To mark the upcoming centenary of the Los Angeles Aqueduct (11.5.2013), the Metabolic Studio is awarding grants to the following organizations to realize projects that will bring consciousness to the impact and importance of this monumental piece of hydraulic engineering.  The Metabolic Studio convened Chora Council 2012: a unique team of civic, tribal, educational, environmental, museum and nonprofit leaders from along the Aqueduct’s 223-mile length to nominate the organizations and institutions that are receiving funding.

Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio are pleased to announce 16 Chora Council grants, representing over $1 million of funding. Providing significant support for action, research, education and community-building in the context of “one hundred years of L.A. water,” the Chora docket reflects on the past century in the context of glacial time, while simultaneously acting for the coming 100 years.

The recipients of Chora Council 2012 funding are:

Arid Lands Institute at Woodbury University The Arid Lands Institute at Woodbury University brings people and ideas together across multiple disciplines to shape answers and envision a future in which landscapes and communities are resilient in the face of regional aridity—environmentally, culturally and economically. http://aridlands.woodbury.edu/

Arizona State University Desert Initiative for ARID: A Journal of Desert Art, Design and Ecology ARID is a creative and scholarly journal for contemporary works addressing desert culture, environment, and landscape. Marking the L.A. Aqueduct centenary, ARID will commission works that considerlocal, regional and international issues related to the social, environmental, cultural, political, engineering andeconomic impacts of conveying water across vast distances. http://aridjournal.com/

Autry National Center of the American West An intercultural center and museum dedicated to exploring and sharing the stories, experiences and perceptions of the diverse peoples of the American West, the Autry National Center will digitize archival holdings related to the Los Angeles Aqueduct. http://theautry.org/

Bishop Paiute Tribe’s First Bloom An initiative of the Bishop Paiute Tribe, First Bloom is an environmental education program that connects 4th and 5th grade children to the outdoors and Native American culture. Tribal elders and historians will lead activities that teach the values and history of water, while emphasizing the Owens Valley’s native peoples’ strength through struggles imposed by land trades and water exports. www.bishoptribeemo.com/Water/FirstBloomPage.html

California State University, Fullerton Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) Dedicated to investigating visual culture through collaborations between artists, students and the community, GCAC will bring Matthew Moore to Santa Ana as an artist in residence. Moore will reflect on his past works exploring the journey of water in Arizona, and examine the relationships and similarities to the impact of the L.A. Aqueduct. www.grandcentralartcenter.com/aboutus.php

California State University, Northridge, Special Collections and Archives The Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge will digitize archival holdings related to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, including the recently acquired Catherine Mulholland Collection. http://library.csun.edu/collections/sca

Claremont University Consortium’s Honnold/Mudd Library The Special Collections department of the Honnold/Mudd Library at Claremont Universitywill digitize archival holdings related to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, including Fred Eaton’s photograph album and typescript documenting his trip to Owens River Valley in November 1905. http://libraries.claremont.edu/

Climate Resolve Climate Resolve, which is dedicated to telling the local climate change story, winning policy measures and providing solutions that will inspire adaption to anticipated changes, will publicize the results of four comprehensive climate impact studies emerging from the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies, and further assist the University of Southern California, Scripps College and the City of Los Angeles in the release of a countywide Sea Level Rise vulnerability study, and a community-wide greenhouse gas inventory. http://climateresolve.org/

Henry E. Huntington Library & Art Gallery In partnership with the University of California’s Institute on California and the West, the Huntington Library will sponsor three events designed to bring historical perspective to water and aqueduct themes to draw attention to, and comment upon, issues of contemporary interest and concern regarding Los Angeles, water, the aqueduct, the Owens River/Valley and water use more generally. http://dornsife.usc.edu/icw

Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation (LPPSR) The Lone Pine Paiute – “Water Ute” – fought for their lands and water when settlers claimed both in the 1850s. By 1937, when the Reservation was formed, the diversion of local water to L.A. had already, in turn, destroyed the settlers’ agricultural economy. Today the approximately 350 LPPSR residents depend on LADWP for water access. This Chora Council award will support charitable and educational activities on the Reservation that work to preserve and protect the Reservation’s cultural heritage. http://lppsr.org/

Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy (SLRC) Dedicated to preserving and enhancing the benefits of Silver Lake’s open waters and open space, SLRC will erect information kiosks that engage the history, ecology, infrastructure and future of the reservoirs to tell “The Story of Water in L.A.” www.silverlakereservoirs.org/

The Eastern California Museum Dedicated to the cultural and natural history of Inyo County and the Eastern Sierra, the Eastern California Museum will produce a yearlong series of events and programs to commemorate the completion of the L.A. Aqueduct. The series will support the Museum’s exhibition of photographs exploring construction of the Aqueduct, a steel thread that has woven through life in the Owens Valley for over a century. www.inyocounty.us/ecmsite/

UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, lead researcher Dr. Alex Hall While climate predictions are usually modeled on a national or international scale, effective planning requires localized information. World leaders in performing regional climate studies, Dr. Hall and his team will follow their recent successes modeling L.A.’s climate future, and turn their attention to the Sierra Nevada region, a critical source of California water. www.atmos.ucla.edu/csrl/

University of California Press Foundation’s Boom: A Journal of California A cross-disciplinary quarterly from the University of California Press, Boom embraces scholarly and less usual formats, including artworks and first-person accounts, to explore California. Boom will commission critical interpretive surveys of the L.A. Aqueduct and its historical, cultural and ecological legacies from prominent scholars, independent writers and critics. www.boomcalifornia.com/

University of California, Riverside, Water Resources Collections and Archives The Water Resources Collections and Archives collects contemporary and historic materials on all aspects of water resources. It will digitize archival holdings related to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, including the Lippincott Collection, which contains more than 800 photographs documenting the construction of the Aqueduct. http://library.ucr.edu/wrca/

William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University (LMU) The Department of Archives and Special Collections of the William H. Hannon Library at LMU will digitize archival holdings related to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, including editions of the Big Pine Citizen 1922-1928, and the J.D. Black papers, which provide a view of the L.A. Aqueduct from the perspective of Owens Valley residents. www.lmu.edu/Page4020.aspx

About the Metabolic Studio

Led by Lauren Bon, the Metabolic Studio is a conduit by which resources that would otherwise be used to maintain the status quo are employed to shift it.  Derived from the Greek word for change, ‘metabolism’ is the process that maintains life.  In continuous cycles of creation and destruction metabolism transforms nutrients into energy and matter. Working to sustain these cycles, the Metabolic Studio transforms resources into energy, actions and objects that nurture life.