A Studio in the Woods

Virtual Opening of "Syndemic: COVID-19 and Health Disparities" Exhibition
2021-04-08 17:00 - 18:00 UTC | Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Starting in January 2021 and for the entire Spring 2021 semester, Dr. Sacoby Wilson, (Associate Professor, Applied Environmental Health and the UMD Prevention Research Center at the University of Maryland, College Park) has been working remotely with Dillard faculty members John Barnes (Associate Professor of Visual Arts) and Keith Morris (Associate Professor of Film), and four Dillard independent study students to create film and art works about COVID-19 and health disparities in our region.
Inspiring Health Justice: A Collaborative Art-Science Scholar-in-Residence Program is a new collaboration between Dillard University’s Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center and A Studio in the Woods. The aim of this program is to bring the arts and public health together to address our region’s longstanding health disparities through creative, cross-disciplinary mentorship to focus the energy and passion of Dillard art students towards fostering health equity. On April 8th at 5:00 p.m. Central, Dillard hosts a virtual art opening, showcasing the work of our four Inspiring Health Justice Dillard University students-in-residence: Aaliyah Arnold (visual art), Hildevert Promesse Lafeuille (film), Jermaine Robinson (visual art), and Juwan Saint Charles (film).

Syndemic: Racism, Environment, and COVID-19
2021-04-14 17:00 - 18:00 UTC | Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Please join us for a conversation about health disparities and COVID-19 between Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Associate Professor with the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland-College Park, and Dr. Thomas LaVeist, Dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. This event in the ByWater Institute speaker series, Future Cities//Future Coasts, will explore how health disparities are deeply intertwined with issues of environmental justice that face our region and cities around the world.
This talk is co-sponsored by the Dillard University Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center (MHHDRC) and A Studio in the Woods (ASITW). Dr. Wilson is a virtual scholar-in-residence at Dillard and ASITW this semester where he is working with Dillard Faculty Members, John Barnes (Associate Professor of Visual Arts) and Keith Morris (Associate Professor of Film), and students to create artwork inspired by these topics. The students will present and discuss their work after the lecture and Q&A.
Dr. Wilson is an environmental health scientist with over 15 years of experience in the areas of exposure science, environmental justice, environmental health disparities, community-engaged research including crowd science and community-based participatory research (CBPR), water quality analysis, air pollution studies, built environment, industrial animal production, climate change, community resiliency, and sustainability. He works primarily in partnership with community-based organizations to study and address environmental justice and health issues and translate research to action. Dr. Wilson is Director of the Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health (CEEJH) laboratory, which is focused on providing technical assistance and research support to communities fighting against environmental injustice and environmental health disparities in the Washington DC Metropolitan region and across the nation. He is a member of the USEPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), member of the National Academy of Science’s Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST), board member of the Citizen Science Association, Editor in Chief of Environmental Justice, and has won numerous awards for his work.
REGISTER HERE

Deadline for Tulane Scholarly Retreat Applications
2021-04-15 | LA
The ByWater Institute and A Studio in the Woods seek to enhance and support the scholarship, creativity and cross-disciplinary activity of Tulane faculty and trainees by awarding one-week residencies during Academic Year F2021-S2022. These residencies will provide a retreat for faculty and trainees across disciplines to work on a discrete project or scholarly pursuit that can be new or complementary to ongoing work. Applications can be made independently, though collaborative cross-discipline team applications are also eligible. This opportunity may be considered similar to an artist residency, writing fellowship or grant-in-aid. Past honorees have used the retreat to analyze data, write an article, prepare for a conference or begin a new project.
Please click HERE for more information and to apply.
Open to Tulane University faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students (at the thesis or dissertation stage) with awards expected in each category. Open to any discipline or area of research though preference will be given to environmental, collaborative, and/or cross-disciplinary scholarship. Scholars of color are encouraged to apply. Deadline April 15, 2021. Please contact info@astudiointhewoods.org with questions or for more information.

Uncommon Exchanges: Indigo
2021-04-21 18:00 - 19:00 UTC | Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Newcomb Art Museum in partnership with A Studio in the Woods, The ByWater Institute at Tulane University, and New Orleans Center for the Gulf South presents Uncommon Exchanges: Indigo, a unique dialogue between unlikely pairings of Tulane and Gulf South experts. Rising Resident LaChaun Moore and anthropologist Dr. Sabia McCoy-Torres will use the museum’s current exhibition, Transcommunality by Laura Anderson Barbata, as a catalyst for conversation to remedy missing narratives and provide paths forward –through creative means – to a more equitable and just future. Moderated by Adaptations Resident Jeffery Darensbourg, the conversation will be followed by a Q&A with panelists and exhibiting artist, Laura Anderson Barbata. Wednesday, April 21 at 6pm.
REGISTER HERE
Image: Laura Anderson Barbata, “Intervention: Indigo”

Support A Studio in the Woods on GiveNOLA Day!
2021-05-04 | LA
This GiveNOLA Day, we are celebrating a very special milestone – 20 years of supporting artists. Over the past two decades, we have been building a network of artists working to imagine unique and better solutions to combat the effects of the climate crisis in our community. These are the voices and ideas that carry us forward and keep our hope alive through extraordinary change. A 20th anniversary gift to A Studio in the Woods this GiveNOLA will help support the next 20 years of innovative thinkers – those who can envision a world beyond our current limitations and expand the frame of what is possible. To mark this momentous occasion, we will select one lucky donor over the $50 level to receive a care package from our collection of artists’ products from the last two decades, details below. Schedule your gift HERE or mark your calendar for May 4th and join in on this annual day of community support in real time.
Included in our care package:

Byron Asher’s Skrontch Music, composed during his 2017 Flint & Steel Residency.
Andy Horowitz’s Katrina: A History, 1915-2015, which he worked on during his 2015 Tulane Scholarly Retreat.
Benjamin Morris’ Ecotone, featuring poems written for specific sites on the land during his 2011 Ebb & Flow Residency.
Aurora Levins Morales’ SILT, which she worked on during her 2018 Adaptations Residency.
Sarah Quintana’s Miss River and The Delta Demitasse, featuring songs composed during her 2012 Ebb & Flow Residency.
Monique Verdin’s Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations, a compilation of her photographs and essays featuring conversations with fellow ASITW alumni Raymond “Moose” Jackson, Kathy Randels, and Nick Slie.
Dr. Michael White’s Dancing in the Sky, composed during his 2003 Open Call Residency.
Our own Overstory: A Field Guide to A Studio in the Woods, which chronicles the history of A Studio in the Woods and the flora and fauna of the bottomland hardwood forest.

