The Beginning

For me, the seed of this project began in Miami with the "Lifeboat". Paul Middendorf, a curator from Portland OR, and I went to Miami in December during Art Basel, snuck our way into the Positions (the Basel galleries containers turned into exhibition-spaces), and used the space to build a boat. We organized artists - over 60 artists worldwide sent work to us that had to do with the environment, trade/borders, utopian concepts, and micronations.

In Miami, we met and engaged in a dialogue with many people, from beachgoers who were curious about the work, to refugees who shared stories of their personal experiences with us, as well as people attending the art fairs.

At one point we met and discussed with Renee Vara, a curator who runs varaart.com, about some of our many convening ideas. We came to learn quickly that we both felt that we wanted to do whatever we could to provide a platform for socially conscious art, that would activate communities with new ideas, take chances, be subversive, and grow as an alternative, a long-tail to the mainstream.

Renee became increasingly interested in doing something in Venice because of the current conditions there with rising tides (that are literally proof of global warming), and causing the entire city to sink. As she and I learned more about each other, we came together with the following concerns - our own government’s overriding ignorant position on the environment; global warming and its ramifications, as well as many other current issues surrounding water, like privatization in less-powerful countries and pollution from industry. More to come…