WESTMINSTER ART FESTIVAL
Our 2023 Theme: "EcoWisdom"
Nature (or “the environment,” or “the creation”) isn’t just a random catalog of animals, plants, and geologic elements. It’s a complicated and interconnected network of ecosystems and processes.
We can think about this on a global scale – the earth’s biosphere, or weather cycles. We can think very small – the organisms living under a rock or sharing a tree home. Or we can think about the ecosystem of a pond, a desert, a forest, or a city park. The elements of an ecosystem are interdependent; damaging or removing any one affects the whole. We need to pay attention, and learn how to protect earth’s connections. This might involve technology, but more fundamentally, it takes wisdom to care for the earth. And at the same time, paying attention to the webs of connection might offer wisdom for our lives, for human communities, and for our interactions with the earth.
In 2023, we invited artists and poets to take up the challenge of “EcoWisdom.” To show us how to attend to the earth’s wisdom. To celebrate the beauty and mysteries of an ecosystem. To give us a glimpse of hidden communities, unexpected relationships, or surprising adaptations. To look at ways the human and non-human communities on our planet intersect. To explore connections or help us see how they have been disrupted. To consider how they could be restored or contemplate the consequences of disregarding them. To ask what we need to learn. To contemplate how we find the faith, courage, and EcoWisdom to commit to a healthier future.
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