department and the Lower Phalen Creek Project. If you haven’t been to either of those places I recommend a socially distanced walk (the walkway at the Quaking Bog is a bit narrow, so something to consider now). 

I also appreciate the Native American Medicine Gardens on the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul Campus (across from the Bell Museum on Cleveland Avenue). The director of the Native American Medicine Garden, Cante Suta/ Francis Bettelyoun, has built up the soil (and the microbes) on the site over many years. Bettelyoun, students, and a team of volunteers care for the plants and animals there from the Indigenous perspective of Relatives.  I love that among  the neat rows of the experimental agricultural plots,  the NAMG has an organic quality that is teeming with life--insects, birds, and mammals.

What aspects of urban living are you looking to change? How do you believe the integration of art and green spaces work to improve the living conditions within an urban environment?

As I mentioned before, in relation to the Native American Medicine Gardens, I believe that shifting our perspective as the natural world from resource to Relative, which is an Indigenous perspective, is such an important shift in awareness. I hope this shift in our consciousness can lead to different approaches about the ways we live, what we consume,  as well as how we see our role as artists, designers and people with political agency. 

I believe we have the opportunity to reconsider our roles as artists, and expand our notion of what is and what can be. I admire the practitioners of Maintenance Art, Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Sean Connaughty, whose artistic practice involves an everyday attention to dealing with waste (something most of us would choose to ignore).  

This is another chance to think in terms of systems instead of discrete projects. We have big complex challenges, such as climate change, that need comprehensive and coordinated solutions. Individual choices matter, but we have to make systemic and political change on larger scales while keeping issues of environmental and social justice at the forefront of our consideration.  Big topics, to be sure, but they require us to be attentive to ways things are interconnected. Maybe we can see how we are all connected more clearly at this time as we are all starting to feel our own vulnerability. 

Artists and designers can integrate art and the urban environment by playing  a variety of roles--but to me, working in interdisciplinary teams and with and in conversation with communities  seems like an impactful  way to collectively address environmental challenges.

As I watch environmental protections rolled back, for example, during this moment of Covid 19, I believe it is also incumbent upon us to act politically, to make our voices heard, and to vote in the fall. 

We are in a time of great global change and uncertainty. How do you believe the quarantine and constantly shifting events will impact the art world, creatives, and our reactions to the world around us? Any advice for the students in quarantine?

I have so many questions instead of answers. First, how do we, as individuals and a community, consider those most deeply impacted by Covid 19?  Those who do not have a  home, food security or have health or economic challenges? How are we addressing more immediate needs?  How do we effectively stand up to attempts to dismantle  environmental  protections or other moves that are destructive? 

While we are reeling from the impact these changes make in our own lives, how do we stay present to what’s happening in the public sphere? I am asking these questions of myself and turning to those who have more advanced ideas and thinking about the present situation than I do.  

The art world, consisting of cultural and educational  institutions, organizations, community groups, funders  and individuals have all been impacted in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. This may lead to a different way of organizing ourselves and our practices. 

As I look out, I see a  myriad of ways artists are approaching  their work in this time of crises (plural because we face more than the pandemic)  by creating platforms, opportunities, raising up voices, making the invisible visible, calling out injustice, creating awareness, and  expressing  a range of emotional responses through a variety of media --and offering work that provides solace and humor as well. 

Historically, artists have always responded to crises and have been at the forefront of movements addressing injustice, violence, war, health crises, and environmental threats. 

Now it is our turn, as artists, to consider how we respond. What a significant, and perhaps somewhat terrifying, opportunity.  It may take us some time to collect ourselves. In fact, it seems important to take the time we need to adjust before we spring into action. 

For students in quarantine. 

I would encourage students to take this time to slow down, reflect, journal, meditate--whatever self reflective practices help you to be in touch with yourself--and take care of yourself.  Embrace your feelings, and reach out if you need assistance. It’s ok not to be “productive” at this moment. We are in a time where people are experiencing extreme disruption and trauma--so be gentle with yourself.  Connect to others in the ways you are able..  and don’t get too isolated. 

Your voice, your ideas and your work are significant, and matter to the world. But being in touch with where you are in the moment may be the most important thing to honor. 

Right now, many of us have the opportunity to slow down, reflect and more deeply examine our own lives and our relationship to what is important to our own well-being, our Fellow Beings and our Earth.

Any advice for how the individuals reading this can practice creativity, or any overall thoughts on the creative process in this time?

I want to offer a way to refresh our creativity. Take a break from technology. Go outside and connect with your “nature family,” the trees, the birds, the rocks, the sun, moon and stars. The weather.  Using your imagination and the power of observation, quiet your mind and listen to what the world has to communicate with you. Have a conversation with a chipmunk, debate a crow, chuckle with a stone. The human world has become more quiet now, and perhaps it is our chance to engage, through our minds and our senses, with the world outside of our doors and beyond our screens.  

-An Interview with Christine Baeumler, edited by Madilyn Duffy