Meet Our Partners: Ocean Filibuster

For the production’s world premiere in Cambridge, A.R.T. and PearlDamour are partnering with the Conservation Law Foundation, Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, and Mass Audubon to give audiences dynamic access to information and actions around local marine ecologies and efforts to protect them. These three Boston-area organizations create positive change through artistic expression and relationship-building with the ocean, providing opportunities to learn about science, policy, and human impact and avenues towards actions we can take to advocate for ocean health.

Empathy, learning, humor, and urgency drive these partnerships.

Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) forges lasting solutions for New England’s most critical environmental challenges, using the law, science, and the market as tools for advocacy. Working with the creative team from PearlDamour, CLF will make it possible for audiences to TALK TO A COD during the show and help raise awareness amongst family and friends around the dangers of over-fishing and the need to protect the cod’s home of Cashes Ledge—just 80 miles off the coast of Cape Ann.

Bow Seat Ocean Awareness empowers youth to connect, create, and communicate for our blue planet through a number of programs, including the Ocean Awareness Contest. The A.R.T.’s first collaboration with Bow Seat for Moby-Dick featured a gallery display of youth-created artwork to support the Save the Right Whale Campaign. For Ocean Filibuster, Bow Seat is curating an art collection that will be on display in A.R.T.’s lobby, which will include opportunities for audiences to engage with issues and actions depicted in the artwork.

In the spirit of A.R.T.’s value of regenerative practice and Mass Audubon’s mission to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and for wildlife, A.R.T. and Mass Audubon are partnering throughout the winter and spring to offer free public workshops to learn about coastal habitats and Massachusetts wildlife. In partnership with Mass Audubon’s Youth Climate Leadership Program, A.R.T. and PearlDamour are also building opportunities to support youth-created dialogues and resources in support of our ocean and our coastal climates.

The collaborations here in Cambridge are the model for creative, action-oriented partnerships to be cultivated in every city of the production’s tour. Following its time at the A.R.T., the Ocean Filibuster tour begins in Houston, where the team is working with the Galveston Bay Foundation and other environmental groups to turn the audience into a blue crab that is plucked from its swamp grass environment by a seagull in the bay, dropped in a parking lot near Buffalo Bayou, then tries to get home through the Ship Channel, navigating trash and noise pollution along the way.

For more information about all these partnerships and associated events, keep an eye on the Ocean Filibuster production page.