2009-04-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

Patricia Watts
PO Box 503 ~ Occidental, California 95465
310.704.2395 ~ tricia@ecoartspace.org

Patricia Watts is founder and west coast curator of ecoartspace. She has curated over 20 exhibitions including MAKE:CRAFT (2010) at the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles; Hybrid Fields (2006) at the Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA; and produced a site-specific temporary public art installation entitled Windsock Currents (2005) on Crissy Field in the Presidio, San Francisco, for UN World Environment Day. She is currently working on a statewide residency project in New Mexico entitled Getting Off the Planet (2011-2013). Watts was Chief Curator at the Sonoma County Museum from 2005-2008.

CURATORIAL/MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

Founder/Curator 1997 – present
ecoartspace, California/New Mexico/New York
Founder and west coast curator of bicoastal nonprofit art organization specializing in artists who engage the human-nature interface. ecoartspace has produced more than 40 exhibitions, 100 programs, working with 400+ artists in fifteen states nationally and 8 countries internationally. Over 200,000 people have attended our programs produced in collaboration with over 150 organizations. Current projects include a media archive of video interviews with artists and a collection of exhibitions ephemera for research purposes.Co-publisher of ecovention.

Chief Curator 2005 - 2008
Sonoma County Museum. Santa Rosa, CA
Developed exhibitions and related programs for regional museum in Northern California with the largest collection of environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's preparatory works in the USA. Responsible for thirty exhibitions presented in four galleries (& outdoors) over three years. Managed $150K annual exhibitions budget. Supervised Historical Collections Curator/Exhibitions Manager, Education/Visitor Services Coordinator, interns and volunteers.

Watershed/Education Coordinator 2001 – 2004
Topanga Creek Watershed Committee, Topanga, CA
Position funded by the California Department of Conservation. Community liaison for watershed stakeholders with biologists, federal/state/county agencies, and environmental consultants. Implemented grassroots restoration projects working with 50+ volunteers.

Administrative Director 1997 – 98
Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Director for nonprofit organization that initiates and sponsors contemporary art exhibitions in California. Worked with board of 25 directors on membership, programs, and budget. Coordinated media venues for “Access All Areas,” an exhibition including billboards and live online artworks.

Associate Curator 1994 – 97
Museum of Creativity, Santa Monica, CA
Worked on museum concept for the Milken Family Foundation with team of 24 museum professionals exploring the creative process. Developed art-in-nature program for garden concept. Conducted videotaped interviews with professional creatives. Created database of eminent and everyday creators, and participated in the development of exhibitions in collaboration with anthropologists, artists, and creativity theorists.

Graduate Program 1990 – 93
California State University, Fullerton, CA
Earned M.A. in unique entrepreneurial exhibit design/museum studies studio program with an emphasis on curating and arts administration. Independently curated and designed exhibition space for two major contemporary art exhibitions. Produced and conducted interviews for an educational video. Obtained loans from museums and private collectors. Arranged for local and international shipping and insurance. Wrote grants and a catalogue essay. Published 24-page exhibition catalogue.

EXHIBITIONS

2012-2013
Getting Off The Planet. Includes a series of residency based site works created by international artists at unique venues throughout the state of New Mexico exploring perceptions of a larger universe, space travel, the science of space and the cosmos. Co-curated with Jenée Misraje.

Delta Waters. LH JR Horton Gallery. San Joaquin Delta College. Stockton, CA
Eight site-specific artworks addressing human impacts on the Delta region, it beauty and the preservation of this highly impinged natural resource, the largest esturary on the Pacific Coast in California.

2010
MAKE:CRAFT
Ben Maltz Gallery. Otis College of Art and Design. Los Angeles, CA
Survey of contemporary artists who combine hand making and building techniques to create or engineer unique, mostly functional devices, objects, and machines; making either a social/political statement, creating new markets for individual styled products, or inventing ways to experience the tactile world, non-virtual, the “real.”

EcoArchive: Meditations on Time and Nature
Intersection 5M. San Francisco, CA
Co-curated group exhibition with photographs, video, sculpture by Sam Easterson, Karl Cronin, Cynthia Hooper, Chris Sicat, Matthew Moore, Chris McCaw, Jessica Skloven, Tamara Albaitis and Mark Baugh-Sasaki.

