PROJECTS

Up Your Watershed Tour! - with Voices of Nature

Year		2009
Proponent		Artist Response Team (ART)
Project type		Engagement
FSWP funding source		Living Rivers
Grant amount		$30,000
Total project value		$97,360
Other project funders		Encorp Pacific, The Nature Trust of BC, The Cooperators, Vancouver Arbutus Rotary Club
ID number		09-LR 46-E

Up Your Watershed Tour! Final Report

Location: Basin wide

Project Summary

Overview

The goal of the Up Your Watershed! Tour is to promote broader understanding of the importance of watershed stewardship, and inspire positive action and behavior change in residents of Fraser Basin communities.

The Up Your Watershed! Tour will travel to Williams Lake (Nov. 5 - Gibraltar Room) Surrey (Dec. 3 - Bell Performing Arts Centre), Vancouver (Jan. 21, 2010 - Norman Rothstein Theatre) Vancouer (Mar. 2, 2010 - Vancouver East Cutural Centre). In each location, teachers and students will spend weeks learning a program of songs about salmon, watershed stewardship, rivers, forests and sustainability. Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright, along with pro-apprentice artists, Shawn Soucy and Rachael Chatoor, will spend time rehearsing with students the week leading up to the concerts.

Teachers use ART’s Cycle of Life and Salish Sea learning resources to provide activities that are linked to song lyrics, and fulfill prescribed learning outcomes.

Local conservation groups are invited to provide additional resources, speakers, workshops and field trips to the schools.

The culminating event is a fabulous concert that features student choirs performing with Holly, Kevin and the Dream Band, for the whole community. Beautifully illustrated printed programs are distributed to audience members with lyrics and information. Students deliver song introductions that they create, talking about the issues in the songs, and what they think people can do to help.

Objectives
1. Protect the ecological integrity of watersheds and salmon habitats in the Fraser Basin.
2. Provide a platform for local conservation groups to achieve education and outreach in schools and, facilitate behavior change in the broader community.
3. Bring the community together to celebrate our precious, incredibly beautiful natural heritage, and inspire citizens young and old to work together to protect it.
4. Build connections amongst the communities located on the Fraser River, and build a sense in citizens of �critical mass� of action being taken collectively to protect wild salmon.

Methods

ART uses a cultural tool for science education, and positve action: the Voices of Nature Community Outreach Model. It involves artists, youth, music and celebration to engage people in learning and acting on behalf of the environment.

ART creates songs about nature, that youth love to sing. Cycle of Life educators handbooks provide activities linked to song lyrics that fulfill prescribed learning outcomes, and help teachers to use music in the classroom to educate about sustainability. Culminating concerts bring the school and community together to celebrate students learning and inspire the public to take action.

ART has a rich library of songs about ecology. In order to focus on salmon and watersheds for this project, we will produce a song called Up Your Watershed! (UYW!), which will appear on the new album, I AM THE FUTURE.

UYW! gives conservation groups such as the Cariboo Chilcoten Conservation Society opportunities to work with schools, during the time that students are learning songs. UYW! helps them engage the public by having a presence at the concerts with information booths and displays.

The CDs and learning resources are a learning legacy available in the future for community groups and teachers, to stimulate salmon education and watershed stewardship.

Concerts provide a platform for involving First Nations, businesses, governments and learning institutions. The beautiful music and passionate performances by students and artists are transformative, and incredibly positive. The shows bring people from all walks of life together. This facilitates cooperation.

At 12:26 pm on 1/22/10, Judith said:

This tour will definitely be a great one. One thing people will learn about this is to like the nature.
Iberostar Grand Bavaro