Betsy Damon

Betsy Damon (born 1940[1]) is an international water artist with a focus on ecological works.[2] She has participated in a number of exhibitions and performances, including 7,000 Year Old Woman in 1977 in NYC,[3][4] and has been featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[5] She was a founding member[6] and received the Mid-Life Career Award from the Women's Caucus for Art in 1989,[7] and won the Arts and Healing Network Award[8] in 2000. At the age of 50, Betsy Damon changed the focus of her art to center on water, the conservation and protection of water and how it impacts society. Her efforts in activist art influenced the annual San Antonio River clean up,[9] as well as educated many people on the importance of water.[10] Her work raised awareness in China as well, her best known project being The Living Water Garden in the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China, the first water-themed ecological park in urban China.[11][12] In 2009, Damon was named as a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.[13]

Projects

In 1991 Damon founded Keepers of the Waters,[14] a nonprofit organization that serves as an international community to encourage "art, science and community projects for the understanding and remediation of living water systems."[14] The nonprofit is run with a collaborative approach[15] and was started with the support of the Hubert Humphrey Institute.[14]

In 2006, Damon, alongside a group of artists, scientists, and funders, met in Vancouver and created a summary report for UNESCO titled "Art in Ecology – A Think Tank on Arts and Sustainability."[16] UNESCO had commissioned a report in advance of this meeting titled "Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoART Practice", of which the meeting and summary report were a result.[16]

Exhibitions

  • 1977: 7,000 Year Old Woman, New York, N.Y.[3][17]
  • January 25 - March 22, 1987: Special Projects (Winter 1987), MoMA PS1.[1]
  • January 17 - March 14, 1982: The Wild Art Show, MoMA PS1.[1]

Further reading

Articles

  • Damon, Betsy. "The 7,000 Year Old Woman," Heresies 1, no.3 (Fall 1977)
  • Forney, Matt. "Environmentalism By Ordinary People is Perilous in China--U.S. Woman Makes Enemies But Perseveres to Help Clean Up Stinking River," The Wall Street Journal (Jul. 2000)
  • Carruthers, Beth. "Art, Sweet Art: Adaptive, Hybrid and Flexibe, EcoART Moves Hearts, Changes Minds and Ultimately Alters Behaviors," Alternatives Journal 32, no. 4-5 (Dec. 2006)
  • Jones, Diana. "Development Project Uses Art to Control Water Flow in Larimer," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Jan. 2015)

Books

Web Sources

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Betsy Damon | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  2. ↑ Jones, Diana (2015-01-26). "Development project uses art to control water flow in Larimer". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  3. 1 2 "The 7,000 Year Old Woman". Jennifer Stob. 2012-08-23. Retrieved 2017-11-07.
  4. ↑ "A Conversation with Betsy Damon: Environmental Art as a Life of Action". Bloom. 2016-09-06. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  5. ↑ "Betsy Damon | Blue Hole, from Femfolio | The Met". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Retrieved 2017-11-07.
  6. ↑ "Keepers of the Waters: The Betsy Damon Archive". Asia Art Archive in America. 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  7. ↑ Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013-12-19). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 9781135638894.
  8. ↑ "Betsy Damon: 2000 AHN Awardee". www.artheals.org. Retrieved 2017-11-07.
  9. ↑ Forney, Matt (2000-06-20). "Environmentalism By Ordinary People is Perilous in China --- U.S. Woman Makes Enemies But Perseveres to Help Clean Up Stinking River". The Wall Street Journal: A.22 – via ProQuest.
  10. ↑ "A Conversation with Betsy Damon: Environmental Art as a Life of Action". Bloom. 2016-09-06. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  11. ↑ "Living Water Garden". www.gochengdu.cn. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  12. ↑ "Betsy Damon – Artist, Spokesperson and Guardian of Our Living Waters". www.healing-power-of-art.org. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  13. ↑ "2009 Honorees". National Women's History Project. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  14. 1 2 3 Damon, Betsy (2017). "Keepers of the Waters". Keepers of Waters. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  15. ↑ Moyer, Twylene (2012). The New Earthwork: Art, Action, Agency. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press. p. 129. ISBN 9780295991641.
  16. 1 2 Carruthers, Beth (2006). "Art, Sweet Art: Adaptive, Hybrid and Flexible, EcoART Moves Hearts, Changes Minds and Ultimately Alters Behavior". Alternatives Journal. 32 (4–5): 24–30 – via Gale Databases.
  17. ↑ Damon, Betsy (1977). "The 7,000 Year Old Woman" (PDF). Heresies. 1 (3): 11–13.
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