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Deadline for Relief Residency Applications
2021-05-05 | LA
Relief Residencies provide one-to-two week funded residencies for local, BIPOC artists and culture bearers who have not participated in an artist residency before. The mission of A Studio in the Woods, a program of Tulane University’s ByWater Institute, is to foster creative responses to the challenges of our time by providing retreat to artists, scholars, and the public in our protected forest on the Mississippi River. There have been no more acute challenges in recent memory than those presented by Covid-19. In line with our mission, we have crafted Relief Residencies to support those in our community most greatly impacted by the pandemic and the existing racial disparities it has highlighted. In 2020 we piloted this program through a nomination process and are now adding an open call to reach wider audiences. Applications due May 5, 2021.
DETAILS AND APPLICATION HERE

Artists of the Big River Continuum: Bloom Like a Wildflower in a Hurricane and Flow Like a River
2021-06-03 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | Weisman Art Museum
Join our partners at Weisman Art Museum for a special online event with Big River Continuum artists Monique Verdin and Karen Goulet on Thursday, June 3, at 7:00 p.m. Monique and Karen will be joined by Curator Rebecca Dallinger to discuss The Big River Continuum, an artist exchange residency hosted by us and our colleagues at the University of Minnesota’s Itasca Biological Station. This collaborative project cultivates creative exchanges, connecting communities of the Mississippi River from the headwaters to the delta.
MORE DETAILS AND REGISTRATION HERE

Sense of Place & Loss: Artists, Land Loss & Climate Change
2021-06-22 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Louisiana Folklife Program
Managing Director Ama Rogan will join upcoming Special Collaborations Resident Brandon Ballengée and Sam Oliver, Director of Acadiana Center for the Arts, for a conversation about artists, land loss, and climate change moderated by Adaptations Resident Jeffery Darensbourg on June 22 at 3pm. Hosted by the Louisiana Folklife Program, the group will discuss the role of artists and arts organizations in addressing our state’s pressing environmental challenges.
DETAILS AND REGISTRATION HERE

An (imaginary) inventory of (palimpsest) plants, gardens and other related objects in French colonial New Orleans
2021-06-24 - 2021-06-26 | Algiers Point
An (imaginary) inventory of (palimpsest) plants, gardens and other related objects in French colonial New Orleans is a participatory performance that takes the form of a small, printed inventory. The public is invited to use the inventory as a guide for creating personal responses to everyday, unnoticed remnants of French colonial history.
Participants begin by collecting the inventory in Algiers Point along the levee, and then use it as a guide for crossing the Mississippi River on the Algiers ferry and visiting several sites in the French Quarter. Each participant designs their own “performance” path by deciding which sites to visit, instructions to follow or observations to document.
Developed by Scholarly Retreat Resident Ross Louis, professor in Art and Performance Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, the project is built around archival documents and research at historical sites and markers. It is part of an ongoing performance series that disrupts the archival record of the French trans-Atlantic slave trade through references to colonial gardens and plant voyages.
An earlier performance, Erratum, was staged in Brest, France in 2019 and was supported by a Fulbright fellowship at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale. It took the form of a bookmark placed in libraries throughout Brest and printed with performance instructions for a visit to the Jardin des explorateurs.
The Inventory project is supported by a writing residence at A Studio in the Woods and funded by Xavier University of Louisiana and the Performance Studies Laboratory. The inventory was designed and risograph printed by Erik Kieswetter of constance, with the assistance of Katya Vaz.
The performance is limited to fifty participants and begins at the Algiers Point levee at the intersection of Bouny and Delaronde Streets. Times are available in the morning (June 24-26) and evening (June 24-25). To reserve a time to participate, contact Ross Louis (rosslouis@gmail.com).

Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man
2021-10-21 - 2021-10-24 | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
A Clear Creek Creative eco-cultural theater experience in 5 acts presented in partnership with Mondo Bizarro Productions and A Studio in the Woods to benefit Hurricane Ida Relief through RISE St. James and The United Houma Nation’s Yakani Ekelanna Garden.
Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man is an environmental, cultural and spiritual parable derived from living in the foothills of Appalachia, one man among many seeking to make sense of the time, place and condition in which we live. In the story, Ezell’s choices, traumas, ancestors and more intersect with themes of domination and resilience as he seeks to take advantage of an anticipated fracking boom and the opportunity to reconnect with the people and land of his raising.
The performance of Ezell is an immersive experience in 5 acts including The Welcome, Journey, Story, Reflection & Celebration. The full Ezell experience is designed to engage our collective desire for connection and belonging, to honor nature and bind us intimately within its embrace, to invoke the resilience, love and lessons of our ancestors and generations yet to come.
Given the unprecedented impacts of Hurricane Ida on so many communities in Southeast Louisiana, we are using the moment of Ezell’s presentation at A Studio in the Woods to raise awareness and money for organizations doing important relief work on the ground. 100% of proceeds will be donated to hurricane relief. Sponsorships by Alternate ROOTS and several generous individuals as well as the support of our Ezell funding partners are allowing us to offer the Ezell experience in New Orleans on a donation-basis.
TICKETS
Purchase tickets below by showing. All performances will take place at A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans, LA 70131.
Thursday, October 21, 3:30pm – 7pm
SOLD OUT – Friday, October 22, 3:30pm – 7pm
SOLD OUT – Saturday, October 23, 10am – 1:30pm
SOLD OUT – Saturday, October 23, 3:30pm – 7pm
SOLD OUT – Sunday, October 24, 3:30pm – 7pm
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge the privilege and complexity of living, working and producing the Ezell experience in Bulbancha. We strive to be good stewards of the lands and to resolve the legacies of oppression and domination that have come before and persist today. We offer the experience of Ezell with a humble, healing spirit and in recognition of all those who have come before and are yet to come in this place and in all the places we visit.
THE EXPERIENCE
Here’s what to expect when you arrive on site.*
Act 1: The Welcome. Orient to the experience and site, connect with your journey guide and enjoy a tasty treat & drink if you’d like.
Act 2. The Journey. Make a contemplative trek with guide & group to the performance site amidst woodland art & music.
Act 3. The Story. Witness Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man performed in a natural and accessible setting.
Act 4. The Reflection. Engage with your guide, the surrounding environment and one another to embody the themes of Ezell as you return from the performance site for the final act.
Act 5. The Celebration. Enjoy live music and a locally-sourced meal inspired by New Orleans cultural traditions intertwined with the story & place of Ezell.
*See notes regarding accessibility below.
BE PREPARED
We recommend:

comfortable closed-toed shoes & socks
long pants & sleeves
bug deterrent
water bottle if you’d like to carry water with you to the performance site
cash if you’d like to contribute for special refreshments
a light (we will finish by dark, though it’s a good idea to have a light available in case you linger after the meal)

You will move through this experience together in a small group. If you are attending with others with whom you’d like to be grouped, please be sure to let us know when you register.
ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to make this outdoor immersive experience available to everyone who would like to join us. Below is some information regarding accessibility.

The Journey portion of the experience will be offered in at least two formats:

An option that may involve walking up and down for a total of .5 miles with mild inclines.
A more physically accessible option that involves moving less than .25 miles along level ground between parking, performance, and return to parking with surfaces that include blacktop, well-packed gravel and about 25 feet of grass to traverse. If you intend to choose this option, please indicate if wheelchair or other vehicle-assisted access may be necessary.

Bathrooms will be accessible within 50 yards of the parking area and welcome / celebration site. Distance to the bathrooms during the performance will be 25 yards.
The Celebration portion of the experience will include a meal with vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free options for most menu items. We will do our best to address other allergen information on site as needed.

If you have additional questions or needs, please indicate those as you are registering for your tickets (or contact info@astudiointhewoods.org prior to purchasing your ticket).
COVID-19
In line with Tulane University’s Covid-19 policies, all attendees are required to provide proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours at the entrance to the event. Masks will be required when not eating or drinking. The event will take place outdoors.
BACK STORY
Sharing Ezell in New Orleans is a continuation of the cross-regional dialogue on fossil fuel extraction and climate change which began when Clear Creek Creative presented ArtSpot Productions & Mondo Bizarro’s Loup Garou (2010) and Cry You One (2014) in Kentucky. We have continued to work together each year since, training and skill-sharing and deepening our relationships within each others’ communities. As we engage in this work, we continue to learn from one another and be inspired by the resistance and resilience efforts in each of our communities.
Mondo Bizarro’s Co-Artistic Director, Nick Slie, has been inspired by A Studio in the Woods for over fifteen years and recently completed an Adaptations Residency there in support of a new project called Invisible Rivers. While in residency, Nick was moved by the potential of partnering with Studio to present Ezell and approached the staff who agreed to join Mondo and Clear Creek in presenting this experience. A Studio in the Woods, Clear Creek Creative and Mondo Bizarro have been utilizing the arts as a tool for catalyzing emotional engagement in the essential social and environmental issues of our regions for over twenty years.
Communities in Southeast Louisiana and the Appalachian foothills are both facing existential climate threats which—while they look very different on the surface—share something fundamental. The oil and gas industries have deeply impacted both places for too long, and while they have succeeded in providing some economic stability, they have profoundly influenced our current climate crisis and made land where families have lived for generations no longer liveable. Both of our communities have a lot of learning and strategizing to do based on our discovery that we are facing the same fundamental problem: how to transition from the extractive industry that is destroying our land and sickening our communities but is often the only economic game in town, and what to build in its place.
THE TEAM
The Ezell experience has been created and is manifested in ensemble by:

Written and Performed by Bob Martin
Produced & Guided by Carrie Brunk
Directed by Nick Slie
Designed by Jeff Becker
Music Direction & Sound Design by Cory Shenk
Guide Direction & Performance + Musical & Production Support by Nicole Garneau
Guide & Musical Performance + Culinary Support by Faye Adams-Eaton
Music Performance & Technical Support by Jacob Mudd
Guide & Musical Performance + Design Support by Clarity Hagan
Production Coordination & Musical Support by Hannah Burt

We have the honor to be hosted in Bulbancha by the incredible team at A Studio in the Woods alongside our longstanding artistic family at Mondo Bizarro and Catapult Studios. Heartfelt love and appreciation to all of these amazing people and so many others by extension who have made Ezell possible:

