Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Interview: Liz Goldner, the Laguna Canyon Project, and the Legacy of Mark Chamberlain


In the spring of 2018 Laguna Wilderness Press published its most recent title, The Laguna Canyon Project: Refining Artivism. The book provides the first comprehensive photographic and written history of the movement to preserve Laguna Canyon. Liz Goldner a journalist and art critic based in Laguna Beach, was among the many important contributors and coordinators for the book. She was the partner of the late photographer, activist, and founder of the Laguna Canyon Project Mark Chamberlain from 2003 until his passing in 2018.
 Liz first met Mark in 2003 when she interviewed him about his community activism. Listening to Mark’s stories about the movement to preserve Laguna Canyon, Liz thought that writing a book about the project would be an important contribution to the history of the region. After 15 years of hard work, the book was finally completed and released in the spring of 2018.
 I recently met Liz at the home she shared with Mark to discuss the Laguna Canyon project and the process of completing the book. The Laguna Canyon Project was initially developed by Mark Chamberlain and fellow photographer, Jerry Burchfield. Liz explained to me that “their initial desire was to photograph Laguna Canyon and the Laguna Canyon Road and even back in 1980 they were concerned that it was going to be built over, and it was going to be changed.” After returning from the Vietnam War, Mark had moved to Laguna Beach in 1969. His sister, brother-in-law, and their children were already living in California when he moved to the area. In addition to its idyllic climate and beach-side setting, Laguna Beach was unique to the region in that it was a progressive artist community in highly conservative Orange County. However, the profile of Laguna began to change in the years that followed Mark’s arrival as real estate developers tried to find new ways to encroach more upon the land.
            In response to the encroachment of capital and real estate development on the area, Mark and Jerry began organizing to raise awareness and mobilize community members to oppose development and reach a common purpose of trying to preserve the beauty of the canyon. Among the projects they developed was “The Tell,” an ambitious collaborative project of local artists and community members coming together. A huge mosiac of art was built and the term artivism was coined to describe what was taking place.
              In addition to “The Tell,” “The Walk” of 1989 was the key event mobilizing the community against a new development project headed by billionaire and sole owner of the Irvine Corporation, Donald Bren. Thousands of people joined together to march from the Tell to mobilize in support of the Laguna Canyon and against a development project that would have destroyed much of the nature in the area. The gains of this collective action were monumental as it resulted in Donald Bren’s development project being cancelled. As Liz describes it, “Developers are always coming in and trying to do things, but they’re pretty minimal compared to what Donald Bren was going to do.” In spite of some developers continuing to acquire land and build new projects near Laguna Canyon, it is still nowhere near the scale of what Bren and the Irvine Corporation had been planning. As Liz described it, “there was a part of the Canyon that wasn’t developed back then that is not in Laguna Beach. So they built a luxurious community called Laguna Altura and it’s near Laguna Canyon Road. It’s way smaller than anything Donald Bren would ever build. It’s just homes. Bren was going to build shopping centers and golf courses.” Nonprofit organizations such as the Laguna Canyon Conservancy are still in existence working to preserve the beauty of the Canyon for generations to come, but continuing grassroots organizing around environmental issues and paying close attention to the history of the region is extremely important.
Liz Goldner was living on the East Coast during the heyday of The Walk and The Tell, but she has since become an expert on the history of the canyon through long conversations with Mark. “The more I heard about it, the more I thought that there should be a book about it,” she says as she recalls the process of writing and editing the book in her and Mark’s home in Laguna Beach.  “When Ron [Chilcote] created Laguna Wilderness Press with Jerry Birchfield that was one of their first goals, and it just never happened. Ron gave Mark the go-ahead a little over six years ago.” In 2013, Liz became the project manager of the book and got people who had been involved with the Laguna Canyon Project and the building of The Tell to contribute essays. Unfortunately Jerry passed away before the book was complete, but one of his reflection essays was included posthumously. Mark wrote the book’s main essay and provided many of the photographs, while Liz wrote the preface and edited much of the book’s text.
 Liz recalled the considerable amount of work that went into putting together the book and how at times it became quite a struggle. Jokingly she told me that she and Mark almost “killed each other” out of frustration to complete the project. Luckily, their hard work paid off as we are left with an incredible book that describes this important history in rich detail and images. As Liz described it, “Mark believed that this would remain virgin land for all of perpetuity” and his activism to preserve the Laguna Canyon was to ensure that the land would remain as it has always been. Detailing the history of Mark and others’ fight to preserve this land, the Laguna Canyon Project serves as a testament and attempt to preserve this important history for future generations.
                                                      The Tell in progress
--> Mark Chamberlain and Jerry Burchfield                                     
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The Laguna Canyon Project: “Refining Artivism” by Mark Chamberlain is available for purchase here https://lagunawildernesspress.com/product/the-laguna-canyon-project/

