RIDGELINE PROJECT

A Collaborative Art Experience by ET Projects at Oak Spring Garden Foundation Celebrates Art and Environmental Activism

On Oct.1 and 2, as part of The Piedmont Environmental Council’s 50th Anniversary Celebration this year, ET Projects’ newest collaborative performance event, Ridgeline, will bring community and creativity together through performance, experiential art, and environmental activism for two site-specific happenings at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation’s Rokeby Airstrip at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

On Saturday, Oct. 1 at 6:30 p.m., Ridgeline will be the signature highlight of PEC’s 50th Anniversary Farm-to-Table Dinner and Gala, incorporating 500 guests into a mesmerizing art experience accompanied by the live music of multi-Grammy award nominee Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen.  On Sunday, Oct. 2 at 6 p.m., Ridgeline becomes a community collaboration carried out by up to 500 local public and private schoolchildren.

Both community events open with a performance by Orange County resident and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater alumna Demetia Hopkins, choreographed by another Ailey alumna, Lara Wilson, to a commissioned piece by Dr. Dena Jennings of Imani Works. With LED-lit umbrellas whose canopies showcase images inspired by regional endangered flora, the gatherings become a dance of light, and from afar, a vibrant field of plants and flowers swelling and swaying with grace and joy at sunset. Through collaboration and involvement, Ridgeline participants become artists, dancers, choreographers, neighbors, and friends, transforming each person into the artwork itself. Hosted jointly by Oak Spring Garden Foundation and Piedmont Environmental Council and commemorated with prints from the event by ArtStar, Ridgeline will bring people together through art and experience while highlighting the need for community, creativity, and environmental activism.

“As PEC celebrates 50 years of community-based conservation to protect and restore individual properties and a broader landscape from the Blue Ridge downstream to the Chesapeake Bay, Ridgeline brings us all together in a joint performance that draws attention to the beauty of the interconnections between us and the enormous benefit of our combined efforts over the years and into the future. We are so proud and delighted that, through Elizabeth Turk’s unique and inspired experiential approach to art, we are able to invite the broader community and next generation of environmental stewards to celebrate this beautiful region with us,” said Piedmont Environmental Council Board Chair Jean Perin.

“Imagination is my defense when faced with challenges,” Elizabeth Turk of ET Projects said. “Our experiential art events help spread insight, passion, and a concept of creativity accessible to all. Using movement, music and technology, while surrounded by nature, we hope to inspire dialog, raise consciousness and invite individuals to transcend boundaries as a larger, creative and more optimistic community.”

“We are delighted to involve our local community, and especially our local schools, in this unique experience that is not only innovative and fun, but also helps raise awareness of the vital importance of environmental stewardship,” said Sir Peter Crane, President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

ET Projects is spearheaded by Elizabeth Turk, an artist known primarily as a sculptor of marble, who expanded her portfolio to include public art experiences through ET Projects Foundation, a 501c3. A native to Southern California, she is a MacArthur Fellow, an Annalee & Barnett Newman Foundation and Joan Mitchell recipient, and has been a Smithsonian Artist Resident Fellow. Her work has been represented by Hirschl and Adler Modern in NYC for 20 years.

Interview Opportunities: Elizabeth Turk and members of her team are available for virtual and phone interviews leading up to the event, and could be for in-person interviews in the days leading up to the event. If interested, please contact Evan Senn, Media Advisor, ETProjects Foundation at (310) 849-1760, or evanasenn@gmail.com.