Fort Bragg, 7/11/23 – The Larry Spring Museum is the recipient of a $25,000 grant from the California Humanities for its project “Redwood Time.” The project started July 8, 2023, with artist Melissa Ferrari joining the museum as artist in residence.
According to the museum, “Redwood Time” is a multi-disciplinary project “that encourages us to reevaluate the dominant narratives of settlement and resource development along the Northern Californian coast.” During her tenure as artist in residence, Ferrari will create a site-specific adaptation of a Phantasmagoria Salon de Physique (or “Physics Parlor”) that will feature an evening of animation experiments, installation work, and a magic lantern expanded cinema performance. The performance will take place on Saturday July 22 at 8 p.m. at the Larry Spring Museum, 225 E. Redwood Ave, Fort Bragg.
Below is a joint announcement from the Larry Spring Museum and the California Humanities:
California Humanities has recently announced the 2023 Humanities For All Project Grant awards. The Larry Spring Museum has been awarded $25,000 for its project entitled “Redwood Time.”
Humanities For All Project Grant is a competitive grant program of California Humanities that supports locally developed projects that respond to the needs, interests and concerns of Californians, provide accessible learning experiences for the public, and promote understanding among our state’s diverse population.
“Redwood Time” is a multi-disciplinary project that encourages us to re-evaluate the dominant narratives of settlement and resource development along the Northern Californian coast. Through creative exploration and reflection, we will produce a collaborative account of Fort Bragg that reflects formerly excluded local histories and worldviews, providing us with a richer understanding of the past we inherit and the territory we inhabit.
The primary object of our reflection is a timeline affixed to the commemorative redwood round that has dominated our downtown center since its dedication in 1943. As with similar redwood rounds, Fort Bragg’s public memorial and timeline privileges linear time as the driver of history and naturalizes far-flung Euro- and human-centric events as the default approach to understanding our past and presence.
Over the next two years, “Redwood Time” will unfold as a focused series of live performances, public art installations, and community gatherings designed to generate new understandings of our relationship to our shared geography. Together we will create an empathic and nuanced counter-narrative that will draw into question our inherited notions of individuality. Our activities will be centered around the creation of reimagined versions of the round and a new legend that reveals our messy and vital connectedness.
“California Humanities is honored to welcome our newest round of Project Grant awards,” said the organization’s President and CEO Rick Noguchi. “These projects will push the boundaries for not only how we understand and engage with our diverse array of California histories and cultures, but also provide a unique humanities lens for discussing pressing and important community issues.”
California Humanities promotes the humanities – focused on ideas, conversation and learning – as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other in order to help strengthen California. California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975. To learn more visit www.calhum.org, or follow California Humanities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
