01 March, 2020

Mesa Verde AiR

Big news! I will be the Artist in Residence at Mesa Verde National Park the first two weeks in May. I'm so excited for this wonderful opportunity to spend some real time in this environment steeped in culture and history. Mesa Verde is not only a US national park, it is a World Heritage Site.

I'm extremely interested in the connections that people, or a people, form with specific places. So being able to explore a place such as Mesa Verde, home to the ancestral Pueblo people, holds a lot of promise for me. I have a lot of learning and research to do before the residency, and am looking forward to my time there.

Let me say how much I love our national parks. Not only do they preserve and protect areas of great natural beauty and cultural significance, but the national parks service makes these wonderful places accessible to all. That is such an important mission. But there is another thing they do for us as a nation that I have never seen mentioned: the parks are outstanding ambassadors for the USA. Every time I have been to a national park, I meet people that are visiting from other countries. I'm so pleased and proud that these visitors know us as a people who value our special places enough to set them aside for preservation. Thanks, NPS....long may you serve.

The image for this post is from the Mesa Verde Museum Association. I haven't been there yet to take my own picture. https://www.mesaverde.org