Orca Recovery Day
Start: Saturday, October 15, 2022• 1:00 PM
Join us in person on Whidbey Island for an art-writing-science Orca Recovery Day Workshop!
Orca Captures at Penn Cove: an Orca Recovery Day Writing and Art Workshop
DATE and TIME: Saturday, October 15th from 1:00-4:30 pm
LOCATION: We will convene on the front porch of the Island County Historical Society Museum, 908 NW Alexander Street Coupeville, WA 98239. From there we will walk to Town Park, Coupeville Front St NW, Coupeville, WA 98239.
DESCRIPTION:
You are warmly invited to participate in an innovative workshop on the theme of the Penn Cove southern resident orca captures in the 1960’s and 70’s. We will examine how the captures continue to impact the orcas and discuss contemporary measures critical to orca conservation. Through art, writing, and conservation science, we will acknowledge the captures, connect to place, and share creative techniques for expressing our connection to orcas. We will consider how to creatively represent our desire for orca recovery and the return of captive orca to the Salish Sea. In this workshop you will hear a presentation from Orca Network President Howard Garrett, and participate in painting and writing exercises with artist Jeanne Dodds and writer MIranda Mellis. Your creative practice will include working with natural pigment as paint to deepen place connection, guided visualization writing practice, and discussion and creation of a Land/Place Acknowledgement specific to workshop themes.
This workshop is supported by the Endangered Species Coalition, with collaboration from Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve and Whidbey Island Conservation District. Thank you to all of our partners.
LOGISTICS:
Our workshop is free and limited to 15 participants, age 16 and up. Orca captures and orca recovery and conservation will be discussed; these topics may not be suitable for some audiences.
Please register here
We’ll be spending our day outside, so please come prepared for the weather conditions (including layers and rain gear as needed.) We will be under a roof cover on the museum porch and in the shelter, and both venues are completely open air on the sides. We will be walking uphill from the Museum to the park (~5 minute walk), and from the park down a dirt trail with switchbacks to the Penn Cove waterfront, and then back uphill from the beach to the park. Please wear appropriate footwear for walking. Bring water/drinks and a snack (we’ll be taking a snack break at the park.) We will be working with art materials, including paint, so please dress accordingly.
Please bring pen and paper or your preferred supplies for note taking and writing. Art materials will be provided. The shelter has power and a sink with potable water; bathrooms are nearby.
All venues are open air. We invite you to wear masks on the basis of personal preference. Should Covid guidelines change in advance of the workshop date, we will follow those guidelines accordingly.
SCHEDULE
1:00-1:15 gather at Island County Historical Society Museum, introductions
1:15-1:45 presentation by Howard Garrett
1:45-2:15 walk to shelter, snack break, project set-up and orientation
2:15-4:15 art and writing presentations and hands-on creative practice with artist Jeanne Dodds and writer Miranda Mellis
4:15-4:30 conclusion
INSTRUCTOR BIOS
Miranda Mellis is the author of Demystifications (Solid Objects, 2021); The Instead, a book-length dialogue with Emily Abendroth (Carville Annex, 2016); The Quarry (Trafficker Press, 2013); The Spokes (Solid Objects, 2012); None of This Is Real (Sidebrow Press, 2012); Materialisms (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2009); and The Revisionist (Calamari Press, 2007).
Her stories and essays have appeared in various publications including Harper’s, The Believer, Conjunctions, The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, McSweeney’s and elsewhere. Look for her seasonal column, The Trinocular, at The Believer. She has received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts and Millay Colony. She was a co-founding editor of The Encyclopedia Project with Tisa Bryant and Kate Schatz and currently teaches writing, literature, and environmental humanities at The Evergreen State College.
Jeanne M. Dodds is a multimedia artist, biodiversity conservationist, researcher and educator whose creative practice investigates human and more-than-human relationships, conflicts and interdependencies. Presently the Creative Engagement Director for the Endangered Species Coalition. She lives in the Pacific Northwest on the traditional lands of Coast Salish Peoples. Her journey with creative and environmental projects includes artist residencies in New Zealand, United States, and Indonesia alongside field research in Colombia, Costa Rica, and other locations. At the core of this work is an ever-deepening connection to identities of place and the sacred relationship between ourselves and the other-than-human world.
GUEST SPEAKER
