What's green, good lookin' and good for ya?
Feel good, look good, right? Healthy people, we're told, are attractive people. Full hair, strong bright teeth, sensible proportions of fat and muscle-it looks good because it's good for you. But in our modern, western consumer paradise of clever widgets and better mouse traps, the attractive products that we collect, consume and discard often ooze sex appeal but hide the resource-wasting gluttony that is required in the manufacturing process. It's evident in everything from home building and commercial construction to our culture of disposable doo-dads and the green swaths of lawn that sit, inexplicably, like murderous sponges on the drought-sapped landscape. We're accustomed to looking toward government and advocacy organizations for resolution on such matters, or at least a little feel-good product proselytizing,
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but a curious thing has happened over the past year as the City of Santa Fe chose to toss its economic development eggs into the handsome basket of art and design-artists, arts organizations and designers of all stripes are geeking out on green and leading the charge toward a healthy, mindful community. This dynamic, which has the effect of taking beauty out of the realm of its own sake and dropping it into the lap of good conscience and responsible design is most visible in a spate of events this June, including a water-focused film festival and symposium at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe Design Week and the Southwest Design Conference.
"For us, it's really come from putting context around our film festivals," says CCA Executive Director Steve Buck. "We don't just want audience response to our movies, we want broad community response to the issues surrounding our festivals." CCA presents several festivals annually, the most issue-driven being African Effect, the Native Cinema Showcase, the Southwest Gay and Lesbian festival and H2O, this last being the inspiration for this year's water extravaganza.
In addition to presenting a dozen films on June 11-12-many with specific local relevance (
High and Dry in New Mexico
,
Nuestras Acequias
,
Rio Grande: Live River or Dead Ditch?
)-CCA is collaborating with the Earthworks Institute and the Santa Fe Children's Museum to host the symposium and a day of workshops and demonstrations on Saturday addressing conservation, erosion, river restoration, water harvesting and several other topics. Food, music, exhibition booths and water related hoopla of all stripes will be on hand for what's described as a family-friendly "Community Water Day." Earthworks Executive Director Jan-Willem Jansens hopes the combination of films, artwork and environmental
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demonstrations has an impact on the community and helps promote the organization's land stewardship goals. "We've had a lot of success reaching out to professionals, landowners and public officials, but not much access to the general public. We
felt this collaboration could reach a wider audience." The Earthworks Institute, explains Jansens, is a purveyor of technical ideas while CCA transmits information through an artistic lens. A Sunday night keynote speech delivered by enviro-celeb Robert F Kennedy, Jr. will explain why both sensibilities are key to changing the way we think about water.
Artistry and the environment is the unofficial and surprise force behind Santa Fe's June 19-26 Design Week as well. The event, meant to celebrate and encourage design of all ilk as a primary industry in visual- and graphic arts-heavy Santa Fe, has drawn a wealth of different design concepts to the fore.
"The biggest response and the most events offered are from green and sustainable design in the building community and the conservation community-we're calling it 'nature's design'," says Design Week promoter and Co-director Edy Keeler.
Although a whirlwind of interior design, new media arts and textiles will be on view during the Southwest Design Conference at the Sweeney center, which dovetails the citywide Santa Fe Design Week, the list of presentations focusing on green responsibility and possibility in everything from architecture, landscaping
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and children's playground design to printmaking, lighting public spaces and even blacksmithing has taken on a decidedly vermilion tinge.
That means something is working right according to Kris Swedin. As director of housing and economic
development for the City, Swedin and her staff gave Design Week a big nudge toward existence, but she maintains it's taken on a life of it's own.
"It really is the embodiment of our economic development plan-it has the community coming together to reveal everything that's happening here that may not have had a showcase before." And as important as increasing the perception of Santa Fe for the outside world is, Keeler argues that a more well-rounded and proportionally balanced sense of our own community's talents and activities can only be good for us as well.
"It's great," says Keeler, "it takes us beyond the perception of just being a fine arts destination. Everything we look at, touch or use is design, is how we live and this is increasing that awareness. It's very healthy."
