What We Do - Projects

Women and Water: Sisters in Evolution

So, what’s the best way for reaching without preaching? Art with interconnections...
specifically science and dialogue. Women and Water is a collaborative program that integrates science, social issues and art-making in order to give teens the chance to explore the fluidity of identity, societal pressures, and living with intention in a safe environment. Through various writing and drawing exercises, the teens foster an internal monologue on identity and their connection with the ocean. Using personalized oceanic metaphors and image transfer techniques, Women and Water participants design three panels on translucent fabric and paper, which inform and interact with each other. Adding beads, shells, pearls, and stitching, the teens construct a snapshot in time of identity and transformation. The panels are not fixed—they move in response to their environment.

As the teens examine who they are through the natural world, they simultaneously disarm
self-consciousness and expand perspective. Suddenly it’s not interpersonal, it’s intrapersonal. It becomes apparent that we are all in the same boat; that we’re all downstream; that we’re all pulled by the tides of societal pressures; that because we’re made mostly of water, our identities are never solid; that sometimes an abrasive experience can result in a pearl of wisdom; that we are interconnected to each other and the natural world.