In 2023, we launched Deconstructing the Boundaries: A Future of Land & Food Resilience. As the initial project in this partnership, the overarching theme centered Black, Brown and Indigenous relationships to the land. The primary purpose was to share perspectives on how Black, Brown and Indigenous communities have created spiritual, traditional and cultural relationships to the land since milenia and and continue to do so. We investigated methods of healing, justice, and land stewardship on regional and global scales.

For the 2024 continuation of this program, we’d like to expand upon the questions, points of connection, and learning that was provoked in our first symposium. For 2024, we’re launching Deconstructing the Boundaries: The Land Fights Back.

About our organizations:

Indigo Arts Alliance. A place where freedom of expression and personal transformation through creativity is encouraged. Indigo Arts Alliance embodies a Black-led, multiracial approach to the rich intersections of citizenship, community-building, and creativity. More than ever, our world needs people who can help us imagine more compassionate, generous, and welcoming human societies. Indigo does that work. It is a great gift to the Portland community, to the region, and to our nation!

Indigo Arts Alliance is rooted in two principles:

Art is a key resource for healthy human communities. It should be cultivated and celebrated.
Artists play a unique role in strengthening our multiracial democracy. We need their vision and inspiration to help build a more humane, inclusive, and just world.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, at nearly 325 acres, is the largest public garden in New England. With two miles of hiking trails, 19 acres of ornamental and themed gardens featuring native plants of Maine and those suited to northern coastal conditions, nearly a mile of saltwater frontage, a children’s garden, a sensory garden, and so much more, there’s something for everyone. A true Maine experience, the Gardens is committed to connecting people to plants and nature, preserving the biodiversity of the Maine coast, and continuing to be a place accessible and welcoming to all. The mission of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is to inspire meaningful connections among people, plants, and nature through horticulture, education, and research.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is dedicated to being an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible environment where every member of our community is valued, respected, and appreciated. We acknowledge that a society is stronger, more resilient, and more beautiful when it is diverse. We are committed to identifying and striving to eliminate barriers that, historically, have prevented the full participation of communities most impacted by inequity.