Rivers Run Through Us

Location:  Santa Fe, NM
Province/Region: 
Country: 
Project Description: 

From May 17-20, 2012, a small group of artist/activists will walk the length (46 miles) of the Santa Fe River. This four-day journey will serve as a deep exploration of our river and the Santa Fe Watershed and is designed to create art, promote awareness, engage community, and illuminate our relationship with river systems, earth and water.

In 2007, American Rivers designated the Santa Fe River as the most endangered in the United States. Local environmental groups, concerned citizens, river enthusiasts and environmental artists along with the county and City of Santa Fe have worked to bring her back. These efforts must continue.

The Rivers Run Through Us project hopes to bring life to our river and to our communities through the act of walking, carrying water from the headwaters to the Rio Grande, and riverbank activities that communicate hope and possibility. As we walk, we will encounter singing, music, poetry and art as well as conservation and restoration projects, and more.

We will also conduct and record interviews, capture the sounds of the river, take photos and video, and write poetry and daily accounts. These will be posted on the “Rivers Run Through Us” website where you can track us along the way and experience the journey, wherever you are.

After the walk we will create an interactive, virtual website where everyone can experience the river as a living system and an integral part of our identity: her history, reality, beauty, the interconnection and interdependence of our communities, and the delicate balance of forces that affect the rivers vitality, and ours.

In the months before the walk, we are working with community members, neighborhoods along the river, school groups, churches, environmental organizations, city and county entities and other individuals and organizations who are invited to meet us along the way—creating and presenting art, science activities and conservation/restoration projects.

United in our passion for the river and water, we are Bobbe Besold and Dominique Mazeaud, two environmental artists, along with Valerie Martínez, poet and collaborative artist and former Poet Laureate for the City of Santa Fe. We are a gathering of voices for the river: artists, environmentalists, scientists, poets, and river-lovers, working to connect people to the river and to each other.

Populations Engaged: 
Communities Served: 
Issue Areas: