The Reflections program at Sitka will assemble a long-term record (200 years) of place based creative responses to the rich and varied landscapes in which the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology is embedded.  Each Sitka resident who chooses to participate in the program submits a visual or written piece of art that becomes part of this on-line archive; each participant will write a short paragraph or two about what part or parts of the Sitka landscape inspired his or her creative response.

As the archive grows future participants will be able to look back at a collective body of work, based on common experiences in a shared landscape, and see changes through time.  These changes might be reflected in any number of ways: language, use of medium, change in vegetation, cultural interpretation, etc. Each participant’s contribution will serve as an artistic snapshot of that moment of time, with the snapshots collectively providing a picture of how landscape, culture, and humanity change over a 200 year time period.  We hope this project helps future artists, scientists and humanists build an understanding of how the past informs the present and builds to the future.

The Sitka Reflections program is part of a much broader effort to link arts, humanities, and environmental sciences. It is a companion to a growing network of similar long-term, place-based “Reflections” projects, including the Long-Term Ecological Reflections program at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, managed by the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word (see URLs below).

The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology lies within the coastal temperate rain forest bioregion, a region characterized by steep coastal mountains, fertile and productive forests, estuaries, wetlands, and coastal headlands.  The Pacific Ocean is the most dominant moderating influence in this bioregion, insuring the moderate temperatures and abundant rainfall that characterize the climate of this area.  At Sitka one has the opportunity to experience all the parts of the coastal temperate rainforest bioregion within a relatively small area.

Adjacent to Sitka is the Nature Conservancy Preserve trail, leading you up to the top of a coastal headland where you can see all parts of the coastal temperate rainforest in one sweeping vista: the Pacific Ocean, headlands to the north and south, the Salmon River Estuary, the surrounding forests of the Cascade Head Experimental Forest and the Oregon Coast Range.  The Salmon River estuary lies below the Sitka Center easily accessible by foot and boat.  The Cascade Head Experimental Forest, a 160-year old Sitka spruce-Western hemlock forest, borders the Sitka Center to the north and east.

Webpage links for participating programs

http://www.ecologicalreflections.com/

Spring Creek Project: http://springcreek.oregonstate.edu/

Long-Term Ecological Reflections Program: http://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/lter/research/related/writers.cfm?topnav=167

For further information contact: seginor@gmail.com or info@sitkacenter.org