Art for Water: Walk for Water in Portland, Maine

Sunday was World Water Day and and in Portland, Maine SOH20, Food and Water Watch, Maine Water Allies, and Take Back the Tap organized a Walk for Water followed by a celebration at the North Star Cafe. The weather was warm and sunny one minute and freezing, snowy, and windy the next, but there was quite a crowd gathered to walk 4 miles, which represents a common distance that people have to walk in order to get water for their homes and families. There were huge puppets, The Leftist Marching Band of Portsmouth, NH, dogs, children, and citizens of all ages concerned about global water issues and water privatization issues close to home. After the walk, everyone congregated at the North Star Cafe on Congress Street to hear from the sponsors, The Leftist Marching Band, poets, and yours truly giving a presentation about my installation project. It was pretty exciting to spend the better part of the day with so many people who are active in trying to protect water resources in Maine.

Art for Water: World Water Day

Amy Dowley, the Maine Organizer for Food & Water Watch, has invited me to attend a World Water Day celebration in Portland on Sunday and to give a presentation about 13,699. This is a much appreciated invitation after trying to make something happen in Concord, NH for World Water Day and not succeeding. I had hoped, back in September, to set up the installation, actually unveil it (in process), in front of the State House. After the piece started to come together, however, I realized that this was unrealistic unless I could rent a tent for a whole week, which I could not afford to do. Plan B was to set up a small table and a very scaled down version in the Visitor Center inside the State House, but the powers that be did not think that this was a good idea. Plan C was to acquire the use of an empty storefront on Main Street for a week and set up the installation in process, but the owner would not agree to it. So, I was feeling kind of all dressed up with no place to go when Amy's invitation appeared. There'll be a Walk for Water, which starts behind the Hannaford parking lot, followed by a gathering at the North Star Cafe on Congress Street.