Production Management by Ama Rogan, Cammie Hill-Prewitt, Grace Rennie, Daniel Pruksarnukul & Nick Slie
Production Support by David Baker, Joe Carmichael & Gary Watson for A Studio in the Woods and Bruce France, Joanna Russo & Jeff Becker for Mondo Bizarro
Indigenous Culture Bearer, Music & Guide Performance by Jeffery Darensbourg
Guide Performance by Lisa Shattuck, Kendra Unique & Synamin Vixen
Music Support by Lyle Werner
Culinary Coordination by Nick Slie with culinary artists Rod Eddington | Joie de Vie, Madeleine Kelly, Joan Murray, Nick Slie, Billy Zeller, Brad Zeller and fresh local greens from Covey Rise Farms
Production Assistance by Aaron Richmond-Havel
Design & Documentation Assistance + Photography by Melisa Cardona
Videography by Bruce France
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) Collaboration by Dr. Kate Kokontis & Daniel Pruksarnukul
Printing Donated by Antenna’s Paper Machine
Housing Donated by A Studio in the Woods, Jeff Becker & Lisa Shattuck, Robin & Scott Borne, Madeleine Kelly & Nick Slie, Lisa Mount & MK Wegmann

GRATITUDE
All of the work we do through Clear Creek Creative is made possible by the generosity and collaborative spirit of our communities near and far. Deep appreciation to our funding partners for recognizing the value of this work and investing it. Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man

is made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Carpetbag Theater in partnership with Mondo Bizarro and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). NPN has also provided support through its Storytelling & Documentation Fund made possible by generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
is made possible, in part, through a Continuation grant for our partnership with Mondo Bizarro from the Network of Ensemble Theaters’ Travel & Exchange Network (NET/TEN), supported by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
is funded in part in New Orleans by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana State Arts Agency.
is touring to New Orleans and other communities on the frontlines of the fossil fuel economy with support from the Chorus Foundation in alignment with their commitment to work together with frontline communities for a just transition to a fair and sustainable economy.
has also been supported through an Al Smith Fellowship Award granted to Bob Martin for artistic excellence from the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
was seeded and evolved over many years with the support of Alternate ROOTS through the Partners in Action program, an Artistic Assistance grant, fiscal sponsorship and the ongoing learning & support of an amazing network of artists. Special thanks to ROOTS for extending Solidarity Funds to help make this production a benefit for Hurricane Idea relief efforts.
is sponsored in New Orleans by Antenna’s Paper Machine with donated printing of this program.
is supported in Bulbancha with donated advertising by WWNO 89.9, New Orleans Public Radio.
is able to donate the proceeds of all ticket sales in New Orleans to RISE St. James and the United Houma Nation’s Yákani’ Ékelanna’ Garden due to the inspiration and generosity of Linda Martin as well as donations of all sizes and types from many other members of our families and communities.

We are humbled & thrilled by the support we’ve received to bring Ezell to full fruition. We give thanks for living and working in such an abundant place and having countless opportunities to do meaningful & magical work with incredible people.

Artist Salon with Sidiki Conde and MILAGROS
2021-10-27 18:00 - 20:30 UTC | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Registration is required, please RSVP here.
Wednesday, October 27, 2021, 6pm – 8:30pm join us to meet and learn more about current Rising: Climate in Crisis Residents Sidiki Conde and MILAGROS. The event will be open-studio style; arrive at any time. A light dinner and refreshments will be provided.
At A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans 70131. Directions here.
Sidiki Conde’s music derives from the traditional rhythms of Guinea. In keeping with the West African griot traditions of his homeland, his lyrics are his own compositions within which he chronicles his life’s journey. He has performed with West Africa’s premier music and dance ensembles, including the prestigious Les Merveilles de Guinea and the Ballet African. His music brought him to America in 1998 and in 2007 he was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship, Lifetime Honors from the National Endowment for the Arts. Sidiki will use his residency to immerse himself in the culture, nature and music of the region and compose a series of songs about the rising crisis of climate change. Within the New Orleans community, he will host a series of traditional African music and dance workshops with both children and adults.
MILAGROS, consisting of Felici Asteinza and Joey Fillastre, is a mural and installation collective based in New Orleans, LA. Asteinza and Fillastre met studying Fine Art at Florida State University in 2006. Their public art works pepper the southeastern United States. Community and collaboration is the heart of the MILAGROS ethos. Inspired by their Latinx upbringing, MILAGROS aspires to create enjoyable spaces for intergenerational gathering, where individuals can feel connected through the joint construction of a positive experience. During their residency, MILAGROS will design and build an installation using reclaimed objects found in the Mississippi River presented using the interpretive language of National Parks. Audiences will be guided to view the installation as a local ecosystem made of petroleum products. The project will function both as an aesthetic endeavor and as an appeal to clean and protect one of our country’s most diverse and significant waterways.
Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 required for those 12 and up. Masks required when not eating or drinking. Dining will take place primarily outdoors.
Registration is required, please RSVP here.

FORESTival: A Celebration of Art and Nature
2021-11-13 11:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Get your tickets here
FORESTival is back! Join us at A Studio in the Woods on Saturday, November 13, 2021, 11am – 5pm for our 11th annual celebration of art and nature.
We are thrilled to welcome our community back to the Woods after a year and a half apart. Time in nature, time together, and time spent engaging with art and music are what our souls need right now. We are excited to provide that in a spacious, safe and beautiful outdoor setting.

Music!

kei slaughter at 11:30am
The Soul Rebels at 1pm

African Diaspora Music Panel at 3pm – Monique Moss will moderate a not-to-be-missed panel and artistic demonstration with internationally renowned musicians Dr. Michael White of New Orleans; Sidiki Conde of Guinea, Africa; and Titos Sompa of the Republic of Congo, Africa. Audiences will learn about and experience the powerful rhythms and connections of these three unique regions of the world. Bill Summers and Seguenon Kone will join the group for a drum circle at 4:15pm

Art & Activities!