2009
Terroir: A Sense of Place. Art at the Cheese Factory. Petaluma, CA
Inaugural exhibition for rural arts venue. Juried/curated 28 Bay Area artists for indoor/outdoor site works including Philip Krohn, Mark Brest van Kempen, Josh Keyes, Adrianne Colburn, Lewis de Soto, Sonja Hinrichsen and Benicia Gantner. Funded in part by the Marin Arts Council.

ecoLOGIC. Cypress College Art Gallery. Cypress, CA
Survey of Southern California artists, architects, and designers who express a unique logic including Calvin Abe, Kim Abeles, Samantha Fields, Sant Khalsa, Manfred Menz, Kathryn Miller, Lothar Schmitz, Glen Small, and Joel Tauber.

2008
EPA: Environmental Performance Actions. Exit Art. New York, NY
Over thirty artists, including video and ephemera documentation by Eve Mosher, Future Farmers, Fritz Haeg, Rapid Response, Center for Tactical Magic, Temescal Amity Works and Chris Sollars.

2006
WaterWorks. Contemporary Quarterly Project Space.
Online exhibition including: Brandon Ballengee, Jackie Brookner, Basia Irland, Sant Khalsa, Christy Rupp, and Tao Urban. Co-curated with Amy Lipton.

Bugology. Armory Center for the Arts. Pasadena, CASixteen southern California artists including artists in Bug-Eyed. Included John Knuth, Ryan Taber and Cheyenne Weaver, Sean Dockray, David Prochaska, Jacqueline McBain, and Sylvia Tidwell.

2005
Bug-Eyed: Art, Culture, Insects. Turtle Bay Exploration Park. Redding, CA
Twenty six artists making aesthetic inquiries in cultural entomology including artists: Doug and Mike Starn, Alexis Rockman, Jan Fabre, Catherine Chalmers, Nina Katchadourian, CI Kim, Samantha Fields, Ken Rinaldo, Amy Youngs, Tom Friedman, Sam Easterson, Sean Patrick Dockray. (60-page catalogue)

1999
Escondido Phoenix. Art and Nature Artists-in-Residency. Malibu, CA
Ten Los Angeles artists created site-specific installations in nature including Angie Bray, Michael C. McMillen, David McDonald, Lothar Schmitz, Barbara Smith and Daniel Wheeler.

1998
Art and Nature. Rico Gallery. Santa Monica, CA
A survey of "ecoart" including Bill Viola, Lothar Schmitz, Michael C. McMillen, Marilyn Bridges, Nine Mile Run Greenway Project and site-specific work by Nils-Udo.

SONOMA COUNTY MUSEUM Santa Rosa, CA 2005 - 2008

Main Gallery: Select Exhibitions

2008
Following Nature: Ruth Asawa in Sonoma County
Twenty-seven works from the Asawa Lainer Family Collection (SF) of tied wire, looped wire, cast bronze sculpture, and watercolor paintings. Asawa attended Black Mountain College from 1947-1948 where her mentors were Josef Albers and Buckminster Fuller.

2007
Obsession: Art and Artifacts from Sonoma County Private Collections
An intimate view of more than thirty significant works from fifteen diverse private collections with original installation by artist Lewis deSoto.

Marguerite Wildenhain: Bauhaus to Pond Farm
Selections from the Forest Merrill Collection by Bauhaus trained master potter. Wildenhain conducted summer workshops on the Russian River at Pond Farm for over twenty five years. (48 page catalogue)

2006
Hybrid Fields
Group exhibition of artists addressing how food is grown, distributed and consumed. Included eighteen artists and nine site-specific installations including works by Alexis Rockman, Laura Parker, Christy Rupp, Amy Franceschini, Marisa Jahn/Stephen Shada, Ted Purves/Susanne Cockrell. (16 panel color brochure)

2005
NextNature: Stephen Galloway
Survey of work by Bay Area photographer of displaced nature portraits. (4-page brochure with essay)

Contemporary Project Space: Select Exhibitions

2008
Ecocentric: Video Lounge
Compilation of twenty video shorts including performance documentations and video art addressing pressing environmental issues. Artists included: Andrea Polli, David Haley (UK), Insa Winkler (DE), EcoArtTech, Michael Alstad (CA), Rebar Group, Gail Wight, Robin Lasser, Jane D. Marsching, Fallen Fruit and Shane Brennan.

