ABSTRACT
The Land Arts of the American West and Field Studies field programs began in the late 1990s as the United States marked the height of a decade-long economic boom. As nations around the globe struggle with the difficult issues of dislocation, migration, environmental degradation, economic inequality, and racism, the arts have an important leadership role to play in the cultural dialogue. The long-term commitment in western societies to the primacy of science has resulted in the availability of a vast resource of data regarding the issues. Most projects in the public sphere are driven by a problem-solving mentality that rules out the pursuit of lateral connections in the search for answers to the specific charge at hand. The idea of saving the planet by creating wilderness preserves cordoned off to balance human development has run its course. The colonialist history of removing Indigenous populations to create parks or reserves is under intense scrutiny.
