Basia Irland, photo courtesy of the artist.
Join us for an afternoon Visual Arts Open Lecture with Basia Irland, an author, activist, and pioneer of ecological art, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
This Fulbright Scholar will give an illustrated presentation about her international large-scale water projects, including A Gathering of Waters, which fosters dialogue and connects communities along the entire length of rivers; Waterborne Disease Scrolls, based on research with epidemiologists; and Ice Book, consisting of sculptures embedded with native seed texts that are floated down global streams to aid river restoration. Her projects have been featured in over 70 international publications.
Irland is on faculty for the Summer Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) program, which combines the freedom of a self-directed residency with the supportive benefits of an organized program. As well as receiving the space to create, research, and experiment, participants are part of an international community of contemporary artists committed to developing and expanding their practice.
This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.
Visual Arts is supported by Fondation DRG and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.
About Basia Irland
Basia Irland
Fulbright Scholar Basia Irland is an artist, author, and activist who creates international large-scale water projects featured in her books Water Library (University of New Mexico Press) and Reading the River: The Ecological Activist Art of Basia Irland (Museum De Domijnen, the Netherlands). A monograph, Basia Irland, Repositories: Portable Sculptures for Waterway Journeys, is authored by Patricia Watts. Texas A & M University Press published What Rivers Know: Listening to the Voices of Global Waterways in 2025 with 210 color images. Irland is professor emerita, Department of Art, University of New Mexico, where she founded the Art & Ecology Program. Her website, basiairland.com, contains extensive documentation, including collaborations with scientists, projects along the entire length of waterways, ephemeral Ice Book series, portable Repositories, waterborne disease scrolls, essays about global rivers, and images from her large museum retrospective in the Netherlands. Her art has been featured in over seventy international publications.