Paradise Center hosts presentation on Confluence Project

The Paradise Center presents "The Art of Listening: Maya Lin's Confluence Project on the Lewis and Clark Trail" with presenter Don Snow at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 8.

In commemoration of the 200-year anniversary of Lewis and Clark’s journey through the Pacific Northwest, the state of Washington invited the Native American tribes of the region to participate in a manner that would contribute to a more inclusive cultural history of this event. The Tribes, in turn, invited famed artist/architect Maya Lin (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) to help tell their story. 

The result was the Confluence Project, five  art/landscape installations totaling 15,000 acres along Lewis and Clark’s route along the lower Columbia River: Chief Timothy (completed in 2015); Story Circles (2010); Bird Blind (2008), Vancouver Land Bridge (2008, with Maya Lin consulting), and Cape Disappointment (2006). 

Each site reveals a confluence of cultures, history and ecology. A critical aspect of the project was the “art of listening” to tribal memories and perspectives. 

Don Snow, professor emeritus at Whitman College (Walla Walla), will share his thoughts and photographs on the significance of the Confluence Project both as a respectful intercultural process and as a faithful artistic rendering of the confluence of cultures, memories, and storytelling. 

For more information contact John E. Thorson, (406) 826-0500 or paradisecenter@icloud.com.