Listen to the Land with ChE at 11am- Led by former Adaptations Resident ChE, an opening circle will create space to Listen to the Land. We will connect to the complex histories of oppression, resistance, and adaptation this land has witnessed. This Afro-Indigenous land acknowledgement and affirmation invites participatory presence through an offering of libation, song, and breath.

Book Reading by Andy Horowitz at 12:30pm – Former Scholarly Retreat Resident Andy Horowitz will read on the levee from his book, Katrina: A History, 1915-2015, which explores how engineers and oil executives, politicians and musicians, and neighbors Black and white built New Orleans, then watched it sink under the weight of their competing ambitions.
Gulf Fish Drawing with Brandon Ballengée 11am – 2pm – Current Special Collaboration Resident Brandon Ballengée will lead a fish drawing workshop. Participants will learn about how environmental disasters have affected gulf fish species while creating art about these fish. Brandon Ballengée is a visual artist, biologist and environmental educator based in Arnaudville.
Indigenous Poetry with Jeffery Darensbourg 12pm – 4pm – Former Adaptations Resident Jeffery U. Darensbourg will lead a found-poetry workshop in Ishakkoy. Jeffery U. Darensbourg is an enrolled member and tribal councilperson of the Atakapa-Ishak Nation of mixed Native and Louisiana Creole ancestry. His work explores the intersections of cultural studies, mixed ethnicity, and Indigeneity.
Crud Buddies with MILAGROS 2pm – 4pm – Recent Rising Residents MILAGROS will bring Crud Buddies made from plastics fished out of the river for folks to find, decorate and adopt as their own. MILAGROS co-founders Felici Asteinza and Joey Fillastre, along with their ever-changing cast of collaborators, create site-specific works that explore the history of place through striking arrangements of color and mark.
Stream Table Printmaking with Ripple Effect 2pm – 5pm – Ripple Effect, a nonprofit environmental education organization that fosters water literacy, will use stream tables to simulate river modeling and lead participants in making monoprints inspired by Howard Fisk’s 1944 maps of the Mississippi River.
Build a Clay Forest all day – The FORESTival favorite is back! Former Restoration Resident Jane Hill will lead participants in creating a collaborative forest out of clay, sticks, and imagination.
Walks in the Woods at 11:30am, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm.– Learn more about the land – from the trees to the bugs to the fungi to the environmental threats it faces – on Walks in the Woods with Environmental Curator David Baker, Tulane Ecologist Elizabeth MacDougal, and Tulane Entomologists Sam Jameson and Jane de Verges.

More!

Silent auction of one-of-a-kind art objects and experiences. Auction closes at 4pm.
Food by 12 Seasons Catering, Big O’s Original Pops, Chicken’s Kitchen, Dirty Dishes, and Faubourg Farms.
Beer provided by Faubourg Brewing and Zony Mash Beer Project.

Suggested donation is $15 per adult, kids free. Ticket packages with perks and sponsorship opportunities available. All proceeds support the programming of A Studio in the Woods. Located on the west bank in Lower Algiers at 13401 Patterson Road, New Orleans LA, 70131 – about a 25 minute drive from downtown New Orleans. Parking is limited, carpooling is encouraged.
Want to volunteer at FORESTival? Email us at info@astudiointhewoods.org.
No outside food or beverages. Dogs are not able to attend FORESTival unless they are a registered service animal.
Get your tickets here
Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours will be required for those 12 and up to enter. Masks encouraged.
FORESTival is supported by Arbors Estates of Orleans, Susan & Ralph Brennan, Tom & Ellen Prewitt, Hancock Whitney Bank, Bayou Tree Service Inc, Carter & Company CPA, Delisha Boyd LLC, Harbor Towing and Fleeting, Rouses Markets, Crescent Crown Distributing, Power System Specialists, Zony Mash Beer Project, and Elite Water. FORESTival is presented in partnership with the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund. This program is funded under a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Artist Salon with Yudith Nieto
2021-11-30 18:30 - 20:00 UTC | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Registration is required, please RSVP here.
Tuesday, November 30, 2021, at 6:30pm join us to meet and learn more about current Rising: Climate in Crisis Resident Yudith Nieto. Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies at A Studio in the Woods invite artists to examine the severity of the climate crisis and be agents of change to guide our collective understanding, response, and vision as we shape our shared future. Yudith will give a short presentation and a light dinner and refreshments will be provided.
Yudith Azareth Nieto is a two spirited (queer) Mexican-American environmental justice organizer, language justice worker, and multidisciplinary artist based in the Gulf South. She is a cofounder of BanchaLenguas Language Justice Collective in Bvlbancha (New Orleans,LA) and part of the core leadership within the Another Gulf is Possible Collaborative. She’s worked in solidarity with frontline communities to create, develop and amplify community-led media and initiatives around just recovery stories, language justice, and artbuilds in solidarity with intersectional movements for a decolonized direct action approach.
Yudith plans to create a series of opportunities for communities to come together to have conversations about the ways we are collaborating to build strong longterm networks of solidarity when natural and industrial disasters happen in already overburdened and impacted communities of color. They will endeavor to create tools for emergency preparedness, just recovery, and relief communication. The short term goal is to get folks together to envision what continued long term solidarity looks like amongst us and create a visual installation or short video/narration where we drive the direction of our story and vision.
With this residency Yudith seeks to create a narration of how these ever changing landscapes remind us of the connections we have to ourselves, language, culture, and each other. Through the sharing of stories she seeks to create collages of sound and visual representations of the interconnectedness of our shared experiences due to the changing climate, landscapes, and political difficulties that forced our migrations. She will also produce a zine to go along with this media project to explain a short summary and possibly connect to an ongoing on the ground effort. The center point of this effort will be the survival stories that emerge from our traumas of having to leave our native regions which now fuel the courage to thrive in a new place and create platforms of engagement for our collective liberation.

