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An Ecosystems Centered Plan for Organizing McLaren Park Earth Day by Amber Hasselbring April 22, 2007
Working together
In December, Josiah Clark invited me to help organize McLaren Park Earth Day, a celebration of urban nature sponsored by Nature in the City in San Francisco, California. This opportunity fit me perfectly, as my artwork explores the benefits of collaboration and the ties between ecology and urban living. Josiah and I met a few times to brainstorm, and then he began inviting others to join our efforts. This process is similar to my past eco-art projects in that first, I select a site, then I conduct research to decide what concerns me the most, then I invite other artists to help me communicate my concerns. Soon our meetings grew to include a team of naturalists, artists, teachers and neighborhood organizations; together, we formed an all-volunteer committee and worked to define our vision for McLaren Park Earth Day, a non-commercial, volunteer-driven celebration centered in San Francisco. (See: www.natureinthecity.org)
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McLaren Park amphitheater, San Francisco, California.
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Making connections
Through the process of organizing Earth Day, we support and grow connections between isolated elements working to better our urban environment. In San Francisco, we are surrounded and served by thoughtful, powerful and engaged environmentally active individuals, organizations and businesses. We started by compiling a list of them including nature advocates, schools, artists, government agencies, businesses, neighborhood organizations, watershed specialists, recycling centers, native plant nurseries, farmers' markets, transportation options, etc . . . Members of our committee agreed to contact the individuals, organizations and businesses of interest to them. When we contact people, we are careful to be specific, either by inviting them to attend, asking for financial support, for volunteer labor, or asking them to support our efforts by saying, "yes, I believe in what you're doing." As we reach out into San Francisco, we maintain relationships, and generate new alliances. By depending on each other to do smaller parts of the work, we are effective and efficient.
Highlighting strengths
During our bimonthly meetings, we realize the strengths of certain members of our 10-person committee. There are natural facilitators, people with ideas about agenda, people who love schedules, those re-focusers and people who inspire and reassure. Also in the process, some people advance, volunteering to fill voids and others recede, realizing that their skills are not best suited for the task. The effect of refining, maintaining and realizing a vision becomes natural. Each person on the committee by his or her presence in the process works to define McLaren Park Earth Day, which is in continually, organically in formation. I am surprised by each group member's degree of commitment and willingness to support each other as we move through the necessary steps toward production. Each of us is doing what we do best, and leaving the rest, either undone or to be completed by someone who is more capable of doing the job. After the event, we will have an opportunity to see weaknesses and how they can be addressed as we continue our work.
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"My thinking is about making everything fit together aesthetically, naturally, harmoniously. I think everyone else wants the same, though their skills are different skills- be it media, gathering people, or organizing schedules."
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Respecting and addressing differences
The process of collaborating with a team of 10 to 12 people can be invigorating, and exciting, but it is also full of obstacles. We are finding ways to work better and closer, sometimes persisting to voice specific needs and values, and at other times compromising and quieting ourselves in service of the common vision. With ecology being collaboration between elements coming together to create a sustainable cycle, we are working through our differences to maintain a cycle that includes San Francisco's natural/human resources. With respect to this group and all the individuals in common effort, we are finding ways to create an excited, active committee ready to work toward the McLaren Park Earth Day vision.
Streamlining
McLaren Park Earth Day, on Sunday, April 22nd is the culminating event for other related events happening throughout San Francisco over the weekend. Our committee of largely environmental activists, artists and organizations reaches an extended network of like-minded people, lending to a unified and encompassing network of people to contact. Members of the committee are on the radio during San Francisco's World Fair of 2007, they are collaborating in with events happening at San Francisco Zoo, they are participating in Bug Day at the Randall Museum and more. Bicyclists are leading tours from different places around San Francisco. We will get people to the park through various transportation options including BART and regional MUNI transit lines. We are working towards realizing the potential for tapping into the human and natural resources that San Francisco has to offer. We realize that thinking and acting locally feels good, and it allows for smaller circles of sustainability to grow in specific places. With all of these small circles again overlapping each other there is mutuality. The influence starts from the center out, with each of us.
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"I have done all this [type of work] alone in the past, so I find it nourishing to relax doing a smaller part and focusing my energy."
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Partnerships
Through organizing, we realize the need to ally ourselves with organizations wishing to provide financial support, in-kind assistance or volunteer services. Our budget is scarce, so our committee is working hard in the months before the celebration. One member offered to pay for an ad in Bay Nature, someone else spontaneously wrote a $100 check to Precita Eyes for a youth-inspired banner. Other committee members are providing services, such as graphic design, publicity and poster distribution. Nature in the City, our main sponsoring committee member is paying for posters, invitation cards other production costs. On McLaren Park Earth Day, we will rely heavily on volunteers for setting up, running the event and cleaning up afterwards. Luckily, there is a strong volunteer ethic in San Francisco, from SF Connect (Mayor Gavin Newsom's initiative) to Burners without Borders (Burning Man) to organizations like volunteermatch.org (matches volunteers with opportunities). We are fortunate that we live in a city where there are so many active people willing to help. We realize that volunteering happens because people like to serve causes that reflect their visions for a changing world, and they like to learn about and connect with people who feel the same way.
Rounding out the program
McLaren Park Earth Day is a unique celebration; the committee members are producing activities and events representative of the work and ideals that bring us together. Many of the activities and events are experiential, from removing invasive species, planting trees and cleaning the fire pits to artwork and performance, to education about conscientious dog walking. Onstage activities include unveiling a banner designed by youth from Precita Eyes, puppetry, music and a Rap on the Environment performed by World Savvy students from the World Affairs Challenge. To engage the audience, I am reading a poem/dance score meant to be felt and performed on the spot. To raise awareness about local nature, there will be watershed education, birding walks, wildlife tours, and discussions about gentrification.
Educating
During McLaren Park Earth Day, the park will transform into an outdoor ecological classroom and festival space. Attendees will gain access to San Francisco's environmental leaders including activists, artists, educators, musicians and scientists committed to making San Francisco a more ecological city. This confluence of people will spark dialogue as they educate each other and build new relationships. This cross-pollination creates lasting change. If we experience our city as a healthy urban ecosystem full of possibilities, partnerships and mutual understandings, then we can see the direct affects that these changes have on the qualities of our lives.
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"I see this event as a larger extension of what I've already done- I'm just able to tap into more brains and skill sets to do the work."
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Maintaining contact
As we work, we develop new alliances with schools, individuals, artists, organizations, neighbors, musicians, and further, with the natural McLaren Park environment. This contact informs and reinforces our ideas and relationships, and it influences our collective decision-making processes.
Recognizing that the end is just the beginning
McLaren Park Earth Day may be different from other Earth Day celebrations because we are reaching out into San Francisco neighborhoods to connect the individuals, organizations and businesses that represent the wealth of resources here in our city. This involvement is only the first part of the work. There is so much to be done, and it is clear that in some cases, our relationships with each other are just beginning. Change happens when we share our labor, skills, ideas and contacts.
Amber Hasselbring is an artist living in San Francisco. Since earning her BFA in Photography from Maine College of Art in 2002, Amber has initiated a photographic/travel piece addressing concerns about the Colorado River watershed and has collaborated with Amy Stacey Curtis on an artwork entitled SOUND EXCHANGE.
Over the past three years, Amber has developed several collaborative projects: I STAND in 2004, Art on BART in 2005, the Angel Island ART & ECOLOGY Festival in 2006 and this year, McLaren Park Earth Day. These public artworks have connected the people in the community and gradually lead to lasting environmental changes. www.art-eco.org
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