Save This Place for Me is a Multimedia Love Letter to the Planet
A unique process…
This project is a response to the environmental degradation we see every day in our communities, destruction that is a direct result of human over consumption, waste and overuse. The youth in our community see many protests, hear speeches from parents, scientists, and teachers about these issues and are often never told what they as individuals can do about it.
This project is unique because it provides a youth-led, hands-on, deep-dive action, creation and research; to solve the challenges we face as a planet. Youth are brought to local outdoor spaces for day-long explorations of the wonders of the natural world we live in. They are asked to open their hearts, to look, listen, feel and document the beauty and the pain of the life forms that share our ecosystem and suffer at the hands of humans. They are inspired to create art from this place. They are given a creative space in which to share, process, present their observations and reflections, to one another, in solo work and group projects, art pieces, talking circles, sketchbooks, videos and journals.
When the work has been created, “Save This Place For Me” offers an opportunity to create and present a unified artistic call to action with a youth voice, to the community. The final gallery celebration invites the audience into a conversation about the works and their messages, offers calls to action and invites visitors to sign a pledge to protect all beings.
Finally, we will celebrate the social media skills of our youth participants and create together, a marketing campaign that will build an audience for the work here in SoCal and online, beyond our current supporters. Identifying and inviting in new groups of community members, adult and youth, to share the vision of protecting, preserving and regenerating our ecosystem for all living things.
The youth of today will inherit all of the repercussions of our collective choices, it is time they were given the tools and a platform on which to stand up, look in, speak out and protect it.
Our Goals
Our youth need a platform on which to raise their voices and express their opinions, about the damage that is being caused every day by decision makers who are not considering the long term effects of their choices. Youth will be standing up to say “Save This Place For Me”. Our goal is for our descendants 200 years from now to have this big beautiful planet to inhabit.
The purpose of this project is to:
1) provide opportunity for local youth to interact with and stand up for the natural wonders we have been gifted with, through the creation of a group film, individual art pieces and personal poetry.
2) provide opportunity for youth to engage in individual reflective observation of nature in journals, sketchbooks, photography and video.
3) educate our community about the impacts of a consumer lifestyle and remind them that children will inherit the results of their choices. We will accomplish this through the creation of individual multi-media works created with the waste produced from this lifestyle.
4) to pledge to protect all beings.
5) to engage youth in individual and project based exploration of nature, its gifts and its immense power.
The resulting art work “Save This Place for Me” will be three fold: 1) a group video love letter to the planet, that will feature youth photography, video and spoken word inspired by discoveries and observations in nature and 2) an installation of students’ artworks, that will allow visitors to explore the work in meditative contemplation, add their voice to the call and pledge to protect our ecosystem. 3) an online gallery of both.
Positive Change
The activities will bring about positive change by…
1) increasing the amount of time this group of youths spend in nature, in a contemplative, observational role.
2) challenging youths to create art that is impactful from the very objects that are causing the problems.
3) inviting the community to come together to learn and pledge to create a new lower impact, way of living that is good for all beings.
4) bringing together the community, to give voice to youth experience and opening discussion between youth and adults for common good.
5) creating an art exhibit that can be shared in our gallery at the conclusion of the project and online for years to come, to inspire people in all areas of the world.
6) to engage the group in exploration of nature, processing both through the lens of their own experiences and their shared experiences.
6) encouraging other groups to participate in future “Save This Place for Me” Programs to spread the beauty, joy and gifts of nature throughout Los Angeles.