Community Installations: Collaborative, place-based art in public spaces

Each piece was created with and for the local community, inviting participation and conversation around water, place, and shared responsibility.

Rio Grande Community Mural

Rhythms on the Rio Music Festival – Del Norte, CO (2023)

This collaborative mural was created for the Rhythms on the Rio music festival in Del Norte. Over several weeks, community members gathered to co-design, paint, and install a vibrant, place-based mural celebrating the Rio Grande. The imagery features native fish species and a great blue heron, symbols of the river’s ecological richness and cultural significance.

The mural served as a creative gathering point and visual celebration of the watershed, making space for participants to express their relationship to the river and to each other.

Community Water Web

Milagros Coffee House – Alamosa, CO (2023)

Installed in a beloved local gathering space, the Community Water Web was a participatory art installation inspired by my Making the Invisible Visible groundwater project. Designed to resemble a web or mind map, the piece visually connected the many interrelated factors influencing groundwater sustainability in the San Luis Valley.

Using photos, data visualizations, illustrations, writing, and blue string, the installation invited viewers to trace connections between agriculture, climate, water policy, and community action. Community members were encouraged to add their own water-related stories, memories, or photos to the web, making it an evolving dialogue and an accessible space for learning.