Who

Fernland Studios is an experimental ecology art studio prioritizing rest, rejuvenation, and reciprocity. Our mission is to offer Black, Indigenous, and all people of color opportunities to sustain their relationship with the land through art, education, and spiritual wellness.

Our vision is to help people process environmental-related trauma, provide a healing space for creative expression, support non-hierarchical mentorship, and foster collective liberation in the Pacific Northwest. We value caring for ourselves, communities, more than humans, and the land; forming a collective centered on uplifting each other; and sustaining pathways for people to explore ideas.

What

We offer creators, cultivators, and cultural stewards of color opportunities to connect through artist residencies, ecological arts opportunities, and writing retreats at no cost and with additional funding to support their practice. We will always elevate those impacted by ongoing violence targeting their people, land, water, air, and futures.

Our work is rooted in:

• Anti-racist, decolonial, and feminist programs centering on those most impacted by colonialism, racial capitalism, and climate change.

• Access for Black, Indigenous, and all people of color to sustain ancestral practices through creative, ecological, and spiritual care.

• Space for creative ecological justice or using art to heal our spirits, communities, and ecologies.

• Opportunities for communities of color to engage in interdependent and intergenerational healing.

When

Now. Fernland Studios began as an idea on June 2, 2020, and continues to grow.

The first phase (2020-21) focused on virtual opportunities, community organizing, and awareness about the organization. The second phase (2022-23) incorporated a mix of virtual and in-person opportunities as we assessed a physical center for Fernland’s future.

We’re moving into the third phase (2024-26) with virtual and in-person programming, increasing staff capacity, and creating a physical center for Fernland programming. We look forward to sharing a snapshot of our experiences through our upcoming anthology published with Loam.

Where

Fernland Studios was founded on Kalapuya Ilihi, the homeland of the Kalapuya people, who today are represented by the Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians. Fernland is based on Multnomah Illahee, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. 

From the forced displacement of Indigenous people to Oregon’s Black exclusion laws, internment camps, redlining, and systemic racism embedded into our institutions, the lives and stories of communities of color have been suppressed in this region for centuries. We see our work as an offering to care for the descendants and elders of these oppressive acts.

We respect the stewards of this land — past, present, and future — and the knowledge of those who came before us. We honor the Black and Brown labor on which this country is built and sustained. We offer gratitude for the land and the opportunity to learn, love and be in relationship with our ancestors, spirits, and mentors guiding us.

Howdy,

Thank you for stopping by to learn more about our Fernland. Fernland began in June 2020 in the wake of COVID-19 and ongoing brutality targeting Black communities, specifically the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless more whose names we could write out for a millennium.

In 2020, I wanted to know how art can help heal our land and foster placemaking for people of color in the Pacific Northwest as a displaced Boviander Guyanese American queer living on Multnomah lands, with lineages extending from South America to the American South and Northeast.

I began writing about a place where my peers and I could feel at peace—a necessary relief to welcome the company of those thinking through the intersections of art, education, environmental and racial justice, where art provides pathways for people most impacted by colonialism and climate change. Where art offers us agency to address historical barriers that block the present potential for people of color to thrive.

Our staff and board recognized (1) there is a lack of development, retention, and mentorship of ethnic and racially diverse people in environmentalism and the arts. (2) we want to help build networks and reciprocal relationships for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. (3) we want to create a place for rest and joy among people sharing collective ideas, histories, futures, and dreams while respecting the individual experiences guiding our lives.

An ecosystem of resources is needed to heal our community's harms, from colonial contact to the Middle Passage and our current battles with environmentally conscious homes. We see art as a tool to plant seeds for dreams of futures beyond our present purview.

In Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Robin D.G. Kelley states, "Without new visions, we don't know what to build, only what to knock down. We not only end up confused, rudderless, and cynical, but we forget that making a revolution is not a series of clever maneuvers and tactics but a process that can and must transform us."

Fernland Studios is founded on the ability to transform our relationship with each other and the land through art. We invite you to carve out spaces for creative ecological justice with us to tend seeds for our futures today.

With love,
Zoë Gamell