Field Station | Field Studio

Pop-up Exhibition + Community Conversation

Broad Performance Space + Nichols Gallery
Broad Center, Pitzer College
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
5:00 - 7:00 pm

Opening Reception, Nichols Gallery
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Community Conversation, Broad Performance Space, Broad Center
6:00 - 7:00 pm

Refreshments provided
All events free and open to the public

Framework
Field Station | Field Studio is an artist-in-residence pilot project at The Claremont Colleges Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station (BFS) in partnership with Pitzer College Art Galleries and The Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity, a.k.a., The Hive. The project is part of a larger multidisciplinary creative research collective of artists, scientists and Indigenous scholars who engage biological field stations and their broader eco-cultural contexts as a nexus of place-based inquiry and anticolonial community praxis. This inter-institutional collaboration aims to unite two field stations in a conversation about art and science through three lenses—ecology, place-based art, and Indigenous perspectives—to advance creative stewardship and connection to place. 
 
Program
The program is framed as a dialogue among the artists-in-residence, Rebecca Krinke, Emily Stover, and Monica L. Mahoney, with Wallace "Marty" Meyer, Director of the Bernard Field Station, and Lina Tejeda (Pomo), co-curator of Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art, a Getty PST ART: Art + Science Collide exhibition at the UCLA Fowler Museum. They will share different ways of place-based knowing through the arts, Western science, and Indigenous perspectives. 

The conversation will occur in tandem with a pop-up exhibition of artwork created by students in collaboration with the artists-in-residence in response to their engagement with the endangered California sage scrub ecosystem at the BFS. The aim of the conversation and exhibition is to investigate how field work, artist residencies, and exhibitions can advance scientific and creative research, stewardship, and knowledge from multiple perspectives in these times of eco-social crises. 
 
Please note that the ancient practice of cultural burning will be discussed as an eco-cultural stewardship method for fire-adapted ecosystems. As such, this conversation may be challenging for some who have been impacted by the recent LA area fires. The talk aims to be sensitive, inclusive, and hopeful about the intersection between the arts and sciences to build intercultural understanding and positive change.
 
Multi-disciplinary and multi-perspectival learning
Field stations provide opportunities to learn from and engage with one specific place over time while serving as comparative points of reference for other field stations worldwide. Although founded for scientific research, a growing number of field stations host artist residencies and community outreach programs to expand and diversify multidisciplinary research, inquiry, education, and community praxis. The conversation will focus on two field stations: Claremont Colleges Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station (BFS) and the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. Both are unique in location, size, ecosystem composition, and academic and cultural heritage, and threats from climate change, land use, pollution and more. They support advanced research in the humanities and sciences and are working to address their colonial legacies through stewardship, education, outreach, and partnerships. In this week-long residency, the Field Station | Field Studio artists will engage students in place-based pedagogies and creative praxis to question, listen, collaborate, and learn in place at the Bernard Field Station.

Speakers
Dr. Wallace "Marty" Meyer is an Associate Professor of Biology at Pomona College and Director of The Claremont Colleges’ Bernard Biological Field Station (BFS). His research explores the fields of conservation biology, invasion biology, biogeography, and ecology, including aspects of population, community, and ecosystem ecology. Currently, his main research interest is in understanding how and why the species composition of local biotas are changing, and how such changes directly and indirectly affect ecosystem-level processes and properties. As Director of the BFS, his work is focused on the preservation and restoration of coastal sage scrub ecosystems. Professor Meyer holds a PhD from the University of Hawaii, Mānoa and Master of Arts from Humboldt State University.

Lina Tejeda (Pomo) is the co-curator of Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art, a Getty PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition at the Fowler Museum, UCLA. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of California Riverside and recently earned her M.A. in History from California State University, San Bernardino. Her areas of focus are California Indian studies and museum studies/public history. She is a member of the California Indian Studies & Scholars Association and is passionate about working in institutions and advocating for the return of sacred cultural items to tribal nations to which they belong and telling the true histories of the California Indian people. Lina is a traditional Pomo dancer and a student of her cultural heritage, including basket weaving, gathering materials, regalia making, and singing.

Rebecca Krinke is an artist and Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota, where her creative practice, teaching, and research intersect under the conceptual umbrella of “Earthling School.” This framework reflects her commitment to deepening our relationships with the Earth, each other, and the non-human world. Krinke's work explores the intersection of art, ecology, academia, and community, with a focus on the biological field station as a site of creative inquiry. Central to her approach is “Two-Eyed Seeing”, a methodology that integrates Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. Krinke convenes the Two-Eyed Seeing and Third Spaces Research Creative Collaborative at the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve field station. This multidisciplinary initiative, which brings together Indigenous and Settler scholars, explores emergent forms of knowledge and practice, and will be featured in the forthcoming book Artful Science and Transdisciplinary Curiosity: Emergent Inquiries Towards Creating Beautiful Futures (Routledge, 2026), edited by David Syring, PhD.

Emily Stover is a public artist and environmental designer based in Minneapolis. Her creative practice draws emotional connections between the experience of the landscape and larger social and environmental conditions. Recent achievements include temporary landscape installations with Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve and Saint Paul Downtown Alliance, a permanent sound sculpture in downtown Des Moines, and a two-year interactive project at the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria. She has degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Minnesota College of Design she focuses on creative practices for community innovation.

Monica L. Mahoney is a place-based artist, environmental designer, curator, activist, and Lecturer of Environmental Analysis at Pitzer College where she teaches courses in the sustainability and built environment track at the Bernard Field Station, Outback Preserve, and the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability. Her multidisciplinary creative research and applied scholarship centers on public art and place-keeping; ecological design and native plant restoration in arid and semi-arid bioregions; and drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation. Her award-winning public engagement and civic art programs integrate the arts, ecology, and environmental conservation with under-resourced rural communities in the Mojave Desert. She holds her Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona and Bachelor of Fine Art with a minor in Botany from Northern Arizona University.  

Partnership
Field Station | Field Studio Creative Research Collaborative: the Claremont Colleges Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station and the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve: Wallace “Marty” Meyer, PhD., Bernard Field Station Director and Associate Professor of Biology, Pomona College; Lance Neckar, Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pitzer College; Monica L. Mahoney, Lecturer of Environmental Analysis, Pitzer College; Samuel Reichard, Environmental Analysis Major ‘25, Pitzer College; Caitlin Barale Potter, PhD., Associate Director Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve; Rebecca Krinke, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Minnesota, and Emily Stover, Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Design and Design Researcher, University of Minnesota; David Syring, PhD., Professor of Anthropology, University of San Diego. The Pitzer College Art Galleries: Emily Butts, Director; Chris Michno, Associate Director; Christy Johnson, Academic Program Coordinator; Michal Wisniowski, Preparator; Riley Thibodeau, Preparator Assistant; and Izzy Young, Preparator Assistant. The Hive: Shannon Randolph, PhD., Director, Global Social Impact; Linett Luna Tovar, A.D. of Community and Co-Curricular Programming; Madison Quan, Experience Designer; Salinz Munoz, Experience Designer. A Faculty Innovation Award from the University of Minnesota supports Field Station | Field Studio to expand field station networks. An online symposium hosted by the University of Minnesota College of Design will follow on April 11, 2025.

For more information, contact Rebecca Krinke, Monica L. Mahoney, or Christy Johnson

Map available here