TEDx Talk: “The Many Gods of Planet Earth”
In The Many Gods of Planet Earth, Betsy Gaines Quammen, the founder and president of The Tributary Fund, examines connections between religions, cultures and environmental ethics. In order to further conservation, Gaines Quammen attests, we must understand the beliefs of communities that have a direct impact on threatened wildlife, in order to encourage empathy and bestow responsibility.
Betsy founded The Tributary Fund after visiting the Eg-Uur watershed and Dayan Derkh Monastery ruins in 2002 and falling in love with the rivers, landscapes and people of Mongolia. Betsy has a Master’s of Science from University of Montana in Environmental Studiesand is a PhD candidate at Montana State University in Religion and Environmental History.
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The Tributary Fund assists religious, scientific and local leaders to collaborate and manage issues of sustainable community development and wildlife habitat protection. Protection of native species, lands and waters succeeds only when local priorities are understood and cultural cadence guides protection efforts. Each project TTF undertakes joins culture and conservation.
Unsound Labs 2012
UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK is dedicated to bringing quality artists from around the world and needs your help to start a new program: UNSOUND LABS. The kick starter funds will go to help put on the free LABS collaboration shows during the festival (weekend afternoons at ISSUE Project Room), as well as all the talks, screenings, etc. that happen during the festival at various locations. The funds will be directed toward artists and production of LABS events themselves.
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UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK will return this year in April for its third
edition since beginning in the city in 2010. Devoted to advanced forms
of music and ideas that circulate around them, the festival is created
through unique collaborations between local and international
curators, event organizers, and venues in New York and Krakow, Poland,
where UNSOUND has its headquarters.
In 2012, we are working to expand a special program called UNSOUND LABS, both within the context of the festival and with further related events to be presented throughout the city during the course of the year.
During UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK 2012, we will be presenting
special LABS collaborations between musicians of different kinds, with a special focus on artists from New York, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. Concerts presented under the banner of LABS will be free and open to all. We will also be recording all UNSOUND LABS concerts for distribution via a free digital compilation to be available for download after the festival.
Likewise, all talks, presentations, and tours presented as part of LABS will be free and open to all. That has always been the case in the past, and it is important to us to continue in a similarly accessible vein. Your support will allow us to help cover LABS-related costs not supported directly by the cultural institutes we work with to make the festival come together as a whole. It will allow us to continue to present new and interesting work and ideas as part of LABS—and keep things free.
It will also help us continue to expand UNSOUND LABS into a program
active throughout the entire year. In addition to presentations during
the festival in April, we have already continued with a series of
one-off talks and presentations, including past events with Animal
Collective, Simon Reynolds, Kyle Gann on John Cage, Hillel Schwartz,
and a panel discussion on “non-cochlear sound art.” We are working to
expand this aspect of UNSOUND LABS in 2012 and beyond, to include more
one-off talks and presentations, as well as special musical-performative offerings throughout the year.
Become a part of UNSOUND and UNSOUND LABS in this unique way, and help us in our drive to make our work serve as a tool for creation and cross-border connections, a positive form of globalization in the 21st century.
ABOUT UNSOUND + UNSOUND LABS
In its two editions past, UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK has established a
unique presence on the city’s cultural landscape, with enterprising programs of concerts, club nights, live film-music projects, panel discussions, talks, electronic-music workshops, and more. Along with known and emerging artists from the U.S. and Western Europe, we have also brought to New York talented artists from points more unknown, particularly Eastern Europe. Many of these artists might never be able to travel to New York otherwise, and certainly not to perform at an international project of this kind.
For the festival, we have presented a number of special UNSOUND-commissioned works. Some were developed in Krakow, such as the large-scale musical piece “SOLARIS,” bringing together Ben Frost, Daniel Bjarnason, Brian Eno, and Krakow’s Sinfonietta Cracovia. Others have been engineered in New York, most notably an assemblage of experimental musical collaborations, presentations, talks, tours, and workshops gathered under the banner of UNSOUND LABS. Programs for LABS events have worked to connect artists and engage audiences in a variety of different ways.
