1. Arts and education funding are shrinking. This project gives away teaching guides for free. Enabling teachers to have access na matter the funding.
2. Experiential learning has long-term impact. Through the experience of research, interviews and enacting the project, students have a chance to have a deeper, more engaged relationship with local climate issues, making a difference and art as a tool for change.
3. Climate change requires individual recognition and understanding. Part of the project includes one on one conversations – a powerful way to convey a message or make a difference.
4. The project puts the power in the hands of community members. It’s not about me dropping into communities around the country (or world) but about giving away the tools (for FREE!) to groups to speak of and to their own communities.
5. The power of spectacle. The simple act of drawing the blue line draws attention to the students and brings other people into the project.
6. Geography, topography, climate science, story-telling, public-speaking, documentation. A lot of learning outcomes in one neat, fun package.
7. Art provides entrance to complex topics. Not just for youth, but for everyone. But certainly in the classroom space a project like this allows students with different learning interests and abilities to participate.
8. Ownership is authorship. Allowing authorship and interpretation allows students to own and care about the project.
9. Connecting with your own community. Each group working on the project has an opportunity to make a difference in their community by learning and sharing with their neighbors.
10. Who doesn’t want to draw a blue chalk line on the streets?

For a long time I have wanted to share the power of the HWL project – the experience from researching local climate change, the experience of being out on the street and having real conversations with your own neighbors. I wanted it to be available around the world. Now I am working with Patricia Watts from ecoartspace to finally make that a reality. We are raising a small amount of funds to cover the development, writing and publishing costs. We will then make the guide available as a free download for anyone who wants to use it for teaching.

If so, maybe a great way to get the word out to your neighbors and the much larger community is through creating a spectacle. I would love to share the tools and methods through which I created the HWL, I can help you make it happen in a number of different ways.

Right now I am trying to create a workshop in London that will work with youth to research, map, draw and document the line. If you are an organization interested in working with me on that, please contact me.

If you are in another community and want me to come make the HighWaterLine happen, please get in touch!

From the site: A New York artist [that's me!] has found a graphic way to get the word out about rising sea levels, then, a car race where the goal is distance, not speed – teams of students try to drive their fuel-efficient vehicles as far as possible on one gallon of gas.

It will be airing a couple of times, the complete schedule.

Can someone invite me over to see the show and/or TiVo it for me? (I don’t have a telly).

Come join me in celebrating the documentation of the HighWaterLine project. Limited copies will be available.

It is for sale on Lulu.com, but if you want to get a special edition, come by the book release party on Tuesday, June 3rd (will post location soon).

I do, however have a book coming out on the HighWaterLine project. It has been designed by the wonderful graphic artist, Caitlin Martin. I am hoping to have a small book release party at the end of May, email me (eve at highwaterline dot org) if you want to know the details. It will also be available online (digital print on demand) I will post that information when I have it.

Eyebeam Feedback March 13 – April 19, 2008 Focusing on the process of creating various eco-visualization projects, this exhibition will feature the tools and project ephemera from the HighWaterLine project.

Exit Art E.P.A. (Environmental Performance Actions) Opens March 15 Human/Nature Panel: March 26 about environmental issues and is curated by Ecoartspace. http://www.exitart.org/

If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in working on this part of the project. I am interested in working with cartographers to generate the first version of the maps and artists to interpret the data. Email me through the contact page.

I will be screening the rough cut documentary and talking more in depth about the HighWaterLine project, upcoming projects and what it means to be an artist in the public realm at a couple of great events upcoming:

• Tuesday, November 27th, Solar One:
  The ongoing Tuesday night series hosted by the inimitable Chris Neidl is featuring artists working in/with the environment. I will be showing some of the new maps that I have been working on in regards to HWL and reviewing the new projects. I am also hoping to have a discussion about the power of art as intervention.
  Solar One, East 23rd Street at the East River
  directions
  Tuesday, November 27th, 7:00pm
• Tuesday, December 4th, Pratt Institute’s Urban Artists and Social Change Speaker Series:
  I will be talking about HWL and upcoming projects and discussing the merits of artists taking on social action roles.
  Alumni Reading Room (third floor of the Library), Pratt Brooklyn
  directions
  Tuesday, December 4th, 12:00pm-2:00pm

Please come out and join me for what I hope will be interesting conversations about the HWL and the greater world of art as issue and intervention.

*For the really juicy stuff you will have to catch me “off the record.