In the Heart of the Beast Theater, In Collaboration with On the Commons,
presented Episode 3 of Invigorate the Common Wellon Saturday, July 26, 2008

Decorate the Well in Gratitude

Bringing Water
Mosaic by Lori Greene

July 26, 2008 - HOBT celebrates its newly restored lobby drinking fountain with a free family festival.

HOBT concluded Phase One of the Invigorate the Common Well project with live music, an outdoor street carnival, puppet shows, and art-making activities, on the final day of the 68th Aquatennial Festival right here on Lake Street.

Lake Street, from Bloomington to 15th Avenue, was closed for the day to make room for activities inspired by old-fashioned carnival games about disappearing aquifers, brain teasers about water issues, a fortune teller, and “taste testing.”

Public and private advocacy groups created interactive, kid-friendly demonstrations about storm water runoff, sewage treatment and rapidly filling landfills, in Spanish and English.

The festival continued Inside the theater, with hands-on art making activities, short videos, puppet shows and a gallery of water paintings contributed through an open community call for paintings about water.

The emphasis was on FUN for all as we considered local and global issues surrounding WATER and how individual actions can make a difference. 

Sponsors:

Threshold Foundation
Minneapolis
Public Works
COMPAS Community Art Fund
COMPAS
Arts Work Program
MN Dept. of Health, Environmental
Health Division, Drinking Water Protection Section
Park Midway Bank

Downloads

Drink!
Illustrations by Sandy Spieler
Clyde Bellecourt speaking about water
Clyde Bellecourt -photo: Eric Altenberg
Gamelan Orchestra and dancers
Gamelan and Dancers - photo: Nick Lethert

Area 1: The Quality of
Our Mississippi Watershed

(This area sponsored by Minneapolis Public Works, Division of Surface Water & Sewers)

Into the River Riverwalk

  • A giant game board, progressing from the Headwaters to the Mouth of the Mississippi River through the situations of our daily lives that affect the positive & negative quality of the River.

What Do You Find in the River?

  • A Fishpond built especially for very small children to discover what one finds in the River

Water!

  • A performance for small children (and their families) focusing on Minnesota’s 150 Year Connection to Water

Fortunes Here!

  • A fortune teller will endow people with their ability to be fabulous stewards of Our Common Water, citing absurd, fun and heroic situations within the backdrop of watershed / commons thinking.

Photo Opportunities

  • See yourself as part of the Mississippi Watershed!

Information/Advocacy Booths

  • Mpls Public Works,
    Div. of Surface Water & Sewers
  • Friends of a Mississippi River

Inside the Lobby

  • The Renovated Drinking Fountain!!
  • Prayer Ties Gathered from
    Episode 1 : Come to the Well
  • Participatory Installation of Painting of
    Water Flags to Decorate the Well in Gratitude
  • Cabinets of Water Curiosities

Inside the Foyer

  • Designs for the 8 New Public Drinking Fountains Commissioned by the City of Minneapolis
  • Video Collage of Water moving from Rain to the River, through the public works to our fountain, and back to the river
Esther Ouray
Esther Ouray -photo: Eric Altenberg
Gamelan Orchestra and dancers
Installation: Sandy Spieler - photo: Nick Lethert

Area 2: About the Quantities
of Water We Use

Shrinking Wonder ! ? !

  • A game of “musical chairs” focused
    on the situation of the shrinking aquifers.

Carry Me!

  • Experience how heavy Water is… Water hand carried in world, and water carried in pipes.

Allota Wata

  • Reductionist cooking show with host “Allota Water” demonstrating how much of the world’s Water is available for use, and how much USA uses compared to the rest of the world.

For a Strawberry Pie

  • Puppet show revealing the visible & invisible consumption of US water through the making of strawberry pie in the middle of the winter.

Wrestling Match: Lawn vs. Prairie

  • Handpuppet show wrestling with the question of why lawns are such Water guzzlers.

Cycles of Water

  • An interactive display of the Cycles of Water, about: the journey water makes up and down and back to the ground and around and around; the journey water makes through time; the cycles of health and poison back to health again, what we can do.

Information/Advocacy Booths

  • HOBT Main Information Booth

In the Auditorium

  • Participatory Painting of Flags
    to Decorate the Well in Gratitude
  • Invigorate the Common Well Mural

Videos in the Back Stage

  • Our Water Commons
    Video collage exploring the physical necessity of water, and the question of who sits “at the table” of water deliberations.
  • Water: a Right or a Privilege?
    Video Documentary Presenting questions & issues of the privatization of water & the commons of water.
Water Speaker
photo: Eric Altenberg
Gamelan Orchestra and dancers
The Brass Messengers -photo: Nick Lethert

Area 3: Questions of Public and Private Water, Tap and Bottled Water

Is Water Trivial??

  • Guessing game about facts of Minneapolis Water Works, bottled H2O and other water systems.

Taste Testing

  • Compare the taste of tap water w/ bottled waters.
  • Sponsored by the MN Dept. of Health,
    Drinking Water Division

From River to the River

  • A performance featuring the journey of water from the Mississippi River, through the waterworks, and back to the River. 
  • Includes a bit about bottled Water as well.

Information /Advocacy Booths

  • On the Commons
  • Water Reclamation Group
  • Stop the Bottle Campaign
  • Minneapolis Water Works Drinking Water Treatment and Distribution
  • The Minnesota Department of Health,
    Drinking Water Division

The Dedication Ceremony

3 - 3:45 pm in the Street
and in the Theatre’s Lobby

  • Anishinabe Academy Drummers sing
    Honor song to the Water
  • Welcome from Sandy Spieler
  • A blessing and few words from Clyde Bellecourt
  • A few more words From Sandy Spieler, Performance of What If?!, and words from Gary Schiff, Karen Clark, Rachel Breen, the plumber, Susan Gust and Harvey Winje
  • Intro to Joko and Tri Sutrisno, Gamelan students, Roy McBride, HOBT performers
  • Invitation to the Well - White animals, Gamelan and dancers inside, poem outside.
  • Final honor song/dance lead by the
    Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc
  • Music by the Brass Messengers follows
  • Music by the Gamelan follows in the Fountain Room