ARTscend Marys Peak | 2018-2019
Location: Marys Peak
Marys Peak is the highest peak in the Oregon Coast Range. At 4,098 feet, it has been a waypoint, a beacon and a guide for many generations. The mountain is in the ancestral homeland of the Kalapuya, Wusi’n and Yaqo’n people, who have been in relationship and kinship with this land for thousands of years. Whether you've been admiring Marys Peak from a distance or exploring the trails for years, ARTscend Marys Peak is an invitation to deepen your relationship with this mountain.
In 2018, the Marys Peak Alliance, which is a part of the of Alliance for Recreation and Natural Areas (AFRANA), started ARTscend Marys Peak to express the ecological, physical, cultural and aesthetic facets of the mountain through art. AFRANA invited artists to take field trips to the mountain guided by the Marys Peak Interpreters.
In 2019, Spring Creek Project partnered with AFRANA and the Marys Peak Group of the Sierra Club to invite creative writers to participate in the program as well. Writers from across the Pacific Northwest ventured up trails, explored waterfalls and peered into the deep geological history of Marys Peak during field trips and were invited to submit their writing in several available categories, including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and a field guide entry.
ARTscend Marys Peak Chapbook
A selection committee chose art from 2018 and writing from 2019 to be included in the ARTscend Marys Peak Chapbook. We celebrated the publication of the chapbook with a reading and art show at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library on Oct. 24, 2019.
