Spotlight on Reed College’s Arts-engaged Scholarship

In this month’s member spotlight, we focus on the ‘Desert Forest’ project from IA member Reed College, that centers the Joshua Tree. Co-conceived and co-directed by Prof. Juniper Harrower, this multidisciplinary project brings together natural history, Indigenous knowledge, public policy, conservation science, and creative works by historic and contemporary artists to spotlight the threatened tree and preservation efforts around it. And we bring you a sneak peek from Reed College’s collaboratory project!

Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees

During Fall 2024, the Desert Forest exhibition, part of the Getty PST Art&Science Collide, opened at the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, CA as an expansive hub for community engagement around Joshua trees. The exhibit co-curator, Juniper Harrower, who now teaches studio art at Reed College, started her academic career conducting scientific research with threatened Joshua tree ecosystems and has since been creating artwork that engages with their multispecies communities.

Desert Forest is a multimedia exhibit (and accompanying book) weaving together natural history, Indigenous knowledge, public policy, and feminist science through displays of both historical and contemporary art, science lectures, and community workshops.

EXHIBITION

COMMUNITY HUB

BOOK

One such workshop was a continuation of Harrower’s Hey JTree project, a mock online “dating website” for specific Joshua trees in the National parks and the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve (PDWP) located near the museum in Lancaster. Community participants in the workshop at MOAH could read artist-contributed profiles for each of the trees, make a linocut print of the tree they like, and write the tree a letter.

A few people are gathered around a table in an art studio. Some are looking at images, others are working on images
Participants in Workshop
Long shot view in an art gallery, as people mill around looking at art on the walls.
In the background is a banner that says 'hey JTree'. In the foreground are people gathered around a table, crafting and making art.
An open page in the 'field guide to the prime desert woodland preserve'. On the left is a black and white illustration of bighorn sheep, and on the right is an illustration of a chickadee in flight.
a limited edition field guide artist book

The PDWP was also the site for novel research on Joshua tree roots in October 2024 by students in Harrower’s Environmental Art class at Reed College. Joshua tree roots have long been considered small and undeveloped, but the excavations by Reed students demonstrated that the roots can extend up to 14 meters; A result that will have direct policy impacts on industrial scale solar projects, Amazon infill warehouses, and suburban development. Reed students from one of Harrower’s previous classes also made woodcuts of different species in the PDWP that were printed and compiled into a limited edition field guide artist book that is now part of the museum collection and was adapted into a zine format for easy community distribution by the PDWP and MOAH. The root excavations concluded with a guided meditation and performance to unite Reed students and Lancaster community members in gratitude for the Joshua tree, led by two-spirit Indigenous artist Edgar Fabián Frías, invoking Indigenous Futurism, spirituality, and queer aesthetics.

The ritual took place around a Joshua tree whose root had been carefully uncovered as part of Harrower’s research. This intentional exposure, conducted with permission, offered a rare glimpse into the underground network that sustains the Joshua tree and connects to other species.

Against the expanse of the desert sky, a large man stands with his arms wide open. He is dressed in a white robe, and has a pink scarf covering his head. To the right, a Joshua Tree peeks into the frame.
Edgar Fabián Frías, invoking Indigenous Futurism

2025 IA Collaboratory

Reed College was one of the recipients of the 2025 IA Collaboratories with the project, Dreaming “America,” Enacting Community Joy. This project will be a community of practice rooted in envisioning new futures through speculative and creative engagement with Reed students, staff and faculty, as well as Portland community members.

The collaboratory will lead a series of guided conversations about the contentious idea of “America,” leading to the creation of large-scale objects (puppets) representing aspects of these conversations, and a final, public procession at Reed and in the Everything Under the Sun Parade.

A puppet parade on the street on a sunny day. A few puppeteers maneuver a giant puppet that has the face of the sun, and its body is draped in blue clouds.
Everything Under the Sun Parade.

The goal is to encourage the community of Reed College, prompted by Imaging America’s guiding values, to struggle with the idea of America, to envision new possible futures for themselves (at Reed, in their communities, their city, and their nation), to feel these envisioned futures in their bodies, and to then create a visual representation of these visions to be shared publicly, with the college and then with the city.

Visit the IA Collaboratories page for ongoing updates on this project, and opportunities to participate.

Special thanks for Kate Duffly, Juniper Harrower, and Harper Lethin, for facilitating access to media and content for this blog post.

Inspired by IA action research findings, the Public Scholar Conversation Cards and Organizing Culture Change Imagination Guide are pedagogic tools to inspire reflection and action.

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Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.