UNSOUND LABS has served as the catalyst for exploratory experimental
concerts and curated collaborations between established and emerging
artists, including Günter Müller, Lizzi Bougatsos, Taylor Deupree, Aki
Onda, Anna Zaradny, Z’ev, and The Skull Defekts feat. Daniel Higgs,
and many others.
Likewise, LABS-related talks and presentations have covered subjects including the history of the Vocoder, the development of disco, the evolution of early electronic music in the 1950s, the nature of noise, and more—drawn from the insights of writers, thinkers, and artists including Simon Reynolds, Morton Subotnick, Dave Tompkins, Stephen Vitiello, Marcus Schmickler, Kabir Carter, Vladislav Delay, and numerous others.
Tours of sites in New York so far have included composer La Monte Young’s Dream House and the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
hotINK at the Lark 2012
hotINK at the LARK will present readings of new plays by ten dramatists from outside the United States. Each day includes staged readings during the afternoon and evening, featuring the work of distinguished New York actors and directors, and followed by meet-the-writers events. All events are free, but require a reservation. Reservations will be available after March 1st online at www.larktheatre.org. Waiting lists for all events will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Capacity is limited.
The 2012 playwrights hail from Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Scotland, and Singapore. The selected plays are: Credit by Michael Mackenzie, Colonel Pilate by Aleksey Scherbak, DNA by Giorgos Neophytou, Grace and Elizabeth by Jessica Cooke, In Spitting Distance by Taher Najib, strangers, babies by Linda McLean, The Eyes of Others by Ivan Dimitrov, The Medea Effect by Suzie Bastien, The Shape of a Bird by Jean Tay, and Thanksgiving Day by Nikolai Khalezin.
The participation of the following writers is made possible through a grant from CEC ArtsLink/Trust for Mutual Understanding:
March 24, 7:30pm
The Eyes of Others by Ivan Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
Translated by Angela Rodel
Two ordinary men discover, through their everyday routines and the people they meet, the true nature of their friendship and the need, deep in each of them, to be seen by others.
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March 25, 3pm
Thanksgiving Day, by Nikolai Khalezin (Belarus)
Translated by Yuri Kaliada and Rory Mallarkey
A Belarusian immigrant in the U.S., caring for an elderly American man, learns, through their relationship, what he wants and where he truly belongs.
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March 26, 7:30pm
Colonel Pilate, by Aleksey Scherbak (Latvia)
Translated by John J. Hanlon
A morality tale for every era, and every foreign occupation: a Russian officer in Afghanistan, uncomfortable with the role of occupier and skeptical of his troops’ distrust of locals, is dubbed “Colonel Pilate” by his subordinates and held accountable for his humanist inclinations.
Thursday – Monday, March 22 – 26, with readings at 3pm and 7:30pm daily
Lark Lark Play Development Center’s BareBones® Studio at 311 West 43rd Street, Fifth Floor
Through hotINK, the Lark seeks to expand its community by reaching out to playwrights on every continent, bringing them together to meet and engage with New York theater makers, and to encourage opportunities for further exploration and production.
CULTURAL FELLOWSHIPS IN RUSSIA
The Likhachev Foundation (St. Petersburg, Russia) together with Committee on External Relations of Saint Petersburg and B. Yeltsin Presidential Center (Moscow, Russia) announces competition for 2-week cultural fellowships in Russia (St. Petersburg) from May 7 till May 20, 2012 for American professionals in the field of arts and culture who work on projects related to Russian culture. Airfare and accommodation in St. Petersburg will be covered by the organizers.
By January 22, 2012 the Likhachev Foundation will accept applications from professionals in the field of culture and history or arts from the USA who are currently working on creative projects related to Russian culture or history. Command of the Russian language is very helpful but not required. Students are not eligible.
