GUILFORD — Vermont Performance Lab is launching The Confluence Project, a new collaborative effort that demonstrates an in-depth model for bringing arts, youth, community groups, and educational institutions to the civic dialogue table to help create a deeper engagement around environmental and social issues in our community.
The Confluence Project takes a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to the study of water.
It links visual and performing artists with the community development and natural-resource planning work of Windham Regional Commission and public programs of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center to support students in grades 5-8 in three Windham County schools located in Brattleboro, Guilford, and Marlboro.
Through development of activities including school-based artist residencies, talks, student work, workshops, and performances, all of which center on local watersheds, the project seeks to deeply engage youth and the broader public in the issue of local watershed protection, according to a news release.
On Dec. 7 and 8, VPL kicked off this collaborative effort with its first Confluence Project Institute.
Teachers, artists, WRC staff and leaders of other local environmental and conservation groups shared ideas and made plans for school-based activities in the upcoming year at Guilford Central, Marlboro Elementary, and Hilltop Montessori schools involving three teaching artists: visual artist Gowri Savoor, environmental teaching artist Judy Dow, and dance-theater artist Lida Winfield.
“It was so exciting to bring all of our collaborators together for the first time,” said VPL Director Sara Coffey.
Coffey added that “the diversity of perspectives allowed us to think creatively about how we can infuse the arts into the work of our regional planning commission and local partners to help build innovative strategies for fostering greater civic participation around watershed study and grassroots conservation efforts, while also supporting dynamic new models for student education in our schools.”
In addition to providing students and community members with a direct experience of environmental projects focused on study and restoration of the watershed, The Confluence Project will create a process for collaboration through development of a curriculum resource guide and other materials for teachers and establishment of regional connections that will carry forward after the project activities are completed.
The project is able to securely experiment with these regional connections, since there is strong community momentum for this work.
One example of this is the Green River Watershed Alliance, a newly-formed watershed group that unites regional partners to take a fresh look at issues like flood resilience, conservation, and restoration.
These two initiatives are working in tandem to mutually support and raise awareness of innovative relationships between the arts, watershed science, and civic engagement.
“Along with boosting flood resilience and improving water quality, one of the key goals of the Green River Watershed Alliance is to help communities create a watershed identity,” said Emily Davis, WRC's Natural Resources and Water Quality Planner.