Camp Little Hope is a team of artists. With a combined background in fine arts, education, design, economics, engineering, anthropology, and community engagement, we imagine new worlds through public artworks, curatorial interventions, designed artifacts, published information, and catalyzed epiphanies.
The Long Dash, a collaborative climate resiliency race, was created for the Philadelphia Science Festival. The Long Dash explores Philadelphia’s relationship to climate change and sea level rise through a cumulative choreographic challenge: part twister, part egg-race, part algorithmic choreography.
Kosmologym converted Den Frie into an experimental ethics gym. Kosmologym prototyped five games that challenged visitors to consider, compete or cooperate with others (human/animal, vegetable, mineral, institution). With FUKK see Kosmologym.DK for more info.
With Rise, Camp Little Hope repurposes a historic stairway at Glen Foerd to imagine the potential impact of sea level rise on different neighborhoods and landmarks in Philadelphia. Using mirrored text and the heights of the existing stairs, Rise connects global phenomena with the history of Glen Foerd and the future of the city of Philadelphia.
When Glen Foerd was built in 1850, sea level had barely changed for almost 3000 years. Sometime between 1850 and 1880, the sea began to rise. By the time the Foerderers had purchased the property in 1895, sea level had risen 2.5 inches. It rose another 7.5 inches in the 1900s. Climate change and sea level rise are driven by incredibly complex phenomena that are difficult to model, but even best case scenarios predict at least 1.3 feet of rise by 2100 with drastic cutbacks in emissions.
The Delaware river is particularly sensitive to sea level rise. A foot of global sea level rise might mean flooding in areas more than a foot above sea level. However, the exact impact on Philadelphia depends on the individual topography of each neighborhood, the varying width of the river, the severity of storms, the angle of the wind currents, and many other factors. To create this sculpture, Camp Little Hope estimated impact using the Surging Seas Risk Finder, which uses data from NOAA and NASA. You can read more about the science and assumptions of this model here.
Glen Foerd Artist in Residence more info here
Camp Little Hope spent six weeks working in and around Cullowhee, North Carolina on a sculptural intervention for the Western Carolina University campus trail system. Handmade Landscape (May 19 - August 26 2016) is an arts and research exhibition exploring the geography, botany and the impact of recent human land use on Gribble Gap. The research presented in the exhibit informed the creation of Dirtmaker, an environmental sculpture installed in the forest. As Dirtmaker disappears, it replenishes the depleted minerals in the forest’s soil.
A suite of field guides and a walking tour that explored the history of Greensboro’s South Elm Neighborhood through three conceptual lenses. Seeing, Firsts and Lawns became alternative means for connecting historical, economic and ecological stories about South Elm.
Project Website Project Blog
A climate change and biosecurity garden. Planted species are selected for their resistance to predicted conditions, and threatened features of the field are highlighted with landscaping and signage. When mature, the garden will consist of a wildflower meadow, a small orchard, a tree-lined path, and a climate calendar.
Camp Little Hope returned to Corwen to launch the Corwen Field Stwdio. The Corwen Field Stwdio explored how an arts-led awareness of the local environment - built, natural, and cultural - can shape community-conscious regeneration efforts. Events, workshops, and exhibitions took place at 15 Bridge Street (the Old Spar), The Field Beside the Car Park, and around Corwen. The Stwdio worked with local groups, residents, artists, and schoolchildren to explore roles art and The Field could play in Corwen. Corwen Field Stwdio investigated models for a future residency program and demonstrated how an art project can be a community collaboration that helps shape the development of Corwen. Corwen Field Stwdio Website
Camp Little Hope was commissioned by the Corwen Partnership, the Arts Council of Wales, and Addo, to imagine creative uses for a field that separates Corwen’s Town Square from the future platform of the Llangollen Railway. We developed three long term strategies for the field and town: Gardd Ceridwen (later became Dol Corwenna), the Toiledau Residency, and the Wayfinding project. We explored specific aspects of each strategy through art interventions.
The Bibotorium was an educational saloon and public think-tank. Camp Little Hope explored the future of water in Philadelphia through conversations with our visitors: tourists, neighbors, students, amateurs and experts. During the Hidden City Festival we worked on site, designing solutions to various issues affecting Philadelphia’s water and building boats to reference the implications of future water environments. By creating a space that is both social and scientific, we encouraged radical and imaginative conversations to address serious problems. project page +
Walker Tufts uses research and collaboration to investigate & complicate economics, kitchens, hospitality and domesticity. These complications take the form of kitchen renovations, paired meditations, posters, dinner parties, and performances.
Aislinn Pentecost-Farren is a curator and historian. She explores human relationships with knowledge through experimental exhibition design and investigations into historical museum practice. Aislinn holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mary Welcome is a citizen artist with an emphasis on cultural empowerment in rural and under-recognized communities. Her work is conversational and research-based, in response to the social, built, and natural environments we situate ourselves within. Her life-long collaborators include Cabin-Time, Shared Space Studio, Epicenter, and the USPS.
Isabella Martin explores how we fit in the world and how we relate to the spaces around us. She uses language as a means of navigation, in an approach shaped by questioning, conversation and collaboration. Her work is context specific, driven by a synthesis between experimental play and active research, working together with places and people to see what happens.
Elliott uses designed artifacts and experiences to raise questions about impact responsibility. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London (Design Interactions – 2011) and at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. (Industrial Design – 2003). He has worked with start-ups, non-profits, design consultancies and government agencies.