Creative project could be a museum exhibition project, a theater performance, a film, photo exhibition, preparation of fiction or research books, etc. related to Russian culture or history. Creative project should be conceived in the USA for a broad American audience. Residence in Russia should serve as an important stage in the realization of the applicant’s cultural project.
The Likhachev Foundation will prepare individual programs for the fellows according to their projects’ specifics, to help them achieve maximum results during their fellowships. These programs will include meetings with Russian colleagues, possibilities to work at St. Petersburg museums, libraries, archives and other organizations.
Ten two-week fellowships will be organized from May 7 till May 20, 2012 in St. Petersburg (Russia).
Deadline for submitted applications is January 22, 2012.
Applicants will be notified of the review panel decision by February 15, 2012.
Application should include:
- CV (including information on Russian language skills, previous creative projects related to Russia and previous visits to Russia).
- Description of creative project (up to 3 pages) such as museum or exhibition project, theater performance, film, preparation of fiction or research book and other types of cultural projects related to Russian culture or history. It should contain, in particular, a paragraph on how a residency in St. Petersburg will benefit the applicant’s creative project and which cultural organizations in St. Petersburg the applicant would like to work with.
Please, email your application in Russian or English to the competition coordinator Mrs. Elena Vitenberg at vitenberg@lfond.spb.ru and elenavitenberg@gmail.com with subject line «application for the fellowship».
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The D. S. Likhachev International Charitable Foundation
The name of the Academician D. S. Likhachev (1906-1999) is symbolic for the 20 century Russian culture. A Russian intellectual, survivor of the Soviet Gulag, a great scientist and thinker, a popular figure, he managed to preserve under the totalitarian regime his integrity, honor and fealty to Russia. In the 90s he has become a moral gold standard for many Russians. During his late years D. S. Likhachev conceived the idea of a humanitarian charitable foundation. The idea has been implemented after his death.
The D. S. Likhachev International Charitable Foundation had been founded in St. Petersburg at the end of 2001. The mission for the Foundation was stated by D. S. Likhachev himself as promotion of the Russian culture, education, humanities as well as affirmation of democratic and humanistic values in the society. The foundation supports both regional and international programs, awards grants, promotes seminars and conferences, publishes books, etc.
B. Yeltsin Presidential Center
The Fund of the First Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin was founded in November 2000, as a charity whose main aim is to give the youth of Russia the opportunity to reach their creative potential. The Fund has also taken it upon itself to analyze the various changes that Russia and the world in general went through during the end of the 20th century: to carry out studies on the historical and political foundations of the reforms that took place in Russia. The Fund is working to nurture peaceful and friendly relations between the world’s nations, offering help in the battle against social and religious conflict.
Committee on External Relations of Saint Petersburg
The executive authority – The City Administration is the superior executive body of St. Petersburg headed by the Governor of the city and other executive departments – the city committees and the administrative-territorial departments. The St. Petersburg Administration is formed of the Governor, the Government, The Governor’s Chancellery, the city committees and the administrative-territorial departments of the Administration subordinate to him. The Committee on External Relations is responsible for state policy of Saint Petersburg in external relations.
2011 CEC ArtsLink Fellows
Take a look at the work CEC fellows have been doing on the CEC ArtsLink blog!
- The ArtsLink Residencies program offers artists and arts managers from Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus a five-week residency at an established non-profit arts organization in the US. Host organizations are selected by CEC staff from an application process open to US non-profit organizations in all fifty US states.
Kres Šwiata: The End of the World
The End of the World (Kres Šwiata)
Directed By: Mateusz Skalski
2010 | 9 min
Poland
Saturday, November 12: 8:00 pm
People Center – National Museum of Natural History
U.S. Premiere
Only a handful of elders remain in a remote Polish village, where they fill the hours waiting for the bread truck to arrive.
For tickets, click here.
