PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Watershed Moment at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is a multi-faceted project featuring art and sound installations and an outdoor adventure walk revealing the critical importance of watersheds in our lives. The Academy engaged the Philadelphia-based New Paradise Laboratories to shape the creative approach. Presenting four experiences created by two collaborating artist teams responding tonatural science and the physical properties of water as it moves through Philadelphia’s urban landscape, Watershed Moment enables a deeper understanding of the Lower Schuylkill River Watershed and an appreciation of watersheds in general.

The project — the first public art commission presented by the Academy — is the signature event of the institution’s yearlong Water Year 2022 celebration designed to connect people with their local waterways to inspire care and action to protect them.

The four art installations of Watershed Moment are:

• Attunement, a monumental outdoor sound sculpture designed by David Gordon and fabricated by Jordan Griska;

• How to Get to the River, a 1.5-mile roundtrip urban watershed art adventure walk that leads participants from the Academy’s front plaza where Attunement is sited, down the Cherry Street microshed to the Schuylkill River, culminating with Inside the Watershed;

• Inside the Watershed, a sound installation located inside a wooden arbor situated along the Schuylkill River Trail developed in collaboration with New Paradise Laboratories;

• The River Feeds Back, an immersive sound installation created by Annea Lockwood and Liz Phillips currently on view in the Academy’s Dietrich Gallery.

Academy Vice President of Experience and Engagement Marina McDougall said, “We should think of watersheds as our addresses, as defining the places that we call home. Watersheds are the areas of landscape that channel water as it falls from the atmosphere as snow or rain, flows through creeks and streams and across varied terrain ever seeking the lowest point as it moves to the sea. Contemplating watersheds sets in motion a wonderful set of connections that tie us to the places where we live — bioregions with unique ecologies defined by the presence or relative absence of water. Here in Philadelphia, we inhabit the riparian landscapes of the great Delaware River Watershed and the smaller watersheds that nest within the basin. Watershed Moment is a series of mind-altering experiences based in watershed thinking.”