Eucalypts: Judith Belzer
New paintings with up close renderings of controversial non-native tree species.

2007
Renee Carriere: Momentary Perch
Delicate papier mache birds sculpted with shreddings of newspaper, casting evocative shadows of fleeting nature.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Gallery: The Tom Golden Collection
The Sonoma County Museum is home to the largest collection in the USA of works by environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude (128 pieces). Donated in 2001 by local art collector Tom Golden, Rotations from the Tom Golden Collection included: Objects Wrapped/ Unwrapped 2008, Architectural 2007, and The Land 2006.

NorthXNorthCoast Art&Architecture Series 2006-2008
Beyond Regionalism/Beyond Green: Co-curated lecture series in collaboration with The American Institute of Architects, Redwood Empire. Featured speakers addressed architectural innovations that change the way we live and our relationship with the natural environment.

Fall 2006
Art and Natural Building: Scott Constable (wowhaus), Matthew Moore (urbanplough), Joe Kennedy (ecodwelling)
Convergence: Art and Architecture: Julie Eizenberg, Hank Konig
(Konig + Eizenberg) + Ned Kahn
Sustainability and Design, James L. Cutler

Spring 2007
Changing the Way We Live, Sean Godsell
Integrating Art into Architecture, Buster Simpson
Placemaking, Patricia Patkau

Spring 2008
Out of Your House In To Your Backyard: Bay Area Architects
Mark Jensen
Anne Fougeron
IwamotolScott

PUBLIC ART

Public Art Ecology in North America: A New Relevance for Public Art. Public Art of the Sustainable City. ISEA 2011. Istanbul, Turkey. (panelist)

Green Infrastructure: Re/Generation- Environmental Art & Deisgn: Now and How. Americans for the Arts Public Art Preconference 2011. San Diego, California. (panelist)

Going Green: How to align public art with Green Building and Infrastructure. Americans for the Arts Webinar. 2011. (panelist)

Public Art & Ecology. Art Boom Festival 2010, Krakow, Poland. (symposium speaker)

Department of Arts and History, City of Boise, Idaho. Environmental Public Art presentation for RFQ. 2010

Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. Environmental Public Art RFQ panelist. 2010

San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant. The City of San Jose's Environmental Services Department (ESD) and the Public Art Program. Interpretive artwork panelist. 2009

Artists Selection/Green Public Art; The Green Room. Renewable Resources: The Arts in Sustainable Communities. 2009 Americans for the Arts, Public Art Network annual conference. Seattle, WA. Poster Session and Roundtable. (facilitator)

Sacramento Airport. Sacramento Public Art Program. New Media panelist. 2009

Vasquez Rocks, Interpretive Center. Agua Dulce, CA. 2009
Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Consultant/facilitator for artist selection of “green” public art work for LEED Platinum design building.

48*C, Public Art Ecology Symposium. New Delhi, India. (speaker) BLOG POST

Tropic of Cancer Environmental Art Project 2008-9. Chiayi County, Taiwan. Participated in dialogues with artists, scientists, farmers, and community representatives from two oystersheds to address debris fields of aquaculture waste as material for landscape art and cultural engagement, with artists as facilitators. (team member)

Tengo La Voz: Voices and Visions of Latino Youth in Sonoma County. Sonoma County Museum, CA. 2006-2008. A collaboration with KRCB Radio and Television, and the Sonoma County Library. Lead Artist: Julio Cesar Morales. Media classes exploring art in the public sphere. Two year community building program funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). $243,450 grant.

Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition: Sculpted Green Public Art exhibition. City of Bellvue, WA. 2008 (juror)

40°, 73°: Works at the Intersection of Art & Ecology. The Canary Project, Brooklyn, NY. Public Art Series. 2007 (Juror)

Hybrid Fields. Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA. September– December 2006
Four site-specific interventions in the public sphere including Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Matthew Moore, Wowhaus, and Fruta Gratis.

Ecological Public Art Charette. Austin, TX. June 2005 (producer)
Invited artists, arts administrator, architect, art professor, and National Park Service director to discuss what is environmental public art and how is it unique (video documentation/transcript).

Windsock Currents. UN World Environment Day. Crissy Field, San Francisco, CA. 2005 Alternative energy installation by RT Livingston and interpretive performance by Red Dive. A month long permitted event through National Park Service.

The River Connection. East Moline, IL. 2000. Curated ecoart installations and exhibits for Master Plan of interpretive center on the Mississippi River.

Museum Campus. Green Public Art proposal. Chicago, IL. 1999. Site- specific artworks linking The Field NHM, Shedd Aquarium, and Adler Planetarium.

Red Rock Nest. Nils-Udo. Topanga, CA. 1998. Site-specific outdoor installation by German artist made with Arundo donax in conjunction with Art & Nature exhibition at Rico Gallery (above). 14-day permit from Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Authority.

VIDEOS
Produced interviews with artists for ecoartspace video archive. Edited video shorts on iMovie. Jackie Brookner & Patricia Johanson in 2010. http://www.youtube.com/user/ecoartspace

PANELS AND LECTURES

2011
Oil Spill: Information Gulf. Half Life series panel discussion with Riki Ott, Aviva Rahmani and Debbie Fleming Caffery at the Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico with respondents Ama Rogen and Douglas Meffert telecast from New Orleans. (moderator)

2010
MAKE:CRAFT. Annual Faculty Convocation. Otis College of Art and Design. Los Angeles, CA. (speaker)

Fragmented Landscapes. LandEscape Symposium. Nicolaysen Art Museum & Discovery Center. Casper, Wyoming. (panelist)

Sacred Elements: Creating Sustainable Earth Communities. Epiphany West 2010 conference. Co-sponsored by Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Center for the Arts, Religion and Education. Berkeley, CA. (speaker)

2009
Hybrid Fields: Food and Art. Community Design Program. Southern California Institute of Architecture. (lecture)

Art & Ecology in the Santa Monica Mountains. Culture in the Canyon: Chautauqua Series. Temescal Gateway Park. Mountains Conservancy of the Santa Monica Mountains. (speaker)

ecoartspace lecture and Q&A forum. Civic Engagement Project (CEP). Modesto Junior College, CA.

Art & Ecology: An International Perspective. Land Art: Art Nature Community. University of New Mexico. (speaker)

Public Art & Ecology. School of Art and Design, San Jose State University, CA. Tuesday Night Lecture Series. (speaker)

South Rim Artist-in-Residence 2009-2010. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
All media addressing ecological interpretive themes. (juror)

Land Ethics: Post Land Art. College Art Association, annual conference. Los Angeles, CA. (panelist) Land-based Art Practice. Cypress College. Cypress, CA. (lecture)

2008
Debris Fields Artistic Solutions to Industrial By-Products. Tropic of Cancer Art as Environment Project Symposium. Chiayi County, Taiwan. (speaker)

Ecoart: A National Perspective. Idaho Green Expo. Boise. City of Boise, ID. (speaker)

Ecotech: Art in Context. New York Institute of Technology. NYC. (lecture)

Art and Climate Change. Human/Nature: Art and the Environment Series. Exit Art, NYC. Included artist Eve Mosher and climate scientist David van Luven with The Nature Conservancy. (moderator)

2007
University Lectures. United Kingdom.
Comprehending Nature. University College Falmouth. (RANE)
Ecoart practice. Oxford Brookes University. (Social Sculpture Unit)
Ecoart practice. Manchester Metropolitan University. (M.A. Art and Ecology)
FEAST: Interdisciplinary conference on food in art/text. University of Wales, Bangor.