Siberian Adventures on Lake Baikal
What do you pack when you are leaving for Siberia? In my case I went on a few stories told by intrepid travelers, what I had read from Ian Frazier’s amazing recollections in the New Yorker years back, and my instincts. I dusted off my old “backpacking Europe” bag from my teenaged years and stuffed it with the following necessaries: waterproofed pants, hiking & fishing boots, a bug hat designed for beekeepers and swamp hunters, a bandanna to soak with DEET, a headlamp, a Russian-English dictionary, salt, Swiss-army knife, camera, and journal, along with the usuals. Several buzz words were ringing in my head as I flew via Moscow to Irkutsk, the main city on the edge of the great lake. Words like: rain, blood-sucking mosquitoes, the Wild, bears, yurts, vodka, trail work, and fish. What I found when I arrived was a far more colorful and filled-out experience, one that I could have never prepared for.
I arrived in Irkutsk, one of the major Siberian cities, after a five hour flight from Moscow on August 1st. I had spent a week in Moscow meeting with TMU grantees and partners, soaking in the Russian culture, desperately trying to get a foothold on the language, and getting lost & found in the streets of that great metropolis. I left Moscow behind knowing that it was not a city to be tamed, and that there was much more of it waiting to be discovered. I had not met one person that had been to Siberia. 77% of Russia is actually Siberia, so when I left home telling people I was off to Siberia, I was not being very specific at all. The Siberia that I was going to was the portion bordering Mongolia, a place that does not exactly resemble the Siberia one thinks about when they think of an image to associate with the word—a cold, snowy, flat tundra with reindeer and nomads, the place where people were sent and never returned. The part of Siberia that I was going to spend the next 17 days was a land dominated by the largest body of freshwater on earth, with vast natural resources, and diamonds deep in the rocks. A place where bears roam, virgin forests dominate, and water can be sipped straight out of streams. It is also a place where the average man lives to 55, the growing season is 2 months long, and passenger trains stop only once a day at 2 am.
Colorful traditional Buryiat home in Irkutsk
My first sighting of Lake Baikal was a week into my time in Russia. From the town of Listvyanka, at the head of the Angara River, I got my first glimpse of “The Blue Pearl of Siberia.” It took up the entire horizon, deep blue and sprawling, calm and buttressed by ochre colored land. The lake is actually a crescent moon-shape, and rings in at an incredible 25 million years old. The amount and purity of the water is what makes it unparalleled. Lake Baikal contains more water than all the North American Great Lakes combined. Over 365 rivers and streams flow into Lake Baikal but only one river flows out, the Angara. Baikal has portions that are over a mile deep and we learned that if 6 trillion tons of water were to be removed, there would be no negative impact whatsoever. In terms of purity, its waters are more pure than American and European drinking water standards.
First sighting!
As for the stuff that is found in the lake, Baikal has 2,600 endemic species (they exist nowhere else on the planet!) including a freshwater seal called the nerpa. Known for its stable temperatures of around 4 degrees Celsius and high oxygen levels, Baikal is a perfect place for microorganisms to thrive and keep the ecosystem clean and healthy. However, should temperatures rise even slightly, these delicate creatures would be devastated by invasive species that thrive in warmer waters. Scientists told us that one can study the history of the whole world through the lens of Baikal, as it is situated on the edge of the ancient Siberian plateau, the first piece of land to emerge from the sea. Currently, they say we are in the quietest time period of the planet’s history which is why humans have been able to thrive. There is a wide consensus among the scientists of this region that global warming does not exist, that the climate is dictated by a natural cycle. We heard one say, “There is no global warming here in Siberia,” with only a small bit of irony in his voice.
I was invited to this part of the world by a longtime TMU grantee, the Tahoe-Baikal Institute (TBI). TBI’s mission is to foster a future where sustainable communities thrive in concert with their environment by connecting passionate young leaders with inspiring watershed education in Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada and Lake Baikal in southern Siberia. Since 1998, TMU has supported 9-week experiential, place-based watershed education and leadership development summer exchanges. This year’s itinerary for the first time included the Selenga River, Lake Baikal’s upper watershed, in Mongolia.
