What is place? What does place mean to you? When you think of your favorite place, what goes through your mind? Do you miss it? Do you feel at home? Safe? Energized? Sad? What would you like to say if the land could hear you? And If the land could speak to you, what would it say?

Place attachment is an emotional bond between people and place and plays an important role in protecting the places we love most. Care and our own memories also play an important role in actively protecting place. How people interact with the environment helps shape their views of the world and how the environment interacts with us. In the times we are living in, we often think about our environment as something that happens to us, but we are as much a part of our environment as the grass below our feet, and the birds singing in the trees. When people grow up connected to the environment, they view it as a part of themselves and approach it with a deep sense of respect, responsibility, and love. If we love our spaces and treat them well, all life thrives! Not just ours but those who cross pass with the love we have given to the land - people, animals, plants, and bugs: all living things. 

We hope that while you go through this exhibit and listen to how people connect to place, as well as how place connects to people, you think about your own connection to the landscape, and how you can take that care, that love, and turn it into action. The places shown in this short video are here in New Mexico, where people feel a deep (some might say spiritual) connection between themselves and their surroundings. As you ride the elevator, we hope you are prompted to think about how you feel about the state of our climate, then your own connection to places you and your loved ones share, thinking of the mountains, the deserts, the waters, the forests, these beautiful places, how can you show them that you care?

Watch the trailer on M. J. Rain Song's website.