MANY THREADS MAKE A CLOTHES LINE.

"If I've accomplished nothing else in my life, there were these several extraordinary periods of absolute joy and grace during which my community had gathered with me to celebrate a large amount of fabric (dyed by us all) hanging on a clothesline in the sun and wind and rain. There is still an unspoken sense that we all understood our shared language of hope and celebration of that which is greater than ourselves as individuals."

--Sandra McMorris Johnson, Public Artist

It is estimated that there are more than 50,000 festivals and events held in the United States each year. Forty-six percent of the 198.8 million adult travelers (92.4 million) surveyed by the Travel Industry Association included a cultural, arts, heritage, historic activity or festival/event while on a trip of 50 miles or more one-way. Event tourism, the planning and marketing of events as tourist attractions, is in a rapid era of growth. These days, successfully attracting out-of-town visitors and local residents to events is often dependent upon the uniqueness of the event itself.

The Millennium Clothesline

Lane County, Oregon was host to an unusual public art event early this past summer. It was an event that motivated residents to venture out and engage in the almost lost art of pinning fabric on a clothesline. A large-scale outdoor artwork comprised of 2000 pieces of brightly dyed cloth placed at the crest of the mountain was on public display for eight days in June. Beginning months earlier, this ongoing community project started with hundreds of residents of all ages dyeing fabric at various locales. The Millennium Clothesline then called upon locals and visitors to hike to the summit of a 1,513-foot mountain and be part of something unique. Participation meant that they would have a hand in creating a long, connected splash of colors and motion that would zigzag across the hillside.

Mount Pisgah, which is part of the Lane County Parks system, would serve as temporary host to that color and motion. This gently sloped hill, overlooking the Willamette Valley and its 220,000 residents, is home to a variety of prairie grasses, birds, wildflowers, trees, and trails. The community was invited to participate by joining Public Artist Sandra McMorris Johnson carry cloth to the summit and hang it on the line, while making a millennium wish if they desired. The wish-making was an essential part of the event itself. McMorris Johnson viewed this as a way people, especially children, could participate and celebrate the Millennium in a positive way. In her words, "I hope we can all celebrate the diversity of our community by giving children something to hope for in the future. They are so full of life and ideas, and they will be up there wishing good things for all of us."

The clothesline drew hundreds of local and out-of-county visitors, particularly on the weekends, and provided a memorable outdoor arts event. It was the kind of event that can help establish a local area as a place where special activities stress shared community and visitor involvement. And it was an event like no other. One local reporter noted that upon seeing the clothesline, a young girl said, "it looks like somebody staked a rainbow to the ground" and her mother describing what she heard as all the "flapping and making this incredible noise," felt certain that they would all fall down. They didn't.

The Collaborators

One of the benefits of the Millennium Clothesline project was the opportunity for several key organizations and agencies to combine efforts. Contemporary practices demonstrate that successful events are often collaborative efforts, and as such, have multiple objectives representing the perspectives of collaborators. The clothesline project enabled tourism, parks, and local arts officials, artists, students, and volunteers all to work together.

Though the Millennium Clothesline was the idea of one person, the artist McMorris Johnson, many community individuals and organizations became involved. This collaboration was actually essential for the success of the event and was always in the back of McMorris Johnsons' mind. The sine qua non for the event was the human dimension of the project and, to her credit, she was able to instill the same quality and enthusiasm for the event among the hundreds who became involved.

The artist initially received a Community Arts Grant from the Lane Arts Council (LAC), an independent nonprofit community arts organization. She also received a source of funds from the City of Eugene Cultural Services Division. The event itself was made possible in part by a grant from Lane County Tourism (LCT) in partnership with Lane County Parks (LCP) and LAC. Each year, county tourism dollars are made available for special projects. The notion of the Millennium Clothesline caught the attention of Douglas Beauchamp, LAC Executive Director, and he was successful in obtaining a $5000 grant that was used to present and promote the event. This enabled event organizers to promote the event regionally and statewide, as well as locally, thus increasing awareness not only of the event itself, but also of countywide amenities available to tourists coming to visit the clothesline. Lane Arts Council further assisted the event with in-kind planning services and volunteer support.

