Puffin Foundation West’s Mission uses ART, the universal language that reaches across the borders of our imagination and so often peaceably transforms our society’s ideas. Kay Westhues the gallery owner of ARTPOST in South Bend Indiana, a town on the southern most bend of the Saint Joseph River, and in collaboration with other local groups, is organizing an outdoor event of five installations along the river that will celebrate its role in their community’s past and present. South Bend developed an industrial-based economy that depended on the St. Joseph for transportation and energy. Owing to bad corporate citizenship (and perhaps ignorance) it became a repository of pollution from industrial and agricultural sources. In fact by 1930, the State Board of Health concluded that the river was dangerous to public health and to fish life! It has taken eighty years but the river has changed and it is COMING BACK TO LIFE providing work, sustenance, recreation and beauty in this community. Through the efforts of citizens, non-profits and government initiatives, it is understood that maintaining a healthy river ecosystem is critical to the survival of South Bend. What does WE ARE THE RIVER mean to you? This exhibit will remind everyone who comes to this contemporary art exhibit Sept 6-October 27th, that the natural world can and must survive in an urban space and that unlike Captain Kirk’s prime directive, many times you do have to step-up to make things right.
If you are a regional artist and would like to participate, contact kwesthues@gmail.com (Illustration St. Joseph River and South Bend, IN, 1866)
