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Ecosystems & Imagination Workshop at Stanley

  • Stanley 494 Commercial Street Provincetown, MA, 02657 United States (map)

$20 Suggested Donation

Early Access Tickets available now to Members. Not a Member? Visit our donate page to join today. TIckets open to all April 15.

Join Mark Adams in using art, science and personal stories to explore visions of the sea coast in the face of coastal change, and the vulnerability of public space.

Provincetown makes a great case study of how dynamic coastlines evolve as the forces of tides and storms interact with the financial risk to its historical and cultural fabric. This workshop is the followup to Ecosystems & Imagination Field Trip, where participants will bring their field observations into the Stanley, Twenty Summers’ 494 Commercial Street space, to share how nature has molded our autobiographies. The participants will be asked to contribute selected personal stories about coastal life, it’s daily routines and extraordinary events.

Though participation in both the Field Trip and Workshop are highly encouraged, it is not a requirement. We would love for you to join either or all portions of our Ecosystems & Imagination series.

“Coastal space is made of ecosystems overlain with our cultural presence. We can inhabit that space responsively by understanding its boundaries as it changes under forces of ocean and atmosphere, storms, tides and the dynamics of land. The places we make and return to are never fixed. They need room to change but we prefer not to surrender our vital experiences that attracted us to the water’s edge. Together we will map the extent of the tidal coast, its ecological habitats, its cultural boundaries and the experiences that are crucial to our lives.

A good coastal map has five dimensions: the physical features of rock, plants and sand, its natural inhabitants both transient and resident, the built environment of structures, docks and seawalls, its cycles of change over time (daily, seasonally and decadal), and our stories and experiences. We will bring our data and expertise to add to a base map of habitats and ownership. You bring your stories and experiences as told through beach fires, fishing, dog walks, storm shelter and the art that it inspires. We hope to blend all these contributions into a hybrid that will reveal our intuitions and bring a more nuanced awareness of coastal places.”
–Mark Adams