New Orleans Town Gardeners Walk in the Woods with David Baker
2022-01-15 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
REGISTER HERE
Join us for a fun and informative Walk in the Woods with Studio Botanist David Baker to learn about his work and the land first-hand. The event is free but registration is required. Saturday, January 15 at 10am at A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans, LA 70131. This program is sponsored by the New Orleans Town Gardeners.
Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours required for those 12 and up.

Rising Residency Info Session
2022-02-01 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
VIEW EVENT RECORDING HERE
Join us for an online information session about Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies. Staff will give an overview of the application process and residency experience then field questions from attendees.
Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies at A Studio in the Woods invite artists to face the severity of the climate crisis and be agents of change to guide our collective understanding, response, and vision as we shape our shared future. New Orleans and the inhabitants of our region are frequently invoked as some of the most vulnerable to the effects of environmental degradation. While sea levels, temperatures and emotions are rising, our highly manipulated landscape can be seen as a microcosm of the global environment, manifesting both the reckoning and hope which are required in the ways humans interact with shifting urban and natural ecosystems. As the climate crisis permeates the collective understanding of the future, the challenges faced by Southern Louisiana resonate exponentially. We look to artists to ignite our imaginations, illuminate our challenges, and offer new ways to examine the world.
Rising Residencies will provide artists with time, space, scholarship and staff support to foster critical thinking and creation of new works. The call is open to artists of all disciplines who have demonstrated an established dialogue with environmental and culturally related issues and a commitment to seeking and plumbing new depths. Details and application here.
Fill out my LGL Form!

AfroFutures Panel with Gulf South Writer in the Woods Desiree Evans
2022-02-02 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
REGISTER HERE
New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and A Studio in the Woods are pleased to present AfroFutures; an award-winning panel conceived by Gulf South Writer in the Woods Desiree S. Evans and composed of African-descended writers living in the Gulf South who are producing exciting work in the AfroFuturist literary genre and other Black speculative arts.
How do we imagine Black Futures? Does AfroFuture represent a time and space where we have transcended, lived with, adapted to, cautioned against this anthropogenic age? The AfroFutures panel, curated by Gulf South Writer in the Woods Desiree Evans, will address the concept of AfroFuturism in literary, socio-political, biological, and environmental contexts and how they all relate to the gulf south region and gulf south African-descended writers. Panelists include Dr. Ladee Hubbard, Maurice Ruffin, Alex Jennings, and Desiree S. Evans, along with moderation from Tulane professor Dr. Z’etoile Imma.
AfroFutures will explore AfroFuturism as more than an artistic movement; but a way of life that sparks the imagination and fires our creative synapses to dream of a more ethical and humane tomorrow.
This event is part of the Gulf South Writer in the Woods (GSWW) series. Gulf South Writer in the Woods, a program of A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region.
For more information, please contact Regina Cairns at rcairns@tulane.edu.
REGISTER HERE

Art & Ecology with Rising Resident Andrina Turenne + Nicolas Floc'h
2022-02-07 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Alliance Francaise of New Orleans, 1519 Jackson Ave, New Orleans, LA, 70130
The Villa Albertine and French Consulate in Louisiana are hosting an evening of film, dialogue and music in partnership with the Alliance Française of New Orleans, A Studio in the Woods, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and the Tulane University Bywater Institute. Monday, February 7 at 5:30pm at 1519 Jackson Ave. The program includes:

Dialogue on art and environmental resiliency between A Studio in the Woods resident Andrina Turenne and Nicolas Floc’h
Screening of French artist and Villa Albertine resident Nicolas Floc’h’s short film
A performance of a selection of songs by Andrina Turenne

More information and registration here.
Andrina Turenne is a bilingual singer, songwriter, and musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She grew up along the banks of the Red River in the historic Francophone-Métis settlement of Saint-Boniface, and is a proud member of the Métis Nation. She has worked in music for over two decades, from collaborating in groups such as JUNO Award-winning Chic Gamine to a new solo career she has been carving out since 2018. She has contributed vocals to over 30 professionally-released albums and has recorded seven full-length albums. She has played festivals of all sizes and has toured extensively throughout North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa. She draws inspiration from her own life experiences and her travels, as well as the rich history and raw beauty of the land she grew from.
Instagram: @drunita / Twitter: @andrinaturenne / Facebook: @andrinaturennemusic
Nicolas Floc’h is a multidisciplinary artist working with installation, photography, sculpture, and performance to question our changing times. He seeks to create socially engaged work that can create awareness around social, environmental, and economic issues. His work is inspired by what he learned from nature, travels, encounters, and scientific research. His work is often collaborative and open to community participation. Nicolas Floc’h has exhibited internationally and his solo/collective shows include FRAC Bretagne, FRAC PACA, SMAK (Ghent, Belgium), Centre Pompidou (Paris), MAC/VAL (Vitry-sur-Seine, France), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Contemporary Art Factory (Tokyo), and Winzavod (Moscow).
Instagram: @nicolas.floch

Artist Salon with Virginia Hanusik and Lisa E. Harris
2022-02-10 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Thursday, February 10, 2022, 6:30pm join us to meet and learn more about current Rising: Climate in Crisis Residents Virginia Hanusik and Lisa E. Harris. Both artists will give a short presentation followed by a light dinner and refreshments outdoors. At A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans 70131. Registration required below. Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours required for those 5 and up. Directions here.Fill out my LGL Form!