Taste Matters (Outside the Café): Cultural Food Programming in Museums.
Western Museums Association. Oakland, CA. (speaker)

Green Frontier of Public Art. Americans for the Arts. Public Art Network.
Las Vegas, NV. (speaker/moderator)

Visiting Curator, California College of Art. A Social Practice MFA studio course, Spring session

2006
Detourned Menu: Food in the form of Activism. TheLAB. San Francisco, CA. (speaker)

Eco-art Activists: Making the Invisible Visible & Moving Beyond the Frame. MP3s
Bioneers. San Rafael, CA. October 2006. (moderator)Ecoart. Nanhua University. Chiayi,Taiwan. (lecture)

2005
Art and Nature. Visiting Artist Lecture Series. Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA.Art and Nature. Visiting Artist Lecture Series. Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA.

2004
Eco-performance lecture series/panel discussion. gardenLAb experiment.
Art Center College of Design. Pasadena, CA.

Art and the Environment. Laguna Art Museum, CA. (panel speaker)

ecoart: art in nature. Foundation guest lecture. Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA.

2003
Envisioning the Future: Art, Science, and Technology. Cal Poly Pomona, CA. (panel speaker)

2002
Earth Alchemy. Juried exhibition, Arroyo Arts Collective. Highland Park, CA. (juror)

2001
Cross-Pollination: Art, Culture, and Community. Los Angeles Arboretum, CA. (speaker)

Post Landscape: Art and Ecology. Pomona College Museum of Art, CA. (moderator)

Art, Culture, Nature. Grassroots: Art in the Environment. Flagstaff, AZ. (speaker)

Artist as Visionary: Artist as Environmentalist. Taking Nature Seriously Conference. University of Oregon. (speaker)

California Water and Waterways. Positive Activism: A New Approach to Saving
Our Water. University of California, Irvine, CA. (moderator)

PUBLICATIONS/ESSAYS

ecoartspace blog. September 2008 - present.

Public Art Ecology: From Restoration to Intervention. Critical essay on pioneering art and nature practitioners for upcoming book entitled The New Earthwork: Art, Action, Agency edited by Glenn Harper. Published by International Sculpture Center Press (distributed by University of Washington Press), forthcoming winter 2012.

Public Art Ecology: Forty years of artists performing with nature in North America. Catalogue essay for Art Boom Festival 2010. Krakow, Poland.

Grzegorz Drozd: Animating the Marginalized in Public Space. Essay for online magazine OBIEG. Warsaw, Poland. November 2010.

Ecological Restoration: The Art of our Time. Exhibition catalogue essay for Remediate/Re-Vision, Wave Hill, Bronx, New York. October 2010.

An International Perspective on Art and Nature. Exhibition catalogue essay for Going Green: New Environmental Art from Taiwan. Curated by Jane Ingram Allen. July 2010.

Mark Brest van Kempen: A Sustainable Public Art. Center for Sustainable Practices in the Arts Quarterly Newsletter. September 2009.

Art As Environment: A Cultural Action on Tropic of Cancer. Response paper from symposium in Taiwan, 2008. p. 121.

Nothingness: Anne-Katrin Spiess. Artist catalogue. 2007-2010.

“Ecoartists Open Eyes and Hearts to Nature.” Permaculture Activist: The Art of Permaculture. Winter 2006-2007. No. 62. pp. 16-20.

WaterWorks, exhibition brochure essay. Contemporary Quarterly Journal. 2006.

Hybrid Fields, exhibition brochure essay. Sonoma County Museum. 2006.

NextNature, exhibition brochure essay. Sonoma County Museum. 2005.

"Ecoartists: Engaging Communities in a New Metaphor." APInews. January 2005.

"Art and Environmental Education in Schools." Watershed special issue on
"Visions of Education with Art, Culture, Nature Interface.” Autumn 2004. pp. 8–9

Watershed News, Topanga Creek Watershed semiannual newsletter. Editor and writer. 2002–2004.

Bug-Eyed: Art, Culture, Insects. Exhibition catalogue with essay by Patricia Watts. Turtle Bay Exploration Park. 2004 (60 pages).

“Watershed Exploration,” K–6 Topanga Creek Curriculum Guide. Powerpoint/flashcards of Topanga Chaparral ecology. 2004-5.