The Summer Environmental Exchange (SEE) program focuses on sustainable development, watershed protection, and cultural exchange. Those interested in pursuing environmental work, or in the early stages of their career, are given the opportunity to join a summer program where they take on environmental policy research and restoration projects, learning about current initiatives concerning natural and cultural history of the Tahoe and Baikal watersheds. Through interactive workshops and projects, participants observe how administrative bodies work together with academic organizations, non-profits, and local institutions to promote stewardship and environmental protection.
This summer, 15 young environmental leaders from Argentina, France, Russia, Mongolia, and the United States, were selected to study environmental science, policy, and management. This year’s the participants covered over 6,000 miles starting on June 20th in Lake Tahoe, California, and ending in Irkutsk, Russia, on August 19th. I joined the group in Irkutsk, about two-thirds through their trip and was welcomed with open arms. As the “token” funder I was not sure how or if I would fit in with a group of dedicated environmentalists and students; after all, in some ways I was from another world abruptly entering theirs. I wanted to assume that privileged, but tricky, role of a participant-observer, one that anthropologists have struggled to occupy. I was happily accepted as such. The group had been prepared for my arrival; they were eager to learn about TMU’s work, the Russian and Siberian participants happy to meet a representative of the organization that had made their participation possible, and my more global and cultural perspectives were a welcomed addition.
TBI 2011 group photo
At the point when I entered the program, participants had already convened with the California Tahoe Conservancy, UC Davis, and the US Forest Service. In Mongolia, they met with the Zorig Foundation, the Ministry of Nature and Environment, Bureau of Nature and Tourism, exploring Ulaan Baatar, Darhan, and Yoruu. The group then crossed into Russia and entered the Republic of Buryatia and the city of Ulan Ude where they met with the Eco League, the Pri-Baikalski Preserve, and visited a sacred Buddhist temple. After a long bus ride, we met in the Great Baikal Trail Hostel in the city of Irkutsk over a meal of Russian fast food. I realized immediately that this was a quality group of individuals, no complainers here. Over the next several weeks I would be impressed by their toughness, the breadth of their collective knowledge, their open minds, and the insightful questions they posed.
For me, it was time to hit the ground running. Meetings began early the next morning. We would meet with Ministry of Natural Resources, the Baikal Center, the Center for Independent Social Research and Education, the Baikal Museum, Institute of Geography and Limnology, and the Irkutsk State University’s Botanical Garden. One of the most interesting meetings was with the non-profit organization, Baikal Environmental Wave. Baikal Wave is a TMU partner that was founded in 1990 with a mission to work with communities to protect environmental rights and to protect Lake Baikal. Recently their main focus has been to shut down the lake’s only polluter, the Baikalsky Paper and Pulp Plant. The plant’s official position wavers from declaring bankruptcy to announcing that they are on the verge of developing a successful closed-loop production cycle and will operate indefinitely. On previous tours of the plant (which is now closed to the public), the guide actually takes a sip of the “waste” water that is being pumped into the lake to prove how clean it is. The day that we drove by the plant we were delivered a special message. The plant is visible from a public road in the town of Baikalsky (a town infamous for the plant, but now revamping its public image by developing a ski resort and giant strawberry festival). From the road I could see a decrepit looking plant with smokestacks and piles of coal. Our van driver slowed down so that we could take a better look and take pictures and as soon as we slid open the window of the van, a security car was behind us pulling us over. The two security officers roughly pulled open our window and demanded that we delete the photos we took. He then spoke harshly to our driver telling him he should know better and that if he ever took foreigners there again he would have to deal with them. This encounter told a very different story than the one we had been told earlier in the day when we met a representative from the Baikalsky local government. It brought to mind the old adage, seeing is believing!
