Post-Project Ripple Effects

The Conversation E project, took place in 2013. This website is a record of its planning and resulting events which concluded at the end of 2013. However the project's impact continues forward. While it is difficult to track the ripple effects of a project that brings together so many people, there are two projects in particular that grew from Conversation-E that point to a significant continuation of its themes of environmental conversation between art and science and between people and place.

Art-Science Exhibition: Sustainable Acts, Mother Earth's Embrace (SAMEE), 2015
Building off the excitement and success of the Conversation-E art exhibit, "Tales of Environmental Turbulence, The Common Trail of Art and Science," Conversation-E co-leader, Roslye Ultan, with a new IonE mini-grant, put on the SAMEE exhibit. This exhibit celebrates and art-science perspective on environmental issues and includes related activities such as artists talks, dance performance, and an art-environment panel presentation at the National conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Eduation (AASHE). See the SAMEE website, for more about this project.

Bridge Design Project: WIIN AJOGANIKE “We make a bridge,” 2016
In planning the Conversation-E retreat and workshop "Forest Trails & Forest Tales - Exploring place, story and climate change at the Cloquet Forestry Center," relationships between the forestry center and the Fond du Lac band of Ojibwe adjacent to the center were further developed and through this exploration of their common interest in the land, the idea of a bridge was put forth that would better connect the two communities to the land and each other. A bridge planning committee was formed after the project to continue exploration. To help the committee develop their ideas, Conversation-E co-leader, Jonee Kulman Brigham, reached out to Landscape Architecture professor, John Koepke, who then proposed a new Institute on the Environment mini-grant to bring a team of landscape architecture students to help the committee explore design options that reflected the values and history of the people and the land. Documentation is in progress as of this post, but there is a web page with an interview about the project planning.