Please Help Invigorate the Common Well
A
Letter from Sandy Spieler,
Artistic Director,
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre
As a lover of Water, I am increasingly alarmed by the growing water
crisis in the world, and I am particularly stirred by the debates on
Water “ownership”.
To be honest, I do not hear this debate—I feel it. I feel this word “ownership” paired with Water as a violation that rises from the inside of my very cells.
If Water is essential to all of Life, then access to healthy Water is essential for all Life, a “commons” for all to share! This is a BASIC RIGHT, isn’t it?
Why does this simple question open up such complexities of issues related to water quality and consumption as well as “ownership”?
Invigorate the Common Well, a public art/ public health project, rises from my desire to understand these questions within the tangible details of my daily life. It is an immersion into the complex geological and human systems that bring water to my thirst…through the lens of the dysfunctional drinking fountain in the lobby of our Avalon Theater.
Why my interest in this fountain?
According to local legend, there was once a beautiful fountain at the center of the Avalon Theater. Yet according to my memory of 19 years, the only trace remaining is a drinking fountain decorated with the sign “Out of Order”. Those who come thirsty to the Avalon now find their water for sale in plastic bottles in the Theater’s lobby.
I now see this broken fountain as a sad shrine to the neglect of our public “commons”. Instead of investigating what is wrong with our fountain and investing in public water health through its repair, our theater inadvertently has supported a system of privatized water through the sale of plastic bottled water.
To un-do this situation, we propose to repair our Fountain as an intentional act to assure healthy water for any and all who thirst.
Invigorate the Common Well accompanies the progress of the Fountain renovation in 3 Episodes investigating issues of water quality, quantity and “ownership”. (Description follows.) Performances begin in the Avalon Theater, and the next year, expand into the city of Minneapolis and beyond. Our intent is that Invigorate the Common Well will inspire multigenerational reverence for Water amidst the critical water issues facing us as global relatives. I believe that people will act for the COMMON GOOD when allowed education, opportunity and responsibility to do so. Invigorate the Common Well invites this possibility.
Your support of Invigorate the Common Well is vital NOW to lift this initiative from conception to reality. Your support will build a solid foundation for this multi-year vision of assuring health for the water, and health for the commons.
From one Water lover to another, many many thanks!!
-Sandy Spieler
Contributions can be sent to:
In the Heart of the Beast Theatre
Invigorate the Common Well
1500 E. Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55407
Invigorate the Common Well
A
Civic Project
A Sacred Project
A Communal Health Project
Initiated
by
In the Heart of the Beast
Puppet and Mask Theatre
with
the Tomales Bay Institute
To renew the “out of order” drinking fountain in the Avalon Theater through an episodic performance to raise the activism of the commons towards the health of our public water.
An Initiative:
To inspire gratitude for Water, one of the most precious gifts of life.
To connect our local drinking water experience with the impending global water crisis of staggering proportions concerning water quality, consumption and ownership.
To listen to the teachings of water toward the interconnectedness of all life, as it tunes our hearts and minds towards the value of “the commons”, a founding principal of the USA.
To enhance citizen awareness of the Mississippi River as source of all public city water in Minneapolis, as well as much of St. Paul.
To invest our financial and imaginative resources towards “The Commons” - the non-partisan, collective assurance of healthy water for all - with a faith that sustainable, healthy systems are possible within urban and rural settings.
To educate the public about Minneapolis’ Public Water Works.
To conduct public art/ecology residencies throughout the region to invigorate public wells (drinking fountains) as places of meeting, of physical and spiritual sustenance while educating about major local and global water concerns.
To discourage the proliferation of plastic water bottles mounting up in land fills of the world.
To encourage the collective power of individual citizens to enact positive change upon the problems created by the accumulation of individual actions.
A Sacred Project:
Water is Life. Let us be grateful for this most precious gift. Let us see how water binds us to All of Life, to our histories, to our futures.
A Civic Project:
This project will involve the intersection of artists with partners from ecological, social, geological and civic fields, as well as with broad spectrums of the general public.
We will be inventing new forms of artistry that give honor to the vision and expertise of people working with water issues. Because this project carries the underlying value of responsible, participatory democracy in creating healthy communities, we will also invent forms that spur interaction of the public with the research presented. We will continually pose the question of our individual and collective responsibilities and activism in meeting the growing issues of local and global water stewardship.
We stand on the brink of a global water crisis of staggering proportions. Participation is not optional. This project will reveal how we already stand in the midst of this global situation through our own daily use of water, and will encourage community dialogue and responsive action.
A Communal Health Project:
People gather around public water sources. They greet each other. “How are you today?”
Stories are exchanged; people are refreshed by the generosity of water, and by the generosity of each other.
The quality of Water shared by one is the quality of water by all. Issues of water quality for the public good are mindfully inherent in the care of public water sources.
We are connected to each and everyone’s health issues as we consider the hazards seeping into all the waters.
The quantity of water is a finite global shared resource. To quote a grade school student expressing what she learned in a residency focused on water, “All the water we have, is all the water we have.”
Project Description :
Invigorate the Common Well is a unique theatrical collaboration between In the Heart of the Beast artists and a variety of partners from professional water fields.
Through 3 separate episodes, audiences journey through the many alarming facts and figures, realities and myths about our planet’s finite water system. The performance takes a myriad of forms, including puppet-shows, game shows, video poems, paintings and installations. Each show will also feature hands-on, interactive stations where people learn about real actions and changes they can make in their everyday lives to keep water safe, clean, and accessible to all.
Episode #1: 
Episode #2: 
Episode #3: