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LEAP
Land Experience and Art of Place
LEAP stands for Land, Experience and Art of Place. I started LEAP because I want to take the professional leap as an artist to explore with
others the richness and diversity of the ecology, geology, archeology, cultures and communities of the place where I live, walk, hike and work.
LEAP is an experimental, interdisciplinary, artist-driven initiative and networking hub, connecting artists with practitioners in other fields
through classes, expeditions and events. The initiative seeks to deepen our appreciation and understanding of and relationship to and our
environment and our human and non-human neighbors; to increase our commitment to protecting these places and relationships and fostering
creative responses and expressions of them in contemporary art and culture.
The fist LEAP event, NeoRio 2009, took place on October 17, 2009 at the Wild Rivers Recreation Area in Questa, New Mexico. The event
was hosted bythe Bureau of Land Management’s Taos Field Office and organized in collaboration with the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
and other cosponsors.
NeoRio 2009 featured “water artist”, Basia Irland and her innovative project, Reseeding/Receding which led us on a hike down to the Rio to
launch her carved icebooks embedded with local riparian seeds into the waters. The event also included presentations from John Bailey,
recreation director of the BLM Taos Field Office, Ester Garcia, chairwoman of the board of directors of the San Antonio Del Rio Colorado
Land Grant, and Craig Chapman events coordinator for the NMWA. The day concluded with a potluck and campfire on the rim and music
with Justin Dean and Mark Dudrow.
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For NeoRio 2010, scheduled for September 24th, 25th and 26th, artists and public alike are invited to make camp and celebrate,
experience, explore and interact with the unique environment of the Wild Rivers Recreation Area through a variety of arts events
and community activities over the course of three days. Artists are invited to submit proposals for works to be created and
documented during NeoRio on site at Wild Rivers.
NeoRio 2010 will feature Lynn Hull, whose " installations provide shelter, food, water or space for wildlife, as eco-atonement
for their loss of habitat to human encroachment."
L'échelle, Les Arques, France, 2003
Installation in the Presbytere tower of nesting boxes and roosts in the tower,
a secret dialog between artists and owl. The ladder on the outside of the tower
as metaphor for the meeting between the species. The meeting is difficult.
NeoRio events are free and open to all. Come celebrate art and wilderness and join the conversation at the Wild Rivers Recreation Area
September 24th, 25th and 26th. Don't miss out on Craig Chapman and John Wenger’s famous Dutch-oven Enchiladas!
To find out more about NeoRio 2010 or to submit a site-specific proposal,
visit www.leapsite.org, email clairabell22@hotmail.com or call 575-586-2362.
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