Sam Bower Email & Phone Number

Oakland, California, United States

My current thinking around culture and climate comes to roost at http://articulture.systems. The website offers an anchor collection of writings and ideas about something I’m calling “articulture” which seeks to bring a systems approach to ecocultural planning and transformation.I interview, research, consult, educate, and offer strategic insights into the implications of a systems approach to culture design. At its core, is the insight that our contemporary (“western”, industrial, settler-colonial) understanding of “art” is rooted in the illusion of separation and may itself be an impediment to a more holistic, integrative, “regenerative” culture. In short, I believe this separation mindset has contributed to our rampant global carbon emissions. Only through a profoundly interconnected perspective, will we have the motivation and capacity to avoid the most severe climate disaster scenarios and adapt to the radical changes facing all beings in the years ahead. To maintain a paradigm, you need to surround yourself with constant reminders. That’s where articulture comes in.

Boulder, Colorado, United States

EcoArts Connections, brings together science, environmental, arts, and other fields in programming to increase awareness of global change and inspire sustainable living. I am working with Founding Director - Marda Kirn, and Melanie Kirby - Institute of American Indian Arts, on an NEA-funded project exploring new, existing, and ancestral roles for the arts and culture in the face of global change. The project begins by convening leading artists, Indigenous knowledge holders, scientists, sustainabilists, and others for a series of conversations.

Oakland, California, United States

I co-anchored a gift economy-based home in a low-income neighborhood dedicated to radical simplicity, integral nonviolence, permaculture, community service, and meditation. As full-time volunteers, we redistributed surplus organic produce from farmers' markets, hosted meditation gatherings, and de-escalated street violence. We led kindness, generosity, and “giftivism” related activities in schools and public spaces throughout the Bay Area through the ServiceSpace network of volunteers. As an early part of the Canticle Farm community, we helped shape the trajectory and community engagement strategy of this now-thriving example of the Great Turning.

San Francisco, California, United States

Worked with the David and Carla Crane Foundation, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, SF Park and Recreation Department as well as landscape architects, environmental artists, and local community groups to successfully redesign a 1.7 acre neglected section of Golden Gate Park to emphasize community, art, and ecology. I studied traffic flow and use patterns and researched the history and context of this area to help shift public awareness of the significance of this historic property and its role in the early Hippie Movement in the 1960s and 70s. I planned and led multiple community gatherings onsite throughout the redesign process with invited musicians, place-based art projects, and historical tours. The site continues to be a popular and unique section of Golden Gate Park featuring ongoing public art commissions and temporary conceptual gardening projects.

Corte Madera, California, United States

I developed and led a pioneering online museum of environmental art with a core team of 2-3 full-time employees, various subcontractors, and 150+ online contributors. Worked with artists, curators, and writers to develop online content, co-published Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies with the Cincinnati Center for Contemporary Art, and launched a highly successful line of printed Environmental Art Calendars with Amber Lotus Publishers that continued for 22 years. I participated in and presented at numerous art and ecology conferences in the US and internationally, and spoke at museums, universities, NASA, and an Americans for the Arts Think Tank hosted by the RAND Corporation. During its decade of peak activity, greenmuseum•org provided a central hub for a rapidly expanding global art movement for millions of visitors worldwide. It is now accessible through the Internet Archive.

Corte Madera, California, United States

I co-founded a collaborative environmental art studio dedicated to presenting found natural objects as art as well as creating outdoor site-specific sculpture. We showed work in galleries and museums and installed sculptures for private clients. A personal highlight was when as the lead artist, we received a Creative Work Fund Grant to work with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and Federal Agencies to design and build an outdoor sculpture that facilitated research and provided habitat for burrowing seabirds on Southeast Farallon Island, 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco.