Open to everyone and all creative mediums, this program invites people to create art rooted in specific places of the northern wilderness. These moments will then be preserved in a shared archive for future generations.
At its core, this program exists to deepen our relationship with the natural world by encouraging intimacy with specific places. We believe that when people spend time making art in one exact spot—returning to it, observing it, listening to it—that place becomes personal rather than abstract. That personal connection fosters care, memory, and responsibility. When a place is known closely, it is far more likely to be protected.
BWCA / SUPERIOR NATIONAL FOREST / NORTH SHORE
The Art of Exploration is in development as a long-term, community-powered initiative that aims to help people re-learn how to be in relationship with land and water.Through accessible self-guided wilderness experiences, simple and supported practices of ecological attention, and creative reflection prompting, we are laying the groundwork for a “living Smithsonian of the Northwoods”—an evolving, community-built archive of photographs, poetry, and visual art that reflects not just what this place is, but how it isexperienced by the people who belong to it. As this archive grows, so will something deeper: a shared ecological identity, expanded belonging, and a renewed sense of responsibility for one of the world’s most vital freshwater systems. The Art of Exploration is not just about documenting a place—it is about cultivating the attention, care, and collective imagination needed to protect it for generations to come.
At a moment when ecological systems need care more than ever, many people have lost the skills of attention, presence, and relationship that make stewardship possible. We believe lasting conservation begins upstream—in identity, belonging, and the ability to truly see. The Art of Exploration is being developed to meet that need.
We are currently in a planning and listening phase—shaping partnerships, refining the model, and inviting collaborators, funders, and community members into the early story. This is an invitation to be part of what’s coming.
“If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.”
― Joanna R. Macy
“I am one of those who has no trouble imagining the sentient lives of trees, of their leaves in some fashion communicating or of the massy trunks and heavy branches knowing it is I who have come, as I always come, each morning, to walk beneath them, glad to be alive and glad to be there.”
― Mary Oliver
The Art of Exploration is proud to be fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a NYC-based nonprofit that exists to equip artists with the tools they need to make their creative dreams a reality.