The works represented in this exhibit are the result of an innovative high school natural science course taught at the Oakland Museum of California. This program integrates the study of ecology and natural environments with art and the creative inspiration found in nature.

On field trips, students explored California habitats up close, as they built sculptures out of natural materials. Their photographs document a unique dialogue with the earth. The immersive experience of working in nature allowed students to explore their relationship with the natural world first hand.

Beyond the carving of sand and weaving of leaves, students explored such themes as impermanence and transformation. Their artistic creations are the result of a three-dimensional conversation with the earth. The act of gathering materials, contemplating location, and building site-specific environmental art are all acts of immersion; intimate acts that move participants through the landscape – over paths and logs, through creeks and dales. This kind of experiential learning reinforces the ecological concepts that students studied in the museum’s galleries.

	Stacking of Stones, Weaving of Minds virtual feature

This course was an attempt to re-awaken an inherent sense of ecological identity – of seeing oneself in the landscape, and the landscape in oneself - in the participants. Just as the intricacies of an ecological community are part of an undeniably creative force, these students’ hopes, dreams, and knowledge are now inextricably woven into the natural world. Through the age old act of stacking stones, these students have achieved an ecology of mind, a greening of thought. Now, as you view this work, envision yourself out there - amidst the sea of ferns, the knobby bark of the live oak, the rush of the creek - and weave your mind with ours.

Zakary Zide
Natural Sciences Program Coordinator
Oakland Museum of California

“Now when I go outside and see leaves on the ground, I start to wonder, ‘What can I create that would make people’s eyes go WOW?’"

Acknowledgements
The Oakland Museum of California and the students of the Art & Ecology course would like to sincerely thank the following people, whose support was instrumental to the success of this course:

The sponsors of the Youth Science Explorations program:

Gap Foundation

Oakland Museum Women’s Board

William and Patricia Weeden

Stephen and Susan Chamberlin

All of the staff at MetWest, especially David Bromley.

Maggie “The Bat Lady” Cooper, for her, Bats of California, presentation.

Robert Mackler for his leadership on the fungus foray.

James Starks for his tour of the Northern California Permaculture Institute.

Martha Berthelsen and the Watershed Project for their California habitat restoration tour.

The parents who volunteered to drive on our field trips.

And last but not least, the leaves, rocks, streams, trees, ocean, animals, and all of nature’s cycles for providing a context and canvass for this work to take place.

Exhibit Team
Gail Bernstein, Editor

Barbara Henry, Chief Curator of Education

Christine Lashaw, Preparator

Jeff Senatra, Technical Specialist

Dorris Welch, Natural Sciences Interpretive Specialist

Zakary Zide, Natural Sciences Program Coordinator

MetWest Students: Troy Carter, Kristen Chase, Winnie Chung, Ofelia Cisneros, Rocio Cisneros, Claire Freeman, Elicha Green, Jovan Parham, Leslie Santiago, Claire Starks, Daniel Worley

© 2005 Oakland Museum of California | Credits |Phone: 510-238-2200