Parks and Tranquility

Parks and Tranquility utilizes the power of art as a tool for community engagement and wellness.

Workshops and Programs

Join us for one of the following community programs. Registration is required as space is limited.

DATE NAME LOCATION
October 17 Bilingual Bird Watching & Nature Journaling with Sol Collective Cosumnes River Preserve
October 19 Rooted in Nature with Dr. Lisa Daniels Effie Yeaw Nature Center
November 9 Bilingual Bird Watching & Nature Journaling with Sol Collective Effie Yeaw Nature Center
November 14 Bilingual Bird Watching & Nature Journaling with Sol Collective Cosumnes River Preserve
December 5 Bilingual Bird Watching & Nature Journaling with Sol Collective Cosumnes River Preserve
December 7 Bilingual Bird Watching & Nature Journaling with Sol Collective Cosumnes River Preserve


Art Exhibits

We're excited to partner with the California State Railroad Museum and Folsom Lake State Recreational Area and the artists selected to create site specific artwork - Amy Melissa Reed, Chris Christion and Jessica Wimbley, and Dan Tran.

Art Exhibits at the California State Railroad Museum
You can visit the California State Railroad Museum to experience two new exhibits from Parks and Tranquility Grant awardees: Chókim bètana wéeye (It comes from the stars) by Amy Melissa Reed and Fieldnotes: California State Railroad Museum by Chris Christion & Jessica Wimbley

About the Exhibits:
Chókim bètana wéeye (It Comes from the Stars)
Amy Melissa Reed’s Chókim bètana wéeye (It comes from the stars) demonstrates how water moves through the landscape and connects us all. The soothing, trickling and sometimes dramatic sounds were recorded in rivers, the ocean, and inside Summit Tunnel, which played a key role in the building and completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The multi-sensory new exhibit is now on display inside the Fruit Growers Express refrigerator car in the Roundhouse at the California State Railroad Museum.  

Fieldnotes
Fieldnotes: California State Railroad Museum by Chris Christion and Jessica Wimbley is a projection-mapped video installation inside the California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) on the concrete pillars outside the Fruit Growers Express refrigerator car in the Roundhouse. The work centers on the history of black laborers and riders within railroad history including representations of Black Pullman Porters, performances as black female riders and workers, migration, archival materials from CSRM Archives, Prelinger Archives, and a repository of images produced and collected by the artists. A repetition of symbols including quilt codes used during the Underground Railroad and Hobo Codes used by migrant communities are integrated in the video collage-demarking the importance of the railroad in the mobility and migration of various populations in the US. Translucent imagery also mimics the exhibition design signage present in the museum which highlights women and BIPOC stories in conjunction CSRM exhibition installations. The result is a multilayered, visually dense collage that tells multiple stories through archived and produced imagery.

About the Artists:

Amy Melissa Reed is a Sound, Visual, Multi-instrumentalist and Performing Artist. They work with language reclamation, rematriation, indigenous ways of being, and non-hierarchal improvisation  informing their creative practice. They recently returned from the Himalayas with Susie Ibarra’s NatGeo sound team recording the source waters of the Ganges and the many beautiful sounds of North Sikkim. They founded Ma Series at Gold Lion Arts in Sacramento, CA and are Co-founder of MA SERIES ARTS, an organization to support historically underfunded artists.


Chris Christion and Jessica Wimbley are both artists/curators based in Sacramento, California. Wimbley/Christion’s interdisciplinary artistic practice includes working with ambitious video/ digital installations, including the video work Fieldnotes: Califia installed on the Digital Media Wall at California Natural Resource Agency in Sacramento, CA. Collaborative works have been featured in the traveling exhibition Mexicali Biennale: The Land of Milk and Honey, and included in the Library of Congress. Conceptually, both artists have experience working with historical, state-themed projects that reach a large audience, challenge traditional fine arts practice/ presentation in the public sphere, and include an intersectional viewpoint.

As a curatorial team, they’ve developed the curatorial project series Biomythography, with exhibitions in academic and non-profit art spaces in Southern California including Cerritos College, California Lutheran University, Eastside International, Los Angeles, University of La Verne, and Claremont Graduate University. (Photo credit : Cameron Clark)


Please contact us with any questions.
 

Community Partners

Special thanks to our community consultants Faith J. McKinnie and J. Andrea Porras and our submission review panelists Tiffany Adams (Chemehuevi / Koyoomk”awi / Nisenan), Me’Lisa James, Drucella Anne Miranda, Jazel Muñoz, Bridgètt Rangel Rexford, and Ruben Reveles.

This project is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.



Thank you to our community partners.