The Sense of Place Lectures has announced a Request for Proposals for its 11th season, which will be during the fall/winter, 2020-2021. The popular program connects people through place and storytelling, using the Columbia River Gorge as its common ground.
Lectures run 45-60 minutes on topics that relate to the cultural, natural, or political history of the Columbia River Gorge. Selections will be made by a volunteer committee led by Sense of Place host and director Sarah Fox, a Hood River resident and producer of “Hear in the Gorge,” the podcast partner to Sense of Place.
Season 11 will move online due to ongoing pandemic restrictions, but a recent audience survey showed overwhelming support for continuing in some form, despite COVID-19. “Sense of Place started as a way to bring people together to explore the one thing we all have in common, this place. Continuing those conversations and connecting with each other is as important now as it ever was,” said Brendan Norman, executive director of Mt. Adams Institute, the non-profit partner of Sense of Place.
Sense of Place lectures occur between October and April and have historically attracted 1,000 people annually, with speakers regularly presenting to sold-out audiences. This season, by moving online, all lectures will be able to be recorded and archived for future viewing by an even broader audience.
“Everyone has had to do a lot of adapting these past months, but constraint often leads to creativity,” Fox said. “The opportunity to document these lectures feels like a great win for everyone.”
Over the last 10 years, topics have included stories from the Japanese evacuation and internment, a geologic history of the Gorge, the evolution of Gorge breweries, Hanford’s nuclear legacy, architecture of the Gorge, Native American traditions along the Columbia River, and many more.
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