While in residence, Virginia Hanusik will work on The Place We Keep, a series exploring the inequality of disaster relief and preservation in communities along the Gulf Coast experiencing the impacts of climate change through a compilation of photographs, oral histories, and public programming on the perpetuation of environmental injustice in the region.
Lisa E. Harris’ residency will support the regional development of an international research project, ONSHORE TRILLING: What to Do When the Earth Sings the Bruise, by affording opportunities for mutual creative exchange between Harris and the Women of Cancer Alley and Rise St. James. This multi-year project will become a performance cycle based on the life cycle of an oil and gas field, and will be informed by the environmental practices of onshore women-led communities, near productive drilling communities around the world.
Register here for Artist Salon with Virginia Hanusik and Lisa E. Harris
Virginia Hanusik is an artist whose work explores the relationship between landscape, culture, and the built environment. Her projects on climate change and environmental justice have been exhibited internationally, featured in The New Yorker, Domus, Places Journal, The Atlantic, MAS Context, and Oxford American among others, and supported by the Pulitzer Center, Graham Foundation, and Mellon Foundation. She has lectured at institutions including Columbia University, Bard College, New York University, and Rutgers University about landscape representation and the visual narrative of climate change, and is on the board of directors of The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans where she coordinates multi-disciplinary projects on the climate crisis.
Lisa E. Harris is an independent and interdisciplinary artist, creative soprano, performer, composer, improvisor, filmmaker, writer, singer/songwriter, researcher and educator from Houston, Texas. Recognized by Huffington Post as “one of fourteen artists transforming Opera,” Harris’ work resists genre classification as she focuses on the energetic relationships between body, land, spirit and place. Using voice, theremin, electronics, movement, improvisation, meditation and new media to explore spatial awareness, relationality, panoptic surveillance and sonic profiling, she maintains a focused concentration on healing in performance and living.
Self-portrait by Virginia Hanusik. Photo of Lisa E. Harris by John “Juice” Harris.

Rising Residency Office Hour
2022-02-23 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
Drop in and ask any questions you have about Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies. Staff will be present to answer questions on the application process, living experience, residency theme, public engagement component, documentation, and beyond. Drop in any time between 10am – 11am CST on Wednesday, February 23, 2022. Register below to receive Zoom link. Can’t make it? Questions can be directed at any time to info@astudiointhewoods.org.
Rising Residency Office Hour

Replenish Residency Info Session
2022-03-08 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
Join us for an online information session about Replenish Residencies. Staff will give an overview of the application process and residency experience then field questions from attendees.
Replenish Residencies (formerly Relief Residencies) provide 1-2 week restorative visioning retreats to local BIPOC artists and culture bearers; the heart of New Orleans culture. In light of the many racial disparities still present in our society at large and the arts economy specifically, we offer these residencies to provide time to rest and restore, vision and create. Originally conceptualized at the start of the pandemic, these residencies have evolved from Relief Residencies into Replenish Residencies, shifting from crisis response to ongoing community care. The call is open to BIPOC artists and culture bearers from the Greater New Orleans area who have not attended a residency before. Details and application here.
Rising Residency Office Hour

Artist Salon with Claire Alexandre and Andrina Turenne
2022-03-09 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Join us to meet and learn more about current Rising: Climate in Crisis Residents Claire Alexandre and Andrina Turenne. Both artists will give a short presentation followed by a light dinner and refreshments outdoors. Registration and proof of vaccination required for those 5 and up.
While in residence, Claire Alexandre will create a series of mixed-media painted portraits of folks of color at the community forefront of New Orleans’ climate change adaptation actions. The six portraits will be symbolic of modern academic research paper paragraphs (introduction, hypothesis, methods, results, discussion and conclusion) as a way to criticize the rigid exclusivity of institutional research methodology and empower people whose existence within these frameworks has been reduced to data.
Andrina Turenne will use her residency to explore Indigenous and local perspectives on water, language and land through music, past and present, as it relates to climate and landscape. In doing research, exploring geographic and cultural throughlines, and speaking with people on the land, her goal is to produce recordings and performances of music and stories related to these themes, both collaboratively and independently.

Claire Alexandre is an intersectional artist and storyteller who weaves autobiographical reflections with ancestral knowledge while exploring larger themes of environmental, gender and racial justice. She seeks to deepen our collective understanding of Black community prosperity and its close ties with ecologies of all scales. Through mixed-media painting, street art and botanical knowledge, she uses her skills to create modern day mythologies and heroes honoring the resilience, power and complexities of Black Diasporic identity, particularly that of womxn.
Andrina Turenne is a bilingual singer, songwriter, and musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She grew up along the banks of the Red River in the historic Francophone-Métis settlement of Saint-Boniface, and is a proud member of the Métis Nation. She has worked in music for over two decades, from collaborating in groups such as JUNO Award-winning Chic Gamine to a new solo career she has been carving out since 2018. She has contributed vocals to over 30 professionally-released albums and has recorded seven full-length albums. She has played festivals of all sizes and has toured extensively throughout North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa. She draws inspiration from her own life experiences and her travels, as well as the rich history and raw beauty of the land she grew from.

Rising Residency Application Deadline
2022-03-10 | LA
Applications for Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies are due by 11:59pm pacific time on March 10, 2022. View full application details here.

