Site Stipends

An important objective of Human/Nature is that the sites benefit directly from the project; to meet this objective, the project is structured to provide equal fees to both the artists and the sites. The site stipends are intended to help support staff, facilities, research, communities, and/or programs at the sites. In consultation with the artists and individual collaborators at the sites, the project partners determined the stipend recipients at each site.

Site Stipend Recipients

Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves, Brazil / artist Rigo 23

The site stipend for the Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves site was divided between the three communities that collaborated with the artist on his Human/Nature artworks: the Guaraní Community of Pindoty, the Quilombola Communities of Ivaporunduva and Sapatú, and the Caiçara Community of Itacuruçá.

El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, Mexico / artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle

The site stipend for El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve was donated to Espacios Naturales, a Mexican non-governmental organization (NGO) operating within the boundaries of the reserve. Espacios Naturales will use the stipend to fund the Pronghorn Awareness Program, which includes an educational center and a semi-captive breeding facility for the Peninsular Pronghorn Antelope. These rare antelope have been on the endangered species list since 1975 and are native only to Baja California and Southern California. Approximately 400 individual antelope remain in Mexico (giving them the distinction of being Mexico’s most endangered mammal), and there are no remaining pronghorn left in California.

iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa / artist Diana Thater

Site stipend recipient to be determined.

Galápagos Islands, Ecuador / artist Ann Hamilton

Site stipend recipient to be determined.

Komodo National Park, Indonesia / artist Mark Dion

The site stipend for Komodo National Park will fund additional training of the park’s small staff of rangers. Since its designation as a World Heritage site in 1991, the park’s tourism has increased, leading to greater awareness of the site but also greater human impact. The training will help the rangers monitor and measure the human impact on the natural landscape and develop solutions to minimize the impact of increased tourism. The park will dedicate about half of the stipend to diving and snorkeling training for the rangers; diving and snorkeling skills will help them monitor the pristine coral reefs that surround the island. The remainder of the stipend will be used to send the Public Use Coordinator to university training in ecotourism planning.

Mount Kenya National Park, Kenya / artist Xu Bing

Site stipend recipient to be determined.

Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, China / artist Marcos Ramírez ERRE

The site stipend for the Yunnan Protected Areas is The Nature Conservancy China, Lijiang office. Specifically, the stipend will be used by the Liming Township Center School (pictured above), located within the boundaries of the World Heritage site in the Laojun Mountain area, for environmental education initiatives. The programs will be designed by Liming School’s education committee in order to “involve teachers and students in participating in their hometown’s conservation more actively.” Activities will include environmental education lessons; organized cleanups of the area; improvements to the school’s environmental education center; public presentations and performances; writing and painting competitions on the topic of environmental protection; and an “Earth Helper” program which names June as “Earth Helper Environmental Protection and Promoting Month.”

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, U.S. and Canada / artist Dario Robleto

The site stipend for Waterton Glacier supports two existing projects in the park. The first project systematically monitors changes in the park’s glaciers to determine the causes for their rapid melting. Scientists predict that at the current rate of glacial loss, they will disappear by the year 2030. Glaciologist Dan Fagre is leading this project. The second project is the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project, which seeks to quantify and monitor the park’s grizzly population through analysis of DNA obtained through collection of shed bear hair. Monitoring the grizzly population in this precise and non-invasive way is expected to provide an accurate accounting of the grizzly population and a better understanding of the behavior and life span of this threatened species. Research Ecologist Katherine Kendall is leading this project.