Ecological Aesthetics: Art in Environmental Design: Theory and Practice. Essay entitled "Ecoart: Ecological Art." Basel: Birkhäuser, 2004, pp. 90–95.

“Imagining the River: A Report from the Hudson,” exhibition review for greenmuseum.org. October 2003.

“Art and the Environment.” Arroyo Arts Collective: Creativity, Innovation, and Culture in the Northeast Highlands. Vol. 13, no. 2, March/April 2002. pp. 1–2.“By Nature's Design.”

William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, California. 3rd-/4th-grade art and science "systems-thinking" curriculum. April 2001.

Eco-Art Magazine. Editor-in-Chief. June 1999–2000 (online).

BIBILOGRAPHY

"EcoArchive: Mediations on Time and Nature." Aimee LaDuke. Art Practical 2.7 Production and Value issue online. Fall 2010.

"From the ground up: art exhibit by the Pacific Ocean," Rick Marianetti. Examiner (San Francisco) for Marin County. May 11, 2009.

Virtual Concert: A Public Think Tank with Aviva Rahmani. Spring 2008. (podcast interview)

“Obsession: Art and Artifacts from Sonoma County Private Collections.”
Anthony Torres. White Hot. November 2007.

“Hybrid Fields,” Johanna Kolodny. borborygmus: Rumblings from the World of Food. Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture. Spring 2007. pp. 4–5.

“Hybrid Fields at the Sonoma County Museum.” Barbara Morris. Artweek. February 2007. pp. 12–13.

“Artworks in 'Hybrid Fields' Offer Food For Thought,” Miriam Owen. San Francisco Chronicle, October 21, 2006. Section F, page 6.

“Dystopia Now: Hybrid Fields Anything But Bucolic,” Gretchen Giles. North Bay Bohemian. September 13-19, 2006.

“Art Farms,” Justin Clark. Plenty magazine, Oct/Nov 2006. pp. 70-79.

“Creepy, crawly, awe-inspiring,” Amanda Glowish. Pasadena Weekly. May 4, 2006.

“The Big Four: Introducing the North Bay’s Newest Arbiters of Taste.” North Bay Bohemian. March 8-14, 2006.

"Bug-Eyed," Chloe Veltman. Discover magazine. March 2005.

"Tricia Watts: Fitting Art, Nature and Learning into One 'space.'" Topanga Messenger, September 2004. Vol. 28, no.18. pp. 12-13.

“Escondido Phoenix,” Chattopadhyay. Sculpture magazine. October, 1999. pp. 68–69.

CONFERENCES AND MEMBERSHIPS
AFTA Public Art Network. San Diego 2011. Seattle 2009. Philadelphia 2008.
Las Vegas 2007. Austin, Texas 2005.
AMC SIGGRAPH. Los Angeles 2010.1995.
American Association of Museums. Los Angeles. 1998; Minneapolis, 1996;
Philadelphia,1995; Seattle, 1994; Fort Worth, 1993; Baltimore, 1992.
Art, Culture, Nature. Flagstaff, Arizona. 2001.
Association of Science and Technology Centers. Pittsburgh. 1996.
Bioneers. San Rafael, California. 2008. 2007. 2006. 2005. 2000.
California Association of Museums. Long Beach 2007.
College Art Association. Los Angeles 2009/1999. Atlanta 2005. New York 2000.
Interactive Media Festival. Los Angeles. 1995. 1994.
International Society for Electronic Arts l ISEA. Istanbul, Turkey 2011. Albuquerque, NM 2012.
Portland Creative Conference. Portland, Oregon. 1996.
SER l Society of Ecological Restoration. San Francisco, California 1999.
Western Museums Association. Oakland, California 2007.

EDUCATION
M.A., Exhibition Design/Museum Studies, California State University, Fullerton.
B.A., Business Administration, Stephens College Columbia, Missouri.

COMPUTER SKILLS
PC/Mac proficient (Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat PDF, Photoshop, PastPerfect, Excel, Quicken, Filemaker Pro, Quark, Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, Wordpress)

REFERENCES UPON REQUEST