An all night Water Bar at Northern Spark.
At the 2015 Northern Spark Festival we presented an all night Water Bar on the plaza of Northrup Auditorium. In order to serve people in the busy festival context of Northern Spark, we created new bar materials that were lightweight and suitable for outdoors. We also designed and produced a newsprint menu that doubled as a dispatch on hydrosocial systems, with docupoetry from our first year presenting the Water Bar project, alongside suggestions for others who want to investigate local water sources and concerns.
To develop this project, we worked with the University of Minnesota's River Life program, and the Mississippi River Network's 1 Mississippi river advocacy campaign, a nationwide network of people who care for the river and advocate for clean water policies.
Together, our collaborative recruited Water Tenders from water and river education and advocacy organizations, as well as public agencies and colleges. In addition to students and water quality professionals, we also recruited artists, designers, and landscape architects to join the project, serving water from their own points of view. Over the course of the night, this Water Bar served approximately 2,000 people, engaging each one in conversation and passing along information and further resources for taking action.
This Water Bar was supported with a Stewardship Mini Grant from the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, a joint-powers local government unit, and one of approximately three dozen Watershed Management Organizations in the Twin Cities metro area.
