ARTISTS-IN-FIRE
an Inaugural, Immersive
Residency for Artists and Writers
As communities in the Pacific Northwest grapple with an increasing reality of wildfire, new narratives that include the beneficial role of fire on fire-prone landscapes are a necessary part of learning to live well with fire.
To build community resilience and familiarity with “good fire,” The Confluence Lab’s inaugural “Artists-In-Fire” (AIF) Residency will support a group of artists and creative writers in the Pacific Northwest and adjacent regions as boots-on-the-ground participants in prescribed fire. Selected recipients will train as wildland firefighters, attend an immersive prescribed-fire module, and share their experiences of on-the-ground fire with their home communities through their creative practice.
Details coming soon...
Application period will open Fall 2023.
Artist Sasha Michelle White lights at Coyote Prairie outside of Eugene, OR.
Fire is transformative. While wildfires may trigger fear and loss, they also foster new growth. Fire is essential to forest health, as trees with serotinous cones need the heat of fire to drop their mature seeds onto nutrient-rich mineral soils. In human communities, fire enables new Sightlines to emerge. New ways of seeing and feeling about fire become visible in its aftermath. Resilience, humility, relief, and compassion may sprout, as communities in post-fire landscapes sift through what was lost, what was changed, and what was gained