Crawfish Salon with Brandon Ballengée
2022-03-24 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Join us to meet and learn more about current Special Collaboration Resident Brandon Ballengée and his project Searching for the Ghosts of the Gulf. Brandon will give a short presentation followed by a crawfish boil and refreshments outdoors. Registration required below. Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours required for those 5 and up. Directions here.Register here for Artist Salon with Brandon Ballengée

Searching for Ghosts of the Gulf brings artist, biologist and educator Brandon Ballengée to A Studio in the Woods for a community-based residency with at risk Plaquemines Parish coastal communities. Through participatory art and science, this project will explore missing Gulf of Mexico fish species with youth, fishermen, and community members that are themselves under threat. The project will culminate in 2023 with “Fishstock,” a festival dedicated to those species not seen since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Brandon Ballengée is a visual artist, biologist, and environmental activist based in Arnaudville, Louisiana, who creates artwork inspired from his ecological field and laboratory research. Through research, he focuses on the impact of the Anthropocene on human and non-human communities, and his artistic practice combines participatory science programs with poetic interpretations of extinct or deformed animals due to human impact. https://brandonballengee.com/
The mission of the Plaquemines Parish Government is to provide high quality, efficient services to sustain and enhance the quality of life for all residents of Plaquemines Parish. https://www.plaqueminesparish.com/
This project is supported by an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Woods Volunteer Day
2022-03-29 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Join us to get your hands dirty in support of Environmental Curator David Baker’s work! Volunteers will learn how to identify and properly remove a range of invasive species common in our area as well as how to plant trees within a wooded setting. 9am – 12pm on Tuesday, March 29. Registration required, lunch will be provided.

Register Here

Replenish Residency and ByWater Institute Scholarly Retreat Application Deadline
2022-03-30 | LA
Applications for both Replenish Residencies and ByWater Insitute Scholarly Retreats are due by 11:59pm pacific time on March 30, 2022.

Hurricane Ecology Walk in the Woods with David Baker
2022-04-02 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Join us for a Walk in the Woods with Studio Botanist David Baker to learn about his work and the land first-hand. This walk will focus on the forest’s response to hurricanes and how increasing storm frequency is changing the land. The event is free but registration is required. Saturday, April 2 at 10am at A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans, LA 70131. This program is sponsored by the New Orleans Town Gardeners.
Register Here

AnthropoSonic: Live Performance Lab with Lisa E. Harris
2022-04-07 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Myra Clare Rogers Memorial Chapel at Tulane University, 1229 Broadway St, New Orleans, LA, 70118
The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South (NOCGS) continues its exploration of the Anthropocene this year, highlighting the interdependence of humans, animals, and the earth by presenting AnthropoSonic. Join us and NOCGS at Myra Clare Rogers Memorial Chapel at Tulane University on Thursday, April 7 2022 at 6PM for AnthropoSonic: Live Performance Lab with Rising Resident Lisa E. Harris.
Lisa E. Harris is a classically trained vocalist, interdisciplinary artist, and filmmaker. She is a Rising: Climate in Crisis Resident and a 2021 NOCGS Monroe Fellow. She is currently working on a research/immersive environmental performance piece called “Onshore Trilling”: What To Do When the Earth Sings the Bruise; a performance cycle composition inspired by the life cycle of an oil and gas field. This performance approaches seismic graphs as graphic scores and processing seismic waves through a human voice database to create a song cycle to be performed onshore, near or in proximity to productive offshore drilling sites in Norway, Texas, and the Gulf South.
AnthropoSonic is a two-part series of workshops and performances with African-descended vocalists Lisa E. Harris and Michaela Harrison. The Anthropocene is a useful concept –– and proposed geological epoch –– recognizing the present era in which human-generated forces have altered the earth’s surface, atmosphere, and planetary patterns. Both Harris and Harrison are part of a growing ecosystem of research-based composers who engage with unexpected collaborators to investigate the impact of humans on other animals and the earth, promote healing, and explore our environmental futures.
This event is sponsored by the Skau Art and Music Fund and Newcomb Institute.
Register at gulfsouth@tulane.edu.

Woods Volunteer Day
2022-04-09 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Join us to get your hands dirty in support of Environmental Curator David Baker’s work! Volunteers will learn how to identify and properly remove a range of invasive species common in our area as well as how to plant trees within a wooded setting. 9am – 12pm on Saturday, April 9. Registration required, lunch will be provided.
Register Here

Postponed - Writing Climate Futures with Desiree S. Evans
2022-04-09 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
The New Orleans Futurism Lab: Writing Climate Futures
Saturday, April 9, 10am – 12pm on Zoom. Registration required below.
Join Gulf South Writer in the Woods Desiree S. Evans for Writing Climate Futures, a collaborative world-building and creative writing workshop where participants will learn about speculative fiction specifically as it relates to climate change fiction. In Part 1 of the workshop, participants will collectively imagine and build a future world together — we will envision New Orleans 200 years into the future, with a specific focus on the city’s climate future. In Part 2 of the workshop, we will have time to write individual futurist stories into this collaborative universe. We will then gather at the end to share, interweaving our visions, fears, and hopes for the future into this collaborative act of speculative fiction-making.
As we struggle to define our changing city, our relationship to the land and each other provides a foundation for community building and a chance to envision solutions to our greatest climate crises. This is the power of speculative fiction visioning, allowing us to creatively come up with a world in which to explore important issues. Inspired by the Detroit Sci-Fi Generator, this workshop is an opportunity to imagine alternative climate futures for our city.
Gulf South Writer in the Woods, a program of A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region.Register here for Climate Futures Writing Workshop with Desiree S. Evans

Sharing and Paper Making Demo with Claire Alexandre
2022-04-15 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | Speak Easy Farm, 1214 France St., New Orleans, LA, 70117
Join Rising Resident Claire Alexandre for a sharing and paper making demo this Friday, April 15 at 5pm at Speakeasy Farm, 1214 France St. Please bring scrap paper that you want to transform in community.
PARKING & ACCESS:
– If you drive, please try to park around either corner, on Marais St. – farm neighbors rely upon having street side parking available — thank you!!
– If you bike, please lock your bike out on the street or entryway gate before entering.
– Farm pathways are level wood-chipped pathways, some footing is uneven; no stairs; outdoor tables and rustic/bench seating is available in shade.
– Drinking water will be available, as well as soap & water for washing hands, and a porta-potty bathroom.r
– The farm does have beehives, so please come prepared if you have allergies.