And we had a lot more to see and to do. Our main focal point on Lake Baikal was the village of Tankhoy, a five hour drive from Irkutsk, with a population of under 1000. It is located along the Trans-Siberian railway as most towns in that area are. This village was selected by TBI because it is located at the entrance of the Baikalski Zapovednik Preserve. This preserve was especially important this year because they received a massive budget increase (from 5 million/yr to 181 million rubles over 3 years) by the government in order to bolster its infrastructure and promote ecotourism. Receiving more than 10 times the funds it had in the past, the preserve was eager to partner with anyone who could assist them since they were actually prohibited from hiring any additional staff (according to the grant stipulations). Their main goals were to have a new visitor’s center built, staff training, environmental education, and develop trails and ecotourism infrastructure.
Baikalski Preserve - along a GBT trail
Currently, only about 2500 people visit the preserve each year. There are no hotels, no doctor in town, no restaurant, and very limited public transport. We began our stay in Tankhoy in the rain, which is very typical for this time of year. They warned us that it may just rain the entire two weeks, but lucky for us, this was not to be. But for the first few days, we were greeted by a steady but warm rain. We were able to work with Great Baikal Trail (GBT) on restoration projects, another one of TMU partners. They work closely with Earth Island Institute and Earthcorps in the US to promote sustainable development through low-impact eco-tourism in and around Baikal. This mission is grounded in building a system of environmentally friendly trails that are safe and enjoyable for hikers of all ages and levels of experience. GBT is also a conservation effort aimed at raising awareness of the value of unpolluted wilderness among the local populations. Hiking is not a recreational activity in Russia, in fact GBT is the originator of the first ever network of trails in the country. By carrying out trail-building projects composed of international volunteer crews, they have found a way to bridge the nature/culture gap.
The preserve has very recently built a handicapped accessible trail and that was where we spent our day, building trenches to control water flow and erosion, shoveling and laying gravel. As for my part, I helped clean out a small stream that had become clogged by weeds and rocks. After a day of hauling rocks and building walls to prevent further erosion I gained a better understanding of just how much labor and skill is involved in building a trail. We were not even in the wilderness, as the rain prevented us from working on rebuilding the trail further away from the center. Some groups hike out over 10 miles to get to their work-sites – with supplies!
For the rest of our time in Tankhoy, TBI had pre-arranged 4 projects that the group would be working on in order to help the Baikalski Zapovednik Preserve. One group would be concentrating on creating a trail profile and passport and measuring anthropogenic load on a hiking trail in the Baikalski nature preserve. The second project consisted of a sociological survey of the people of Tankhoy and surrounding villages to investigate their feelings toward the future of ecotourism. The third project was vegetation mapping along one of the preserve’s rivers. And the fourth was picking out points of interest along a handicapped accessible interpretive trail and creating interpretive panels in English and Russian. Fresh out of a cultural anthropology program, I naturally chose the sociological project—finally I would get to do some true applied anthropology complete with surveys, interviews, and trips into the field.
SEE participant Tony in the field collecting biodiversity data
The project was fascinating. We surveyed over 70% of Tankhoy’s residents and visited 7 neighboring villages. Our survey asked people if they had a positive or negative attitude towards eco-tourism, it asked what they would be willing to contribute, if they were aware of the preserve’s activities and plans, and what their concerns were regarding tourism. Our findings were then presented to the preserve staff and local people. We found the following: that the closer a person was located to the preserve, the more positive was their attitude towards it and eco-tourism in general; a majority of our interviewees linked trash with tourism; people were more in support of international tourists than Russian tourists; and most people thought that the current infrastructure could not support tourism. We found that although some people were interested in opening their home to homestays, many of the homes were not suitable for tourists and the ones that were had guests all throughout the summer and therefore no space. We also realized that no one spoke English, which would make business with international tourists difficult if not impossible. We also found there to be high levels of alcohol abuse which was another complicating factor. In the end we recommended that the preserve set up some town halls to involve locals, English classes, to work on trash collection, and to address the poor conditions of the roads. We also hoped that the preserve staff could engage in some kind of professional development and strategy development programs. We found that the desire to do good was in place, and the local people would stand behind them, but certain systemic and high-level barriers had to be dealt with. One telling example being: the multi-million dollar visitor center that they were building over the site of the old port, has no road or plans for a road to get people there.
