Improving Water Literacy and Education of the Mohawk River Watershed through Art and Science
Cornell EcoArts promotes exchange of ideas between art, culture, and the environment to critically address environmental concerns across scales. Borrowing from a wide range of fields, including visual art, ecology, indigenous studies, climate justice, environmental humanities, art history, and climate science, we promote engaged immersive learning in the field, support undergraduate and graduate research that values art as it interacts with these disciplines, and reach the public through exhibitions, lectures, and interventions. The Mohawk River Watershed Project promotes water literacy to Cornell students, school children, policy makers, and the public. Prioritizing science, indigenous knowledge, community engagement, and environmental justice, the new class, The Art and Science of the Mohawk River brought Cornell students to middle schoolers in river towns prone to flooding. Together they conducted water sampling and created art illustrating their knowledge, concerns, and hopes for the river. The artwork incorporates folklore and indigenous knowledge from members of the Kanatsiohareke Mohawk community. The class culminated in art exhibitions the Schoharie River Center in Esperance, NY and other local art spaces. Additionally, through pre and post surveys the students in this class participated in a multi-year study to understand how art-based field experiences improve learning and change student attitudes and behavior towards the environment. Additionally, we are using students in this class to understand the role of art making about a place and making art in the place (the Mohawk River Watershed in this case) and how that impacts their sense of place. Outcomes produced from this funding are numerous and just emerging. These include the establishment of an entire new course at Cornell called the Art and Science of the Mohawk River,” multiple art exhibitions, a master’s thesis composed of two peer reviewed journal articles, presentations at several conferences, and an article written by Cornell Chronicle. We look forward to furthering this work.