From the CEO Emerita: Cherish Nature While We Can

[Editor’s Note: Earlier this month, ArtsWestchester unveiled the Janet Langsam Vault Project, named for the organization’s CEO Emerita. We invited Janet Langsam to write about the project’s first site-specific installation, ‘Sound Forest/Memory Cave’ by Bruce Odland and Soli Pierce, for ArtsNews.]

Bruce Odland is a music man. More precisely, he is a sound guy. By this, I mean he is in an astute listener to the sounds of nature – from the Hudson River to the fields of Croton to the voices of wind. His partner Soli Pierce is a forest person. By this I mean, she loves the woods, both the ones that keep growing and the ones that fall to the forest floor seeking a new life, perhaps as a piece of driftwood sculpture. Together they have created what they call the Sound Forest, which is now an exhibition in a vault in the former bank that is now home to ArtsWestchester.

Recently, the vault got new life when it was dedicated as a space for installations that talk about social justice issues.  The Vault Project will provide two $2,500 grants a year for artists to explore what is important in our world. What’s important now isn’t stocks and bonds and money and jewelry, but things more existential. Odland and Pierce are the inaugural artist recipients who have created an immersive sound chamber and visual installation for the senses. Their work has a simple message: “cherish the environment while we still can.” Rather than wrap the environment in a bubble in a vault at ArtsWestchester, we can find new ways to call out future paths to sustain the things we value. We need to inspire a new generation to do this.

Now through January 31, 2025, ArtsWestchester invites artists to submit proposals to create an installation is this historic vault space. The Janet Langsam Vault Project’s grant guidelines and RFP can be found here: https://artswestchester.submittable.com/submit.