In this talk, local artist Joan Baron takes the audience on a visual journey into the richness of her material selections and fabrication processes, as well as the evolution of her artwork, as she seeks to speak about significant issues of our times.

Baron brings a fresh perspective to the definition of urban sustainability. Whether its turning a roadway culvert into a vertical sculpture that collects water or re-purposing old translucent onyx tiles into light transmitters--art can be the magic bullet that brings communities together. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and has maintained a studio in south Scottsdale for the last 30 years. Baron divides her time among public-art projects, collaborative team teaching, community activism, and guerrilla gardening, and has served on Project Rising Phoenix Advisory Committee, Audubon Arizona, and City of Scottsdale Yaqui Mural Project, among many others. Her “Edible Landscape Project" received the Scottsdale Environmental Design Award in 2012.

This lecture is part of the Arts and Humanities in Sustainability Series co-sponsored by ASU’s Institute for Humanities Research and Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.