Stories of P.L.A.C.E.

People, Language, Art, Culture, and Environment:

an exploration of natural science and cultural history through art

vision

Stories of PLACE is an exploration of natural science and cultural history through art.

Murals and ceramic tiles will be installed on the walls of the outdoor classroom, which is located in Atkinson’s wildlife habitat. The project results in permanent interpretive signage for Atkinson’s gardens, and provides students with hands-on art activities integrated with PPS standards-based science curricula. Stories of PLACE invites the entire Atkinson community to share their diverse cultures and languages.

Project Goals:

• Create a permanent installation as a community resource
• Help future Atkinson students and families in their studies of local flora and fauna
• Sustain our community knowledge base to keep the garden projects active in the future
• Provide students with fun, experiential learning art projects geared to engage multiple intelligences
• Reinforce grade-specific science and writing curriculum benchmarks and enhance second language and heritage language learning
• Intentional outreach to non-dominant voices in our community and celebration of diversity
• Sustaining and nurturing languages and cultures present in.our community (e.g.; Chinese, English, Spanish, Vietnamese) and increasing our knowledge of endangered Native American languages/cultures in the Pacific Northwest region

Doers

Stories of PLACE involved multiple phases and countless collaborators, including Janet Cowal, Diane Jacobs, Atkinson students, families, friends, and staff, community volunteers, ceramic artists, Outdoor Learning Garden Summer Institute (OLGSI), PSU faculty, PSU students, and local businesses.

Process

The process of creating Stories of PLACE provided both the Atkinson community and the PSU Applied Linguistics community with rich opportunities to engage with each other and learn from the experiences in profound ways. 

In the planning stages, Janet Cowal and Diane Jacobs collaborated with PPS teachers to design the art walls, incorporating learning goals for the elementary school students and timelines to complete each phase.

Click to check out the early stages of planning!

stories of PLACE goalsDownload

The project including asking students and families to contribute sayings about nature in their languages, as well as greetings for the Welcome Tree. These sayings, contributed by the PPS and PSU communities, represent personal connections to the languages.  In other words, students didn’t just google words for “welcome”; they were invited to share their own knowledge and encouraged to interview family members and neighbors about their language and culture.

All this work and more was channeled into creating three mixed-media walls, blending painted elements with ceramic mosaic and language inscriptions:

​Finish line, and beyond

The finished project is an inspiring, tangible result of multilingual community building.  Stories of PLACE resulted in beautiful installations that encourage us to engage with nature and language, and foster inclusion by not only normalizing, but celebrating diversity as a strength.

Click for some of our gathered Nature Sayings!

Arabic:

Nature is a language that all of people use without needing translation.

الطبيعة هي اللغة الوحيدة التي يتحدثها الجميع بدون ترجمة

The nature is the secret of the life
الطبيعة هي سر الحياة

The seeds that we plant today will give us the flowers in the future.

جميع ازهار المستقبل هي البذور التي تزلعها اليوم

When the speech language stops, the flowers will speak nice words.
حين تتعطل لغة الكلام, الزهور عالم ينطق بجميل الشعور

If all what you have is two dollars, by one dollar buy a piece of bread and with the other dollar buy a flower.
ان لم يكن معك سوا قرشان, اشتر باحدهما رغيفا و بالاخر زهور

Chinese:

最好种植的时候是二十年前, 下一个好时间就是现在.– 老子

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now 

愚公移山

An old man can remove a big mountain 

上善若水, 水利万物而不争– 老子

Water is the best element, because it peacefully interacts with everything. — Lao Tzu

Farsi:

Water brings light.

آب روشنایی می آورد.

May you be like a flower, but not your life span like a flower’s.

مثل گل باشی ولی عمرت مثل گل نباشد.

Mani:

ùsú bùl kɔ̀ céŋ kòè ùbɛ̀l

One finger does not lift a palm tree.

kɛ́r bìɛ́n bɔ́ndùl

The snake has no load

Turkish:

Derin su yavaş akar.

Deep water flows slowly.

Yiddish:

Az a ferd hat epis tsu zogn vet er redn

If a horse had anything to say, he would speak up.

Noch dem finster iz di licht ongalegt

Light is especially appreciated after the dark.

Nor vayl yung beygn zich di beymer

Trees bend only when young.

Celebrating the achievement

We hosted a community-wide celebration upon completion of the project, expressing gratitude to all those involved. The event featured live music, dance performance, food, a scavenger hunt, and guided tour of the garden space.