We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Barbara Bridges a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Barbara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I have been a teacher for over 40 years. Teaching art in Maine, Mexico, St. Croix and Minnesota and then training teachers at Bemidji State University for 20 years. This is the most meaningful project I have had the privilege to lead.
The creation of Pearl was funded by a Mississippi Water Management Organization Stewardship Fund Program grant. This project paid 10 Art To Change The World members to meet, collect trash along the Mississippi for two hours and then participate in an immersive curriculum unit which was collaboratively developed by Barbara and the participants themselves -including a scientist, journalist, local mayor, teachers and artists! Participants: Project Manager Barbara Bridges, Frances Bates, Amada Marquez Simula, Greg Volker, Margo Ashmore, Annie Merrell, Neil Granlund, Katherine Boyce, Alexis Schramel, Kelly Frankenberg, Sadie Ward.
All participants created this elegant artwork using the found river debris and other hand constructed and found objects. With one of the goals being to educate people about the plastics we find on our waterways, they re-purposed objects with a history to create a new narrative. Paper was made by Alexis from the debris collected. The quilted seat was commissioned from ACW quiltmaker, Lucy Schroepfer, out of fabric found along the river. John Olson, from River Keepers, helped us forage on the west side of the river in his electric pontoon. The project participants met 8 times in September and October. Pearl has appeared for workshops at MWMO headquarters, Solar Arts on Earth Day, The Mill City Museum workshop and Stone Arch Festival and a Guthrie Education partnership serving their Sustainable Design Camp for middle schoolers.
Participants explore all 21 drawers
They take a memento and a research card or 2, sit on the throne, meditate and take their photo. They answer 10 questions about the Mississippi River for a prize. Fun Facts: The Mississippi River is 3,000 miles long, 200 feet deep and the 3rd largest watershed in the world. Learn More: https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/might-miss-game/
The participants are encouraged to post on FB, Instagram or TikTok. They leave their impressions in the survey drawer and earn a chance to win a Pearl t-shirt. The design below is printed across the shoulders of a black t-shirt.
Learn More about the Pearl project: https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/mississippi-management-and-watershed-project/ 
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Barbara Rogers Bridges has been an artist and a teacher/college professor for over 40 years. Her social practice sculptures have been exhibited in Maine, Miami, the Virgin Islands, Maryland, Chicago, Mexico, Spain, Canada, and throughout Minnesota. Bridges taught K-12 art in Minnesota, Maine and the Virgin Islands and trained teachers in higher education at the University of Minnesota and Bemidji State University.
Barbara creates social practice art from fabricated components in a variety of media and rescued “power objects.” She manipulates the objects to create meaning and provoke discussions and reflection on a wide variety of social topics.
She is an intervenor. Cambridge educated philosopher, Tim Ingold, holds a unique theory on art making. Dr. Ingold suggests that artists are simply interveners on any particular materials and/or objects the artist manipulates. Any object already has a story, the artist simply recombines these objects to create a new narrative.
Barbara is founder and director of Art to Change the World. Read More about Barbara: https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/barbara-bridges/
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Barbara founded Art To Change the World in 2017. The goal was to pay artists for participating in social justice projects. In the last two years, we have paid artists in ACW over $107,000.00 dollars. We have over 400 members. Only 200 are artists. The other members support our mission to support high quality art production with a meaningful social justice message.
Read more about Art To Change the World: https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/mission
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
What is a “Creative”?
We all started out as “creatives”. Then along around 1st grade, an elementary school teacher instructed the class, ” Draw a Pony”. If you could draw a pony which looked like a pony, then you were anointed “creative.” The message to the rest of the class was, “Never try again” and most of you did not.
What a tragedy. This mistaken understanding led to the myth, still alive and strong, that creatives were sprinkled with some kind of magical dust, a talent, and through no effort on the artist’s part, they became artists. Throughout my seven decades I have been annoyed with the general misunderstanding that artists just HAVE to make art. Perhaps we are all mentally ill? Maybe we should pay the public just to look at our art!
This myth is a big part of why I started Art to Change the World. We pay artists $200 just to BE IN an exhibition. If we do not start paying artists, there will BE no artists!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/barbara-bridges/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbara.bridgesrogers
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLOGaBhofXGLO4wvqGcCOpg
- Other: https://www.arttochangetheworld.org
Image Credits
Bridges with Healing Altar Title: Mississippi River Pearl , Mixed Media, 5′ x 5′ x 7 ‘ Title: Today, I’m Alright. Mixed Media 5‘ X 6’ W X 7′ Title: The Big Pond Connects Us Mixed Media Visual and Text 14” X 16” Title: X2 Art As My Weapon Exhibition. Found and fabricated object and clay constructions, police buy back gun parts. 18” x 24” Intervenor Handout Explaining Bridges’ Process