About EcoArt South Florida: Who, What When?

EcoArt South Florida, Inc.(EcoArt SoFla)  is  a 501 C 3 nonprofit, launched in 2007 as the South Florida Environmental Art Project (SFEAP). The organization is dedicated to catalyzing the development of South Florida as a major center for ecological art (EcoArt) practice. By 2015 the goal is to have, in various stages of development, “EcoArt nodes” in each of South Florida’s five watersheds. “EcoArt nodes” are established, ongoing efforts at the local level to support and expand EcoArt in a particular locale. In 2011, EcoArt SoFla began to use a new GIS mapping tool developed by Dartmouth college students to help identify sites with the highest potential significance for establishment of EcoArt SoFla EcoArt Nodes. See the maps at EcoArt Dartmouth Study PDF

 

EcoArt SoFla works toward its goal through collaboration with local, grass roots community and advocacy groups, scientific research entities, arts organizations and environmental organizations to provide EcoArt community education programming and apprenticeships for Florida resident artists, support artists already engaged in EcoArt practice, and adjust public policy to assure the inclusion of EcoArt in municipal and county comprehensive plans, green ordinances and public art programming.

EcoArt SoFla’s governance structure consists of two main entities: a small Board of Directors, including the President (who currently serves as probono Executive Director), a Vice President/Secretary and a Vice President/Treasurer, several at-large members, and the chairs of the organization’s working committees on Structure and Staffing, Outreach and Education, Site Selection and Marketing and Fundraising. The EcoArt SoFla Advisory Committee is composed of individuals selected from among leaders in the environmental advocacy, government, environmental science/engineering, landscape architecture, cultural and grass roots communities from the main geographic areas of South Florida.

In Appreciation

We are very appreciative of the support in developing our pilot EcoArt community education and artist apprenticeship, EcoArt Treasure Coast (April 2009-January 2011). Thanks to the Arts Council of Martin County for its sponsorship and collaboration; to the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties, the Florida State Division of Cultural Affairs and many private donors for their financial assistance; and to EcoArtist Betsy Damon for her extensive expertise and creativity as the pilot’s artist-mentor. EcoArt Treasure Coast apprentices were : Jesse Etelson, Gail Kosowski, Jamie Powell, Mary Segal and Brenda Leigh.

EcoArt SoFla owes so much to Dr. Hildegard Kurt of the und. Institut für Kunst, Kultur und Zukunftsfähigkeit e.V. Dr. Kurt’s visit to South Florida, at our invitation, and her series of provocative lectures around the region, in March, 2007, stimulated the interest and enthusiasm for EcoArt among a wide range of stakeholders so necessary to the organization’s emergence.

We are most grateful to early supporters who underwrote the costs of Dr. Kurt’s visit: Florida Atlantic University’s Environmental Studies Graduate Certificate Program, Adelaide R. Snyder Professorship in Ethics and Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters; the Everglades Foundation; the John R. Marshall Foundation; and the Center for Creative Education. The founding of the organization was facilitated by lecture invitations to Dr. Kurt from: the Palm Beach County Cultural Council; the 6th annual South Florida Environmental Ethics Conference; Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs and the Broward County Water Board; Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, Inc. and Artists of Palm Beach County; the Reclamation Project/Miami; and the John R. Marshall Foundation.

EcoArt SoFla is also most grateful to our initial fiscal sponsor, greenmuseum.org, the most comprehensive source on the internet for art and artists engaged in environmental art practices including art in nature, earth/land art, art about nature and, of course, EcoArt.

Special thanks to EcoArtist Michael Singer, who has enthusiastically supported this endeavor from the beginning, and who was EASF’s very first contributor.

And, of course, the greatest gratitude goes to all the artists and other arts professionals whose determination and vision has created the EcoArt movement. Special thanks to Tricia Watts of ecoartspace for her generosity, and for believing that EcoArt could happen in South Florida. We particularly salute our colleagues on the EcoArt dialogue. Without your creativity, talent and knowledge, EcoArt SoFla could not have come into being.