Follow Karen Goulet as she responds to the changing world in a time of COVID-19. Her original exchange residency was postponed, but she continues to use the Mississippi River as her inspiration. She calls this set-back, her “detour.” More >>

The Big River Continuum cultivates creative exchanges connecting communities of the Mississippi River from the headwaters to the delta.

A Studio in the Woods is pleased to announce a new collaborative exchange residency in partnership with University of Minnesota’s Itasca Biological Station and Weisman Art Museum. Big River Continuum Residencies cultivate creative exchanges connecting communities of the Mississippi River from the Headwaters to the Delta.

Taking inspiration from the Ojibwe name Misiziibi, or gichi-ziibi meaning Huge River, this initiative turns the Mississippi River in its entirety into a platform for creative collaboration. It strives to connect geographies and sectors and to synergize the uniqueness of regional and indigenous cultures, artists and scholars in a shared process of inquiry.

Two indigenous artists, Karen Goulet (Watermark Art Center) from the Headwaters and Monique Verdin from the Delta (Louisiana’s United Houma Nation), will travel to the opposite end of the river from their respective homes to be in residence. This program seeks to propel collaboration across regions and ignite inquiry into the inter-connectedness of cultures, research and river/land environments.

University of Minnesota’s Itasca Biological Station and Weisman Art Museum, partnering closely with Tulane University’s A Studio in the Woods, supports a creative exchange program that links the headwaters and the deltas of the Big River, the Mississippi. Artists participate in residency programs, collaborate across regions, and ignite the inquiry into the interconnectedness of cultures, research and river/land environments.

Founded in 1909, Itasca Station maintains a mission of place-based biological research, teaching, and engagement at the Mississippi River headwaters. Since 2001, A Studio in the Woods implements its mission to protect and preserve the Mississippi River bottomland hardwood forest and provides a tranquil haven where artists and scholars reconnect with creative energy.

The Big River Continuum was seeded by the Itasca Station and the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences to advance a self-propelled program that integrates the arts with scholarship as a habit. The program is facilitated by Curator in Residence Rebecca Dallinger as part of the Weisman Museum’s Target Studio for Creative Collaboration of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus. Target Studio for Creative Collaboration is a unique museum program dedicated to collaborations across sectors, academic disciplines and creative practices, supporting and promoting work that radically diversifies knowledge.

The concept behind the Big River Continuum comes from the River Continuum Concept (RCC) which describes the entire river system as a continuously integrating series of physical gradients and associated biotic adjustments as the river flows from headwater to mouth.