Mount Pisgah is the dominant feature of the 2,363-acre Howard Buford Recreation Area operated by Lane County Parks Division, bordering on the coast fork of the Willamette River southeast of Eugene/Springfield. At its summit, it allows for a nearly 360 degree view of the valley, with the Cascade Range and the Three Sisters to the East and the Coast Range to the West. The park offers 16 miles of trails, open to hikers and their dogs (with many also open to horses), a 210-acre arboretum on the west slope, including an additional 7 miles of trails, and a 20-acre horse arena area in the northwest corner. The park features diverse ecological habitats, including a mixture of plants and the occasional chance to see deer, fox, osprey, or bald eagles. Though thousands visit each year, LCP, like other park systems, sees promoting awareness and access to public spaces as ongoing efforts. In addition, more and more county and state parks use events to promote awareness of public spaces and enjoyment of the out-of-doors and open spaces by non-traditional park users.

Lane County Parks' partnership in the Millennium Clothesline was instrumental in the success of the event. Its contributions included everything from counsel and advice regarding use of public lands, to placing 200, 8-foot poles in the ground and stringing a mile of the plastic-coated line in between. The involvement of LCP staff included several site visits, the provision of a work crew, and equipment for placing the clothesline, participation in the pre-event planning meetings concerning logistics, use of equipment during the event (i.e., tables and chairs for the information area), help in contacting local media, and distribution of promotional material.

Collaboration was further apparent in the involvement of community members in dyeing and hanging the fabric. The clothesline project began 14 months prior to the event when McMorris Johnson served as an Artist in Residence at LAC's Arts & Communities Conference. The imagery for the conference brochure was the artist's and the first 100 pieces of fabric were dyed for those who attended the conference. Then 10 months before the clothesline was installed, this collaborative effort continued when Johnson McMorris set up shop at the Lane County Fair. At that time, over 1,200 individuals dyed cloth for the clothesline. Johnson McMorris remarked that "everyone from 3-year-olds to 20-year-olds," as well as parents and adults, came by the fairground site to dye their own piece of cloth. Collective fabric dyeing, led by the artist, also took place in several elementary schools throughout the area and at the weekly Saturday Market held in the downtown area of Eugene. When it came time to hang the pieces on the clothesline, many took great delight when they were able to pick out their piece of fabric dyed months before from of the hundreds ready to be hung.

Graduate students from the Arts & Administration Program at the University of Oregon were also collaborators. Their contributions included graphic design and promotion, volunteer recruitment and support, and event planning process evaluation. Younger students in local elementary schools were given opportunities to visit the event site in class outings while the exhibit was open during their last week of classes. These field trips let them both enjoy the art and gain awareness of the recreation site. The local public radio broadcasting station supported the event by running several public service announcements. They also matched grant-supported, on-air advertising during peak times.

The Artist

Sandra McMorris Johnson has built a reputation for her public-art clothesline installations. Prior to the Millennium Clothesline in Lane County, she produced seven different installations throughout Illinois, Montana, Kansas, and Oregon over the past 20 years. "Watching the pieces of the cloth with their beautiful colors dancing in the wind always makes me feel peaceful and happy, I thought this would be a beautiful way to celebrate the new millennium" she says. Though she has exhibited hand dyed fabric and acrylic collage artwork of various sizes, from intimate mosaic pieces to monumental fiber sculptures, nationally in private and corporate collections, her present interests lie with clotheslines.

It all started rather innocently when, as a fiber artist, McMorris Johnson found herself dying 20 yards of satin each morning and hanging it out in sequences of color on an improvised clothesline for a large work she was doing. She found she spent hours watching those colorful pieces of cloth "dance in the wind", as she put it, and came to love the way the light reflected off them and made them shine. "One moment the fabrics are still and peaceful, but then a breeze comes up to make them breathe and dance in the sun." She noted that out of this experience came the idea for a large-scale landscape clothesline running over an entire hillside. These feelings and observations on her part fueled the community project that premiered in Lane County months later.

