Accidental Ecologies: Curiosity in Unplanned Spaces
Accidental Ecologies: Curiosity in Unplanned Spaces
August 8th, 12:00PM - 1:00PM
The Ashton
Millwork Commons
1229 Millwork Ave, Omaha
Accidental Ecologies: Curiosity In Unplanned Spaces, Amplify’s next Alternate Currents panel discussion on Friday, August 8th from 12PM - 1PM at the Ashton in Millwork Commons brings together a group of artists and researchers working at the intersection of art, ecology, and conservation for a conversation that challenges, questions, and queers the nature-culture divide.
Nature Conservancy Hubbard Fellow Kojo Baidoo, writer and director of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Creative Nonfiction Writing Program John T. Price, and artist Lee Emma Running will sit down with artist and Alternate Currents cohort member Jessie Fisher to talk about what happens when we work to delineate the boundaries between human and more-than-human worlds by examining the minute details of often overlooked places. Together they’ll discuss relational practices of close and intentional observation in artmaking, citizen science, and conservation and their capacity to cultivate curiosity and wonder for the infinitely complex ecologies of forgotten spaces.
Free and open to all, please RSVP below to attend.
The Ashton is wheelchair accessible and located in Millwork Commons, a walkable and bikeable district off the number 4 Metro Transit Omaha bus line. If you have any accessibility needs, please reach out to us at least 48 hours in advance of this event at info@amplfiyarts.org.
Free parking can be found north of HELLO Apartments and in the lot west of the Mastercraft building. Metered Parking is available on Millwork Ave, 13th St, 12th St, and Nicholas Street. Be sure to download the City of Omaha’s Park Omaha app or pay at the purple kiosks. Click here for directions.
Alternate Currents programming is presented with support from the The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and Metropolitan Community College.
About the Panelists:
Kojo Baidoo is a birder and researcher from Baltimore County, Maryland. His love of birds goes back to childhood when he picked up a book about raptors at a school book fair. He continues to express that love in his photography and on social media. Kojo graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelors in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He has since worked as an Interpretive Naturalist at New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory and is currently a Hubbard Fellow at the Nature Conservancy.
John T Price is an award-winning author and teacher. He writes out of the wildish (often humorous) intersections of nature, family, community and spirit—with a special love for the prairies and oak-lands of his midwestern home. He lives with his family in the beautiful Loess Hills of western Iowa, and directs the English Dept. Creative Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His books include All is Leaf: Essays and Transformations (U. of Iowa Press, 2022), Daddy Long Legs: The Natural Education of a Father (Trumpeter/Shambhala, 2013), Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships (Merloyd Lawrence Books/Da Capo Press, 2008; Paperback, U. of Iowa Press), and Not Just Any Land: A Personal and Literary Journey into the American Grasslands (U. of Nebraska Press, 2004). He is also the editor of The Tallgrass Prairie Reader (U. of Iowa Press, 2014), the first historical collection of nature writing entirely dedicated to the beauty and fragility of the tallgrass region.
Lee Emma Running is an artist based in Omaha who creates monumental public installations and arresting sculptures with cast iron, enamel, glass, bone, and handmade paper. She uses this work to engage audiences in conversations about the impact of human-built systems on the natural world. Running was a Foundry Resident in the Arts/Industry program at Kohler Co. in 2023 and 2024. Permanent installations of her work can be viewed at the STEM trail at the University of Nebraska Omaha, The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Bernheim Arboretum. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Kaneko, and the Des Moines Art Center. She has been awarded residencies at Western North Carolina Sculpture Park, Opera Omaha, Ucross, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts and Agriculture.
About the Moderator:
Jessie Fisher makes art in multiple mediums, but for the last 5 years has primarily been a printmaker. He works in letterpress, woodcut/linocut, monotype, and cyanotype. Whether it’s experiments with processes, or more direct socio-political propaganda, the work encourages questioning what's possible. Jessie grew up on a farm in rural Nebraska, but has called Omaha home for the past 20 years. In that time he's worked in construction, art education and for the past 6 years has been a home inspector. Jessie helped create an art/community space called “Media Corp.” It provided meeting space for a variety of advocacy groups and also functioned as a food pantry for a time.