Our First Week in Moscow

Art for Water's first week in Moscow, Idaho was busy with paper tearing, school visits, a presentation to the Moscow Rotary Club, and typing in selected written contributions for the video portion of the Stream of Conscience installation. We visited three schools in Moscow – the high school and two elementary schools – as well as a junior high/high school in Potlatch, which was about a 40 minute drive through dramatic countryside. The responses from students have been thoughtful and heartfelt and will make this Stream of Conscience installation at the Prichard Art Gallery compelling and poignant.

A big hit in the presentation is the five gallon gas can that we have filled with water for the students to experience the weight of water. They learn that young girls, mostly in Africa, carry five gallons of water between four and eight miles every day for their families and as a result they are not able to go to school. The fact that it's the girls that have to do this usually gets a rise out of the group. Most of the students agree that this chore would not be a welcome one. Although there are always a couple in the crowd (usually in high school) who claim carrying 40 pounds of water eight miles every day would be easy!

We look forward to our school visits this week in Moscow and Troy, as well as  two presentations at the Prichard Gallery on Friday with Terra Graphics, an environmental engineering company.

Thank you to Mohawk Fine Papers for donating all of the beautiful, cover weight paper for this project in Moscow! All of the participants love working on such high-quality paper and relish the process of choosing from all of the exquisite colors.