My Defend Our Arts event was one I hosted as a Campus Ambassador for Defend our Future, the youth affiliate of The Environmental Defense Fund, during my undergrad at Colorado State University. I hosted this event at The Wolverine Farms Coffee House and Letterpress which offered the perfect location to have an outside marketplace that featured all the various mixed media artists that I curated as a part of the day. Overall, I wanted this day to serve as a welcoming space for environmental artists to come together to share their art and talk about the ways in which art can work as a catalyst for facilitating change, action and easing feelings of eco-anxiety. In art we find inspiration and so without it finding power and movement in systems that render us powerless would be impossible. This allowed everyone to find inspiration and illustrated that art can be represented in so many different facets – all transform space and time, giving us the power and energy to move forward. This event was also the catalyst for many of the events that I still organize today, as it taught me the importance of creating accessibility around art and how vital it is to create inclusionary spaces for people to express themselves. For many of the artists that were featured that day it was their first time being asked to be a part of a art event and that day was also a catalyst for them to be in many other galleries moving forward.
Me sharing poetry as a part of the event:
Featured Artists:
