ϳԹ

Skip to Main Content
ϳԹ

Alum creates art to drive environmental impact

August 9, 2023

Betsy Damon ’63, whose large-scale park sculptures have globally inspired exploration and discussion of the mounting global water crisis, was awarded a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship. She will use the grant to design a functional water-cleaning sculpture.

Betsy Damon '63“The intention is to find natural ways to prevent algae blooms, reduce pollutants, and keep the water quality sufficiently healthy,” Damon says.

Damon is an internationally acclaimed artist who has been called a practical visionary and a humanist. Her work has been widely reviewed, exhibited, and taught. She is known for her performance works, like “7000 Year Old Woman” (1976), and her large-scale ecological designs, like “The Living Water Garden” (1998) in Chengdu, China. She has directed many collaborative public performance events, most notably in Chengdu and Lhasa. An art history major at ϳԹ, Damon earned her MFA at Columbia University.

Currently, she is involved with various international exhibitions, museums, and activists in Ireland, Poland, Turkey, and China, and is exhibiting at Stony Brook University and the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands. Damon’s awards include the Bush Foundation, Heinz Foundation, NEA, UN Habitat, Waterfront Center Top Honor, five awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, and others.

For the past four decades, Damon’s work has focused on a central subject — water — which she reveals as the connective, creative, and collaborative medium behind all life. She promotes public consciousness of living water and invites us to place water itself as the foundation of all planning and design. Her work, which traverses the complexities of water from the molecular scale to the levels of ecosystems and societies, has been archived by .

Related News


Two+heart+ornaments+on+a+tree+branch%2C+one+reads+%22I+am+so+loved%21%22
Community members from across campus came together to celebrate ϳԹ’s third annual Lovefest, an event honoring love in all its forms, at Wyckoff Center.
Feb 21 2025

A+black+and+white+photo+of+Melanie+Charles+sitting+in+a+chair.+She+looks+at+the+camera+with+one+knee+propped+up+and+an+arm+resting+off+the+side.
“Trill 101” premiers March 1, culminating a year-long collaboration with Brooklyn-based musician Melanie Charles and students across music, dance, and the humanities.
Feb 14 2025

Production+Manager+Tim+Thompson+and+Short+Order+Cook+Allen+LaPelle+add+ingredients+to+a+pan+during+the+11th+annual+ACF+Culinary+Competition
ϳԹ Dining Services has a No. 4 ranking for Best College Food in New York and recently picked up yet another metal in an American Culinary Federation-sanctioned competition, but it’s the people who truly make ϳԹ’s dining experience special.
Feb 13 2025