Arts and Humanities
Artists, writers, philosophers, musicians, and scientists come together at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest to share in occasions for observation, conversation, contemplation, inspiration, and discovery. These encounters embrace many ways of knowing in order to foster creativity, richness of perspective, and deep reflection on the values and kinds of attentiveness that drive our relationships with forests and streams. Our arts and humanities programs have been facilitated by the Spring Creek Project, affiliated since 2022 with the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts at Oregon State University.
In parallel with the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research program, the Long-Term Ecological Reflections program supports the creation of new work inspired by experiences with research and with the forest. Both programs are committed to sustained, interdisciplinary inquiry into place. The Reflections program, with its goal of collecting a record of reflection and expression from 2003 - 2203, is distinctive for its commitment to creative and collaborative explorations of the changing forest, and our relations with the forest, over generations.
The Long-Term Ecological Reflections program at Andrews Forest is part of a national network linking similar programs that support arts and humanities engagement at dozens of LTER sites and biological field stations. Work involves contributing to workshops and symposia at national meetings, collaborating on inter-site projects, and providing research data about programs and motivations for interdisciplinary collaboration. Learn more at LTER Arts and Sciences.
Experience the work
Work emerging from these programs reaches the public in a variety of ways. Exhibitions and events held in Corvallis, Blue River, and beyond offer in-person opportunities to engage. Visual art and photography can be viewed in the HJA headquarters buildings. Books written—and generously donated—by residents may be checked out from the HJA library. Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old Growth Forest (University of Washington Press, 2016), edited by Nathaniel Brodie, Charles Goodrich, and Frederick J. Swanson, offers a vibrant selection of essays and poems. Each resident also offers a contribution to The Forest Log, introduced with the Reflections program in 2004. An online compilation of work in many genres, the Forest Log is a living, growing collection that gives voice to the diversity of relationships with the forest.
Participate
Long-Term Ecological Reflections Residency
The Long-Term Ecological Reflections Residency program welcomes creatives working in any genre or medium and scholars working in the humanities. To receive calls for application, sign up for the Spring Creek Project newsletter. The application window opens in fall and closes in January. If you have questions about the residency, or if you are a scientist interested in exploring interdisciplinary opportunities, contact Residencies & Fellowships Manager Joy Jensen.
Rather than bringing a predetermined project, residents are asked to bring an experimental, curious mindset, to immerse themselves in the forest, and to let a project develop in relation to their experience with the land and the science. Residents live and work in proximity with researchers at forest headquarters and often join field teams working onsite. Program participants are encouraged to publish, present, and exhibit widely. Musical compositions have been performed worldwide, visual art has been exhibited throughout the Pacific Northwest, and essays, articles, and poems have appeared in books and in such venues as The Atlantic, Orion, Terrain.org, Emergence Magazine, and National Geographic.
Blue River Writers Gathering
Held biennially, the Blue River Writers Gathering is open by invitation to writers from the Pacific Northwest whose work reflects a keen awareness of the natural world and an appreciation for both scientific and literary ways of knowing. Each gathering offers opportunities for rich conversation, deep connection, and creative rejuvenation. If you are a writer from the Pacific Northwest interested in joining a future gathering, contact Spring Creek Project Program Manager Shelley Stonebrook.
Blue River Fellowships
These fellowships are offered to established writers and artists by invitation. The award includes support for creating new work, opportunities to present or exhibit in public, and time in the forest via a Long-Term Ecological Reflections Residency. In 2004, the first recipients of LTEReflections residencies were inaugural Blue River Fellows Robin Wall Kimmerer and Robert Michael Pyle.