The Issues

Few events are completely void of controversy and all events require anticipating and responding to issues as they arise. Such was the case with this event, when, weeks before the opening presentation of the Millennium Clothesline, concerns were raised regarding the negative impact the event would have upon native prairie grasses, wildflowers, and ground nesting birds. Questions came from members of various community and nature groups such as the Native Plant Society of Oregon, Friends of Buford Park, and Nearby Nature. As enthusiasm for the Millennium Clothesline grew, concerns were voiced in the media that the foot traffic would damage the fragile native grasses and wild flowers. McMorris Johnson, County Parks Manager Bob Keefer, Superintendent Todd Winter, and other event management staff and volunteers worked together to find solutions. For example, the date of the event was postponed by one month in response to concerns about the impact to wildflowers. Additionally, the artist agreed to move a portion of the clothesline to the east side of the summit to reduce impacts to the native red fescue. She also set up a portion of clothesline right next to the trail to eliminate unnecessary trips off-trail. As this line would fill, McMorris Johnson and volunteers would then move the many swatches of cloth from this presentation line to the larger clothesline, lessening the impact.

Another issue that is important to address, especially when events are directed to out-of-towners, is that of signage. That visitors are unable to find an event is often cited as a negative outcome of event participation. Overlooking signage usually occurs because busy planners are more intent on planning other aspects of the event felt to be more important. Millennium Clothesline event organizers had several poster-sized, laminated signs placed frequently along the roadside in order to mark the route to the mountain. Not only were they cognizant of out-of-towners' needs to find their way to the mountain, but many felt local citizens would also appreciate the help.

Because the clothesline itself was atop a summit, event planners decided it would be a good to rent a portable toilet to reduce waste along the 45-minute hike to the top. In addition, trash cans were made available, and drinking water was supplied by a local bottled water company at several stations along the trail. A permit for camping, not normally allowed at Mount Pisgah, was obtained and local boy scouts agreed to stay to provide overnight security. All of these measures proved to be wise decisions regarding details that may have created problems had planners overlooked them.

The Intangibles

"I've lived here all my life, but I'd never been to the top of Mount Pisgah before today" was the comment of one of the many hundreds of spectators who participated in the Millennium Clothesline. Descriptions of the experience at the top of the summit included: "I didn't even think about it before going up ... the sound of the flapping ... but in the end, it was the sound of the cloth flapping in the wind that made the hike worth it"; "it reminded me of the Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags flown atop Mount Everest"; and "can my mother and I take up our own piece of fabric and hang in on the clothesline?" Another participant seemed stunned when she noted, "oh my gosh, there's the piece of fabric I dyed at the Fair last summer!"

An art professor from Oregon State University was particularly drawn to the clothesline because, in her view, it was associated with the most mundane of tasks. It was reported that she commented that to turn a clothesline into art "is a wonderful metaphor for the uncelebrated work that women do", and that she felt she would "never look at [her] laundry in the same way." In the course of conceptualizing and presenting the clothesline, McMorris Johnson heard many clothesline stories. It seems that such stories are passed down from mother to child as a kind of "clothesline etiquette" with rules about leaving the laundry out overnight, how to hang various garments, and even on the number of clothespins that should be used per piece. The universality of an experience represented by a clothesline was another intangible that seemed to be felt by many who participated in the event.

The Millennium Clothesline touched participants in so many positive ways. Grins and smiles abounded as visitors discovered the color of the fabric and the panoramic view at the top: "it goes on forever." First-timers to the summit said that they would return and others, straining from the climb, said, "it was worth it." A group of older teens were delighted, believing "this would make a cool Pink Floyd cover." A grandmother and her grandson found it easy to launch bubble-magic, using the wind, as they shared a joyful experience. Crickets and birds chirped. Wildflowers and native grasses blew. Strangers interacted with one another at the summit and wondered how long "it" would be up and expressed gratitude that "they put it up."

