Land Arts of the American West

Land Arts of the American West: to inspire and support environmentally and socially engaged art practices through field-based bioregional teaching, collective learning, interdisciplinary research, community collaboration, and creative forms of publication and exhibition.

Land Arts of the American West (LAAW) is an academic program supporting field-based Art & Ecology courses at the University of New Mexico. We are committed to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students into the field of Art & Ecology as professional creative practitioners. The program’s pedagogy is unique, employing a combination of the following: student centered research and practice, intensely experiential and embodied bioregional field-based explorations, collective workshopping and projects, and opportunities to publicly present finished works. LAAW supports learning opportunities for students from all backgrounds and across creative disciplines. Our desire is to foster a diverse, inspiring, collective, critical, and safe experimental space for all participants.

LAAW offers seminar and field lab courses in both Fall and Spring Semesters. In the Fall, courses focus on Creative Agroecologies, agriculture, food justice, and ecology; and in the Spring, Environmental Art and Regenerative Ecology, ecological restoration and environmental justice. In order to sign up, students must attend an informational meeting and/or meet with LAAW faculty, Students must sign up for both the seminar (3CR) and co-requisite Field Lab (3CR) for a total of 6CR per semester. Students may choose to take LAAW in the Fall, Spring, or both. LAAW courses are also cross-listed with Biology, University Honors, Sustainability, Community & Regional Planning, and Landscape Architecture at UNM.

For more information contact
Jeanette Hart-Mann, LAAW Director: hartmann@unm.edu

Land Arts of the American West Website