From 2003-2006, events are taking place across the country in a national
Bicentennial commemoration of Lewis and Clark's historic, cross-country
expedition.
The Lewis & Clark Bicentennial ArtsPlan integrates
and promotes the role of the arts in this national commemoration. A partnership
between NEFA, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Assembly
of State Arts Agencies, and state and local arts councils, the ArtsPlan
is a cultural development initiative that, through the arts, celebrates
the human spirit and our commonalities as a people and a nation.
The ArtsCorps
One way that the ArtsPlan infuses arts into local Bicentennial events
is through community-based artist residencies. The Lewis and Clark ArtsCorps
supports artist led projects structured around the Bicenntiennial‘s
‘signature events' that commemorate major occurrences along the
route of Lewis and Clark's epic journey.
The ArtsPlan commissions an artist to create a collaborative public artwork
that interprets the historical significance of a signature event, and
reflects on the impact of Lewis and Clark's experience now and in the
future. The resident artist leads a community-based creative process to
interpret the legacy of these events in a new and creative manner, and
also establish a lasting model for arts programming that nurtures local
artists and community building.
Artists & Projects
Through a competitive panel process, sculptor and environmental artist
Karen McCoy was selected to serve as the ArtsCorps lead resident artist
for 2003-2004.
Artist Matthew Dehaemers was selected in December 2003 through a competitive
process administered by the Missouri
Arts Council to work with Karen on the ArtsCorps Missouri Signature
Events.
Below is a timeline detailing the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial ArtsCorps
projects.
EVENTS
May 14-16, 2004, Hartford, IL
ArtsCorps Project and Bicentennial Signature Event: Epicenter
The Epicenter project was made in honor of the Shawnee,
Peoria and other American Indian tribes who lived around the region of
southern Illinois two hundred years ago, and before. Created by artists
McCoy and Dehaemers, Epicenter consisted of a 12-foot long dugout
canoe cast out of ice from the frozen Mississippi River water. The
ice canoe was filled with corn and set on top of uprooted corn stalks.
During the Signature Event the canoe slowly melted and disappeared. As
it melted, it deposited its cargo of corn in a mound atop the corn stalks.
The uprooted corn stalks speak of the continual upheaval of tribal families
as they were pushed out of their homelands along the Mississippi River
in the 1700’s and 1800’s. The diminishing presence of the
canoe may be likened to contemporary cultural misconceptions concerning
American Indians. The corn kernels are metaphors of growth, vitality and
sustenance.
Friday, March 12, 10:00 AM Forest Park, St. Louis, MO ArtsCorps Project: Tree in Tree/ New Grows from Old
Bicentennial Signature Event: Three Flags Ceremony
The Three Flags Events commemorated the transfer of Upper Louisiana from
Spain to France to the United States 200 years ago. McCoy and Dehaemers
worked with members of the Osage nation to plant trees to mark, "reroot"
and honor the ancient Osage presence in the St. Louis region. The trees
will become a living and growing permanent installation for all to visit,
contemplate and gain greater understanding of our nation's history and
future. The installation commemorates the bicentennial of the Louisiana
Purchase and Corps of Discovery with a gesture that extends forward into
the next two hundred years.
For more info about the Three Flags Ceremony, go to: http://www.umsl.edu/~loupurch/index.html
Tethering of the Tree -
Artists with Sean Standing Bear
Blessing of the Tree with
Eddie Red Eagle
Artists with Eddie Red Eagle and Sean
Standing Bear
Oct. 14-26, 2003. Louisville, KY
Bicentennial Signature Event: Falls of the Ohio
The Falls of the Ohio signature event showcased the role the Falls area
and its residents played in the success of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
McCoy,worked with local artist Melli Hoppe, and the two artists based
their project on Thomas Jefferson's instructions to Lewis and Clark to
observe carefully all they encountered; the plants, animals, minerals
and people fostered by the soil. They moved their studio to a 900 square
foot tent on the riverfront at Louisville, KY. There, they took molds
from ancient fossil stones in the Ohio River, and, using earth brought
by community members, made new rocks by ramming earth into the molds.
By making stones out of earth, they turned geological process around and,
in doing so, set up a metaphor of reversal. The soil-stones, movement,
images generated in making them, and bits and pieces from conversations
with community members will become a multi-media, site-specific installation
and performance to be held in 2006, two hundred years from Lewis and Clark's
return to the Falls of the Ohio.
Contact
For more information about the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial ArtsPlan,
contact NEFA at publicart@nefa.org
or Donald Rice, Missouri Arts Council, donald.rice@ded.mo.gov