The comments above reflect the kinds of reactions shared by event participants as they described their Millennium Clothesline experience. How do event organizers put a value on those intangible, experiential benefits people realize when participating? How do they create event experiences that have that kind of a pull for event participants? The social benefits of community festivals, for example, are generally known. Establishing community pride, social interaction, togetherness, sharing of ideas, community identity, and community wellness are among frequently noted reasons that encourage individuals to attend events (Delamere, 1998). Event organizers are becoming more skilled in their abilities to plan and execute events that address these benefits. Along with programming for the intangibles, event organizers are also becoming more skilled in events that produce positive, tangible outcomes. For example, the growth in event tourism has become more and more prevalent as successful events are associated with positive economic outcomes in local communities.

Event organizers must always be looking for new kinds of experiences to facilitate. Events are more likely to have the potential to draw visitors to communities when they have public appeal. McMorris Johnson found a unique way to share the experiential components she valued in her art with many others, and the success of the clothesline project showed that her notion had that kind of appeal. In addition, the openness and collaborative efforts on the part of staff from county arts, tourism, and parks facilitated coordination and issue resolution as the plans for the event were put into effect.

Event organizers and tourism officials who look toward collaborative efforts for their program offerings, and regional arts councils who regularly work with community-based artists, may find that new and innovative events will emerge. Presenting performing artists or arts fairs and festivals are more likely to take place in parks than public art.

These kinds of art experiences seem to be more popular as programming opportunities in park venues and outdoor public spaces. But this limited view of arts programming may well be shortsighted. Public art experiences, such as the Millennium Clothesline, should not be overlooked as leisure experiences that have a place in event tourism. Such public art that includes an opportunity for the public to become involved in creating the art rather than just observing the art, may well provide the essential combination for success.

Events like the Millennium Clothesline encourage community-wide expression and enjoyment. Since this event was ongoing over the previous year and again when the fabric was hung, it had a way of building community participation that was dependent upon community involvement. Concerns expressed about disturbing the natural environment around the mountain may have even more clearly defined the community, in that so many who were associated with the event found ways to complete the clothesline project without causing undo harm.

Event organizers listened to the concerns of various groups, and with their input made modifications to the event that would better respect nature. Through this process, many felt that a sense of place and ownership was developed; key components in establishing feelings of ownership in the event. Such ownership is important in establishing a sense of community, which in turn builds a sense of responsibility for that place.

According to Beauchamp,"public art is an invitation to see differently. To touch anew. To unfold. To feel what we have been given through what we have created. Not every work, at each time in its place will be right for everyone. Art remains a search and nurtures its own questions," He urged visitors to "take a walk and see for yourself. How does it make you feel? Is it art?" And, they did come, they did feel, and they did accept the invitation to see differently.

Reference

Delamere, T.A. (1998). Development of a Scale to Measure Local Resident Attitudes Toward the Social Impact of Community Festivals. University of Alberta: Edmonton, Alberta.

Gaylene Carpenter, Ph.D., is on the faculty at the University of Oregon in the Arts & Administration Program and is academic coordinator for the UO's Festival & Event Management Certificate Program. She is also on the board of the Oregon Festivals & Events Association, and active in NRPA, SPRE, and the International Festivals & Events Association. Suzanne O'Donnell Llamado is a graduate student in the arts & administration program at the University. She recently returned to the United States after living and working in the Philippines for the last 15 years, where she was involved in the Baguio Art Guild and the International Baguio Arts Festivals. Through this work, Llamado became interested in the potential of public art in community building. Together, these authors explore the impact of The Millenium Clothesline, a unique and vast piece of artwork created by Sandra McMorris Johnson.

Although the event was conceived as a community project and held on public parkland, no one foresaw its unifying and lasting effects.