Smith College
IN-25: Innovation B

Arts Afield is a new initiative to formalize and encourage work in the arts and humanities at the MacLeish Field Station. The MacLeish Field Station, since its inception, has always been a truly liberal arts field station, home to programs like dance productions, writing workshops, and other arts and humanities programs, instead of just scientific research. Faculty and staff from the departments of psychology, art, English, landscape studies, environmental science and policy, and French have met regularly over the past two years to create a program that can foster this connection.

This fall members of the group worked with CEEDS to host an EcoPoetry workshop at MacLeish with local poet Margaret Babbott. The indoor/outdoor writing workshop was informed by Pablo Neruda’s Book of Questions.

This spring, MacLeish interns worked with the Arts Afield group to establish ten long term reflection plots at the field station and, with support from the SAL, have begun a Story Map about the sites using ArcGIS Online. These long term reflection plots invite students, staff, faculty, and community members to reflect on their connection to nature, and will prompt poetry, story-telling, observation, and insights, to be shared for years to come. The Arts Afield program fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration and commits the MacLeish Field Station to being a liberal arts field station for the Smith College community.