Donna Cooper Hurt created site-specific installations that address place and the human relationship to the environment. In a day-long workshop with youth from the Jefferson Parish Department of Juvenile Services, Donna and Donata Henry shared their work and processes and helped guide participants to form a personal connection to the outdoors. The youth became storytellers, explorers, sculpture builders and photographers – holding and documenting birds, creating artistic interventions in nature, and photographing their findings.

Donna Cooper Hurt is a visual and community engaged artist living in Charleston, SC.  She holds a Master of Fine Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Donna incorporates photography, sculpture, video, and performance in her practice to address the intersection of place, memory, history, and the body.

“I was afforded the quiet to begin listening to the sounds of the woods in ways I had not heard before. The bark of a kitt fox, the hoots of barred owls and the singing frogs, all culminated in a sensory opening I will carry with me after I leave.”  – Donna Cooper Hurt

“The Flint and Steel Residency program provides unique opportunities for artists and scientists to collaborate and communicate their work to a broad audience. […] The collaboration enables us to integrate our ideas and expertise in such a way that we are more relatable.” – Donata Henry