Villagers filling out our surveys
After my 17 days in Siberia, I flew back and started processing all that I had been lucky enough to learn and experience firsthand. I am so grateful to all the American and Russian TBI coordinators who worked so hard to pull off an astounding 9-week environmental crash course. The quality and quantity of meetings and the projects that they developed were remarkable. The group of participants that were selected reflected a true diversity of interests and backgrounds, and I think that each and every one of them (and myself included) had a life-changing experience. I am also grateful that TBI trusted me to be a good addition to the group, and that they took the risk to include me intimately in their program. I returned wiser, grittier, and completely taken by the Russian way. This is for sure, just the beginning…
The Castles of Moravia
THE dark forest felt familiar enough, alternating raggedy oaks and silver beech trees in the dense array found throughout Central Europe. Along the trail, the ubiquitous woodland plants of the Old World — nettles, burdock, fennel and sorrel — grew in their standard summertime abundance. But when we rounded a corner into a meadow, we suddenly seemed to have entered another country, if not another era. Above us soared a stone triumphal arch, perhaps 100 feet tall, topped with life-size nudes. Four immense decorative columns faced us, with ornate bas-relief plasterwork and a mysterious inscription reading “Has tibi, blanda soror Phoebi, sacravimus aedes. Intactus semper crescat tibi lucus honori.” It looked like an ancient Roman monument, but of far more recent vintage and located about 700 miles too far north.
So where were we, exactly? In the easternmost part of theCzech Republic, at the southern edge of the 8,600-square-mile region known as Moravia.
Despite the praise it earned in 19th-century travelogues, the ancient kingdom of Moravia is relatively unknown today, upstaged by the country’s western half of Bohemia, home to the capital of Prague. Wedged between Austria, Poland and Slovakia, Moravia lies in a pronounced travel shadow.
Even after living for more than a decade in the Czech Republic, I knew relatively little about the region. I was aware that it was a land of traditions. Driving through Moravia a few years ago, I’d snapped a photo of a girl in a beautiful kroj, or folk costume — a fluffy white blouse and an ornately embroidered, bright red skirt. The local dialect, too, was something I knew to be regarded by many in Bohemia as a more correct version of the Czech language, with crisper consonants, shorter vowels and numerous archaisms.
But what most attracted me was the architectural landscape of South Moravia — its surprising profusion of castles and chateaus, built between the 12th and the 19th centuries, many of them designated by Unesco as sites of cultural significance. With my wife and two children, I wanted to wander through this storied countryside where the Liechtenstein noble family had made the landscape lousy with reproductions of arches, colonnades and other structures. We also wanted to explore the twin Baroque towns of Valtice and Lednice, which were built around thousand-year-old castles. To the northeast, we would visit Kromeriz, with its warrens of cobblestone lanes, where a local prince-bishop had assembled a collection of works by the greatest painters of his day in his own custom-built castle.
In short, I wanted to get a sense of Moravia through its architecture, and along the way, imagine how it might feel to live somewhere grand. If the role of a house is to allow one to dream in peace, as the philosopher Gaston Bachelard once put it, visiting the lavish buildings of South Moravia seemed perfect for a bit of daydreaming about a more beautiful way to live [...]
To read the rest of the article and see more of the slide show, visit the Travel section of the New York Times.
By EVAN RAIL
Published: September 23, 2011
All pictures care of the New York Times.
