Meet the Founders
Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison
We are not apart from Nature; we are a part of Nature. This is a central contradiction of modern life. Our challenge as humans, activists, scientists and artists is bring us back into the system of which we are only a part.
Among the leading pioneers of the eco-art movement, the collaborative team of Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison (often referred to simply as “the Harrisons”) have worked for over forty years with biologists, ecologists, architects, urban planners and other artists to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development.
The Harrisons’ concept of art embraces a breathtaking range of disciplines. They are historians, diplomats, ecologists, investigators, emissaries and art activists. Their work involves proposing solutions and involves not only public discussion, but also community involvement and extensive mapping and documentation of these proposals in an art context. Past projects have focused on watershed restoration, urban renewal, agriculture and forestry issues and urban ecologies.
The Harrisons’ visionary projects have, on occasion, led to changes in governmental policy and have expanded dialogue around previously unexplored issues leading to practical implementations variously in the United States and Europe. There is a large body of literature on their work. They have exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe, and been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the European Union, the German, Dutch, French and English Governments and have won the following:
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1992 – Nagoya Biennale, Artec: 2nd Prize for “Atempause für den Sava Fluss” (translated into Japanese)
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1996 – Concrete Association Award for “California Wash”, recognizing the most original use of concrete in the U.S. that year
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2001 – Inaugural Groeneveld Prize for Greenheart Vision, awarded for outstanding contributions to the Dutch landscape
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2010 – Inaugural AWE-Inspiring Award for Arts and the Environment, presented by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management in association with the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, for their role in communicating global warming to the British public
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2013 – Inaugural Corlis Benefideo Award for Imaginative Cartography from the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS), a lifetime achievement honor
Artists and scientists
The Harrisons were historians, diplomats, ecologists, investigators, emissaries, and art activists. Their work centered on proposing creative, science-informed solutions, engaging not only in public dialogue, but also in community collaboration, extensive mapping, and detailed documentation within an artistic framework.
Their past projects have addressed watershed restoration, urban renewal, agricultural and forestry issues, and the complexities of urban ecologies.
Our Mission
Provocation
We identify the discontinuities in a world of rising heat and falling rain, and the tensions between where we are and where we need to be.
Conversation
We transform those provocations into public dialogues that explore pathways toward meaningful solutions.
Implementation
We translate those conversations into real-world actions that restore, sustain, and reimagine our shared environment.
Selected Works
Aside from the several projects currently in development by the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure, the Harrisons’ visionary projects have, on occasion, led to changes in governmental policy and have expanded dialogue around previously unexplored issues leading to practical implementations variously in the United States and Europe. There is a large body of literature on their work.
The World Ocean is a Great Draftsman 1978
A High water line is drawn around the globe. The poetic text goes into some detail about what the world might look like and feel like. It ends in a question, “When catastrophe happens, will we help each other?” 35 years later the answer appears to be maybe, at best.
The Garden of Hot Winds and Warm Rains 1996
The question is asked, “What will Bonn Germany look like with a 3°C temperature rise?” Answers are suggested by Paleobotanical research, which goes back 300 billion years and finds the Dawn Redwoods and many other species that now exist.
Greenhouse Britain 2006
An 8’ x 14’ precise model of the island of Britain with 6 projectors above it. They project on the island waters with storm surges, moving up in 2-meter increments. The idea was to democratize global warming information, by making visible what would happen to people's lands and homes as waters rose, therefore encouraging people to become planners on their own behalf.