About

INCUBATING CITIZENRY THROUGH STORY AND PLACE

The Ground Beneath Us seeks to create new models for teaching. This is a citizenship of the living world. Making images and telling stories is an intimate way to behold a place. The stories we engage with are old ones: immigrant stories, indigenous stories and imaginings for a different future. We use simple materials, we read widely, we walk, we try to understand all the stories buried beneath our feet. Geology, oral history, political history, paleontology and tree time all frame the voices of the flora, fauna, all the human and non-human inhabitants. They are the storytellers. We do this through image making, comics, shadow puppets, clay objects and drawing. Practice and embodied learning root all of our programs.

The Ground Beneath Us is available for itinerant programs to uncover the stories buried in your home soil. Contact us for more information.

ONE GROUND, TWO STATES

The seed of the program was planted in the backyard of Portland, Oregon artists Tracy Schlapp and Daniel Duford. Armand Balboni happened to be visiting on the night that Daniel was hosting a meal for his students. The occasion was a final project for a student doing an independent study on making functional pots. He provided all the handmade pots and the structure of the meal. The next day the plan was hatched to create an artist residency and an alternative teaching model rooted in landscape. During Daniel’s residency in Waterford in July 2017 he visited Harper’s Ferry. While the story of John Brown captivated him it was the revelation that the Lewis and Clark expedition was outfitted in the town as well. The week prior to that visit, Daniel visited Cape Disappointment with his daughter- the endpoint of the Lewis and Clark expedition. This provided another taproot to widen the scope of the program. The cross continental trip of Lewis and Clark becomes the metaphor for relinking the coasts.

After Covid disrupted our bicoastal programming, the projects lay fallow in the soil. Now The Ground Beneath Us is partnering with Building Five in Portland, Oregon to offer a series of lectures and workshop in 2024. Building Five is in the NW Marine Artworks studio complex, a former ironworks company that built large parts for marine projects such as Columbia River dams and Liberty Ships. The rich social and ecological history of the site is a perfect space for The Ground Beneath Us.

THE GROUND BENEATH US AT BUILDING FIVE

Building Five is a 5000 square foot installation and performance space in industrial NW Portland. Located in NW Marine Artwork, a complex of 60 plus artist studios. Building Five was established as an independent space in 2020 with the first installation in 2021.

Beginning in Autumn 2023, Ground Beneath Us and Building Five have teamed up for a series of conversations about place, storytelling and image making. For a full schedule of events, workshops and residencies go to www.buildingfive.org