Environment, Society and Culture Masterclass

Join Dr Lisa Blackmore in a free (virtual) Masterclass suitable for those with an interest in art history/curating, heritage and environmental studies. This session is designed to give prospective students the opportunity to sample an academic taster at a postgraduate level at Essex

In this seminar, Lisa will reflect on how curatorial practice can stimulate critical reflection on hydrosocial well-being, focusing on how food can serve as a medium to support reconnections to a contaminated river basin in Colombia. She will describe and analyse the Piquete del Río Bogotá—a communal lunch curated in 2023 through a curatorial collaboration led by entre—ríos, the international collective she directs. This event staged a gathering of 16 river defenders and caretakers at the iconic heritage site, the Tequendama Falls, to share a menu of food grown in the watershed. 

The event was part of RIO BOGOTÁ, an ongoing collaborative, interdisciplinary project created to address the protracted ecological crisis affecting the Bogotá River, one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world. The project connects and disseminates the care-taking efforts of Indigenous Mhuysca councils, ecological restoration projects, community aqueducts, environmental education, nature tourism, heritage initiatives, and organic food producers at different points of the river basin protection, to uplift their actions as a culture of care disseminated by exhibitions, workshops and publications that raise awareness of creative, citizen and intersectional solutions to environmental challenges. 

Register here for this virtual session.

For any queries or more information about this session, contact us.

Browse our Masters courses in the School of Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies 

See also:

• MA Environment, Society and Culture
• MA Art History and Theory
• MA Heritage and Museum Studies
• MA Curating