Arts Department Chair Travels the U.S. Southwest for Zekavat Summer Sabbatical

Arts Department Chair Ailsa Stevenson Moriuchi ’11 was the recipient of the 2023 MFS Zekavat Summer Sabbatical. Her proposal and subsequent trip was titled: “How We Touch the Earth: The Intersection of Sustainability, Land Art, and Indigenous Culture in the American Southwest.”

Ailsa explored human interaction with the land of the U.S. Southwest, especially regarding Indigenous land, land “preserved” by the National Parks Service (NPS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), land utilized by artists, and land used to create energy and harvest natural resources. She examined the landscape, seeking to gain a deeper understanding of how these places are connected through the lens of sustainability and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging with a focus on its application in the arts. During her journey, she weaved through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. She plans to incorporate her travels and findings into all of her art classes, bringing more indigenous voices to the work that students learn about at MFS. As an artist, she plans to create pieces on the trip to develop into a new body of work.

Reflected Ailsa: “The trip was a whirlwind of incredible sights. In an effort to beat the intense heat, I woke up hours before sunrise on most days, sometimes as early as 2:30 a.m., to venture to trailheads and hike out to see natural wonders, ancient indigenous dwellings, and remote Earthworks. Some of the most memorable places included Bandelier National Monument and neighboring Los Alamos, hiking to The Wave on the Arizona/Utah border, and sunrise at Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels. As an artist educator, it was deeply important to me to be able to make artwork during my journey and I took many photographs on 35mm and 120mm film, and made notes for future pieces. I am now working to incorporate my travels and findings into all of my art classes, reevaluate the Middle and Upper School art curricula to incorporate more indigenous voices in the work that students are looking at, and plan to have critical discussions about Land Art and the history of photography within NPS and BLM lands.” 

The Zekavat Family Summer Sabbatical was established in 1996 to encourage the faculty at MFS to engage in creative and challenging summer travel and study. The sabbatical is meant to contribute to the rejuvenation and education of the teachers at MFS and to permit them to pursue opportunities for personal growth and learning.