Global Arts and Cultures

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Casey Merkle | How do you define the watershed? Working and playing with watersheds to bridge public perspectives

Virtual Lecture

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Casey is a graduate of RISD’s Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies MA program. She is an artist, educator, and an experienced community coordinator with a demonstrated history of working in environmental education nonprofits. Her research bridges human perception and representations of space, specifically to understand multiple perspectives within a watershed. She enjoys listening closely with others’ personal experiences in practices of care for the land, air, and water. Post-grad, she worked at the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council as an educator. Recently, she journeyed to Summer Lake, Oregon for an artist residency intersecting art and science where she explored various techniques in place-based research through natural dyes, mental mapping, and writing. Currently, she works part-time for the Rhode Island Flood Mitigation Association in branding, website management, events/workshops planning, grant writing and partnership building. In addition, she is the volunteer coordinator at Barrington Farm School, a small community farm committed to growing healthy food, restoring soil health, environmental education, and equitable food justice. This talk will cover how the outcomes of her thesis continue to play a role in her life, both in a professional and personal capacity.