SAM Libraries: Book(s) of the Month Club: April

April is the month when we celebrate Earth Day.

Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in held on April 22, 1970. Interestingly, Nelson announced his intent to have a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment – which led to the first “earth day” – in the spring of 1970 at a conference in Seattle in September 1969. (Source:  EarthLink.)

Earth Day gives us a great excuse to look at books and videos in our library collections that focus on environmentalism and land-focused art.

Here are merely a few of our favorites:

mcmakinArt, Design and Sustainability: A Dialogue (Video). Roy McMakin, Tom Kundig et al. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2009.
markdionConcrete Jungle: A Pop Media Investigation of Death And Survival in Urban Ecosystems. Mark Dion. New York: Juno Books, 1996.
everypartoftheearthEvery Part of the Earth is Sacred: Native American Voices in Praise of Nature. Jana Stone. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.
experimentalgeographyExperimental Geography. Nato Thompson. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2008.
greenmuseumThe Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice. Sarah S. Brophy et al. Landham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2008.
 [image not available]Johsel Namkung: Ode to the Earth. Deloris Tarzan Ament. Seattle: Cosgrove Editions, 2006. (Available at the McCaw Foundation Library.)
landenvironmentalartLand and Environmental Art. Jeffrey Kastner et al. London: Phaidon Press, 1998.
[image not available]Land Has Memory (Video). Donna House. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2008.
manifestdestinyManifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. Michael S. Hogue et al. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2008.
endofartNature, The End of Art: Environmental Landscapes. Alan Sonfist and Robert Rosenblum. New York; London: D.A.P.; Thames & Hudson, 2004.
waysofriverWays of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger Delta. Martha G. Anderson. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2002.

Except where noted, all of these are available for reading or viewing in the Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library’s Reading Room (SAM Downtown, South Building, Fifth Floor). Check our web site for current public hours.

Traci Timmons, Librarian