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Upcoming Event! 14th International Grouse Symposium with keynote speaker Noppadol Paothong


We are please to announce that Noppadol Paothong, author of Sage Grouse: Icon of the West, will be presenting as the keynote speaker at the 14th International Grouse Symposium taking place in Logan, Utah, September 24-28.


As described by the conference organizers: 

Logan is located in beautiful Cache Valley in northern Utah approximately one hour drive from the Salt Lake City International Airport. With the backdrop of the Wasatch Mountains, Logan is a vibrant city and the home of Utah State University. The University Conference Center will provide the venue for multiple sessions on grouse anthropogenic effects, behavior, climate effects, genetics, habitat management, policy, population dynamics, or resource selection.



..Opportunities to see multiple species of grouse will be available to participants on half-day excursions during the symposium...The organizing committee is very excited to host grouse researchers, ecologists, and managers from around the world. We sincerely hope you will join us in Utah to continue the tradition of this symposium series. 

-David Dahlgren and Dwayne Elmore
Conference Co-Chairs


Friday, October 9, 2015

Upcoming Event! The Laguna Canyon Project



The Laguna Canyon Project: Artivism 
Arriving this week at the Laguna Art Museum!


From our friend, Mark Chamberlain: 

Dear Friends,

We are currently working with curator Mike McGee for an exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum titled The Canyon Project: Artivism. The opening reception will be on Saturday, October 17 from 6:00 - 8:00pm.

If you are able to come and need tickets, please reply ASAP to me, at bcspace@cox.net, with a current mailing address and we will send them to you.

This exhibition offers the opportunity to show the full breadth of this enormous art project in which many of you participated ... and that actually helped shape the future of Laguna Canyon.

Thank you for your help then, and we hope you can come now.

Still hopefully & sincerely yours,

Mark Chamberlain.



The Laguna Canyon Project: Artivism
Exhibit at the Laguna Art Museum

October 18, 2015 - January 17, 2016


For thirty years, The Laguna Canyon Project examined, considered, and lobbied for the very existence of Laguna Canyon. Primarily photographic documentation, the Project functioned in turns as art and activism. It unfolded in 16 phases, the first in 1980, with the final phase culminating the project in 2010. 

The Tell, the 8th and paramount phase, was a 636-foot long photographic mural, mounted in the canyon in 1989 in celebration of the Orange County Centennial and the Sesquicentennial of the discovery of photography. Erected in the Sycamore Hills area of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, it was comprised of more than 100,000 personal photographs, donated by individual contributors.

Although organized and primarily executed by artists Jerry Burchfield and Mark Chamberlain, thousands of volunteers participated. Burchfield and Chamberlain founded BC Space, the gallery and photo production studio in downtown Laguna Beach, which served as the de facto headquarters for the project.

As this public installation was located on Laguna Canyon Road—the main artery into Laguna Beach—and across this road from a proposed massive housing development, it became the focal point and catalyst for massive public demonstrations, protesting that project. The Tell ultimately served a crucial role in the preservation of Laguna Canyon.

This exhibition is curated by Mike McGee, Cal State Fullerton’s Begovich Gallery director, and director of the school’s Design/Museum Studies Program. 

The Canyon Project: Artivism will feature photography, assemblage, documents, and ephemera related to various phases of the project.

The Laguna Art Museum is at: 
307 Cliff Drive 
Laguna Beach, CA 92651.

For More information on the Laguna Canyon Project and its history, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Canyon_Project 


Make plans to visit this amazing exhibit today!