ArtPlace Mississippi is developing an outdoor education curriculum for a free camp next summer, thanks to a grant received from the Delta National Heritage Area (DNHA).
“We received $14,000,” said Hart Henson, director of ArtPlace.
Henson and artist Robin Whitfield will develop a program aimed at opening the eyes of locals and visitors alike to the natural treasures of the Delta.
“I’ve been wanting to find a way to get kids outside for a decade,” Whitfield said. “I feel it’s absolutely necessary for the future.”
“This is the first round of grants from DNHA, and we’re excited to be selected,” Henson said. “We just want people who live in the Delta to maybe see it with new eyes.”
Both women see this as an opportunity to raise awareness of natural features and public lands that provide habitat for wildlife and recreational opportunities for visitors and local residents.
To that end, Whitfield will spend several months researching ways to pull together some of the Delta’s features into a curriculum that will integrate the natural world with art, a particular passion that drives her own work.
Cane, cotton, cypress, clay and colors or natural pigments derived from native plants have been identified as the art aspect of the program’s raw materials.
“I already play with these materials as an artist,” Whitfield said. “I want to give people an entry point into interacting with them.”
Beyond making art, the program will take young people out into bayous, wildlife refuges, rivers and forests, especially those that remain wild in the largely manmade landscape of the Delta.
“We live in one of the most changed landscapes on earth here in the Delta,” Whitfield said. “About 1 percent of old growth forest remains. This is the last little remnant of what this land used to be. I want kids to understand that’s not just some green stuff over there that’s always been here but to know the difference between the agricultural landscape and natural habitats that have been here forever.”
Henson said the curriculum they develop will be taught in next summer’s camp but will also be made available to visitors to the Delta through a partnership with the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“The curriculum will ultimately be available online for anybody to use,” she said.
The summer program will partner with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other entities to get participants out on the water in kayaks, hiking in public spaces, and talking about biodiversity, wildlife and the natural world.
“I grew up in Greenwood,” Henson said, “but never realized how many great places we had to hike, explore and kayak — recreational opportunities besides hunting.”
Whitfield said she has lived in the Delta for 20 years and has heard a calling here to get out in nature.
“I’m concerned that most people don’t go outside and really look at the wild places,” she said. “I want to help people not be scared.”
Reasonable caution will be emphasized, what’s safe and what’s not, but the goal is to help people feel comfortable in the wild.
“I like to let kids see stuff, let them be curious and in the moment,” Whitfield said. “Let nature be a place where you can go and push out fear and anxieties.”
Delta Natural Heritage Area grants in the amount of $160,000, administered by the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, were handed out recently to 11 organizations throughout the region.
ArtPlace Mississippi’s grant will kick off a pilot program that both Henson and Whitfield hope to see continued in years to come.
“In a nutshell,” Whitfield said, “I’m hoping to create activities and events that get people to have a new perspective about nature and the way we perceive the Delta, both past and future.”
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
