by Claire Long Cote

NeoRio is an annual event celebrating art, nature, culture, and community at Wild Rivers Recreation Area near Questa, New Mexico. Hosted by the Bureau of Land Management’s Taos Field Office, NeoRio is organized by the environmental arts initiative LEAP (Land, Experience and Art of Place), in collaboration with John Wenger of Wild Earth Studio, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, the Town of Questa and other cosponsors. Set for September 25th and 26th, NeoRio 2010 will proudly feature environmental artist and sculptor Lynne Hull and will present an outdoor screening of John Wenger’s new short film “Nature Tramp.” NeoRio  made its debut in 2009, featuring water artist Basia Irland with an ice book launch on the Rio, a sunset potluck dinner, and a campfire with live music on the rim of the gorge.
Created as a platform for innovative ecological artists, NeoRio is also an opportunity for cross-pollination between artists, conservationists, and others interested in protecting, celebrating, and experiencing the many aspects of our communities and wild lands. The ancient relationship between humans, our fellow creatures, and our environment is a complex story of interdependence that we each author every day with our own choices and actions. NeoRio attempts to tell and to explore this story through innovative and creative installations, interventions, and interactions with our environment. It asks the questions what is the role of art in wilderness conservation and what is the role of wilderness conservation in art? In her artist’s statement, Lynne Hull describes her work: “My installations provide shelter, food, water or space for wildlife as eco-atonement for their loss of habitat to human encroachment.… Most [of my] artworks function in the temporal gap between the time reclamation of damaged sites begins and the time nature recovers” (http://www.eco-art.org/).
Lynne will be creating three site-specific installations for NeoRio 2010 dealing with both habitation enhancement and erosion. Over the course of three days, students, artists, and members of the public will be involved in the creation of these new sculptural works.
On Saturday, September 25th, at 2:00 PM, all are invited to the Wild Rivers Recreation Area Visitor Center, where the event will begin with short presentations from event organizers and a talk by Lynne Hull, followed by the opportunity to participate in creating one of her sculptures. All are then invited to the Montoso campground for an evening celebration with food, a campfire, live
music, and outdoor short film screenings.
September 25th and 26th!
Please being your own chairs for the campfire as well as drinks and a dessert to share. For those interested, camping is available at Wild Rivers for $7 per night. On Sunday, all are invited to visit Lynne Hull’s installations and participate in other planned activities to explore the unique environment of the Wild Rivers Recreation Area. NeoRio events are free and open to all. Come celebrate art and nature and explore the Wild Rivers Recreation Area on September 25th and 26th!
To find out more about attending NeoRio 2010 or to become involved as an artist or volunteer, visit www.leapsite.org, contact emailforleap@gmail.com or
call 575-586-2362 or 575-586-1150.

CHECK OUT NEO RIO ON OUR EVENTS CALENDAR