The Center for Safe Energy Helps Establish First US-Ukrainian Sister National Park Agreement
Melissa Prager EcoTravel Blog
Follow my journey from Odessa’s Black Sea to Siberia’s Lake Baikal as I meet with ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
August 16 was a historic day between Ukraine and the US, and the Center for Safe Energy was honored to be a part of it. The newly established Nizhnidnestrovsky National Park in the Odessa region of Ukraine, and Florida’s Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve signed the first sister national park agreement between the US and Ukraine.
Both parks are amazingly similar in their terrain, historic significance, and mission to balance ecological preservation and recreation, making them a good match for partnering and exchanging ideas and resources. Nizhnednestrovsky National Park is located in the delta of the Dneistr river, and like Timucuan, lies on one of the last unspoiled wetlands. The Dneistr is a transboundary river which flows over 800 miles in six regions of Ukraine and Moldova. The wetlands of the Dneistr are protected by the Ramsar convention. From this convention, one of the long-term goals was to establish a national park in the region which would protect the unique flora and fauna. After ten years of an upward battle, the park was finally founded just three years ago. Near Dniznednestrovsky National Park lies the ancient Belgorod-Dnestrovsky fortress from the 5th century B.C.E..On the territory of Timucuan, there is also a French fortress dating back to the 17th century (ancient for American standards!). We were excited to facilitate the meeting of these two parks who decided to sign this first US-Ukrainian National Park partnership!
The theme of ecotourism has become an increasingly popular topic amongst the environmental community in the countries of the former Soviet Union. One of CSE’s Ukrainian partners, the Ecological Center for Sustainable Development of Odessa, requested that we bring US experts on parks management and ecotourism to the Odessa region as consultants. During the week of August 10-18, we participated in an exchange to the Odessa region where we explored Dnizninestrovsky National Park, Tiligulsky Landscape Park, and the city of Odessa’s environmental community. Although the concept of “ecotourism” is still in its nascent stage, we saw that there is great opportunity for future development of adventure tourism to this region of Ukraine. Most adventure travelers who come to Ukraine choose the Carpathian Mountains or Crimea. Many Ukrainian and foreign tourists take cruises on the Black Sea and during their Odessa stint are usually limited to seeing the city’s top sites. We think that there is great opportunity to get people out into the great Ukrainian land for a bike ride around the national park, or explore the Dneistr by canoe and touch the lilies for good luck if you are a maiden in search of your man. Oh the possibilities…
The real question at hand that we are seeing in all the countries of the FSU in regards to ecotourism, is how to create an infrastructure for trekking into the wild in a culture that is accustomed to “wild tourism” going where their spirit takes them. Read Russian literature and you’ll read the reverence for nature and exploration-it’s just part of their culture. Introducing hiking trails to streamline tourism is such a foreign concept, although one that we really pride ourselves on in the US—National Parks—“America’s Best Idea”. Just as in our past delegations we’ve grappled with alternative energy in the FSU and came to conclude that alternative sources of energy are dependent on the local resources—in Tajikistan small-scale hydropower far outweighs energy efficiency than solar or wind. The relationship between land and people of course is dependent on the history of the land and people. Creating national parks in order to streamline the human impact on America’s greatest natural landscapes was still people-oriented. In Ukraine and Russia the concept of a national park is still limited to protecting the land from people more than for people.
We’ll be grappling with similar questions in just a few weeks in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. Until then…
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All pictures care of Melissa Prager
Creative Time Summit 3: Living as Form
September 23, 2011
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, NYU
The Creative Time Summit is a conference that brings together cultural producers—including artists, critics, writers, and curators—to discuss how their work engages pressing issues affecting our world. Their international projects bring to the table a vast array of practices and methodologies that engage with the canvas of everyday life. Participants range from art world luminaries to those purposefully obscure, providing a glimpse into an evolving community concerned with the political implications of socially engaged art. The Creative Time Summit is meant to be an opportunity to not only uncover the tensions that such a global form of working presents, but also to provide opportunities for new coalitions and sympathetic affinities. Tickets are on sale now, or you can watch live from anywhere in the world during the Summit!