The Art of Exploration is an emerging, place-based nonprofit initiative designed to help communities rebuild authentic connections to the natural world—starting with attention.
Our Mission
is to foster personal connections to the northern wilderness through creative exploration that inspires a shared culture of stewardship and care.
Our Vision
is a protected northern wilderness cherished by its people, who recognize themselves as part of this land’s ongoing story.
What We’re Creating
Over time, The Art of Exploration will include:
An annual Field Guide highlighting accessible wilderness destinations
Simple, learnable practices of mindful ecological attention
Community invitations to share photographs, poetry, visual art and creative reflections
A growing, community-built archive—a living Smithsonian of the Northern Wilderness
Local art exhibitions and gatherings that return stories to the community
Each element is designed to support one outcome: deeper ecological belonging that leads to long-term stewardship
Our Values Include:
Centering creative, sensory experience with place as the foundation of stewardship.
Believing ecological empathy grows through relationship, not instruction.
Honoring multiple ways of knowing, especially lived experience and diverse perspectives.
Practicing mindful attention as a learnable skill that fosters respect for living systems.
Trusting community as the archive, ensuring that a wide range of lived experiences are welcomed, respected, and shared.
Practicing stewardship with humility and reverence, prioritizing the well-being of place over visibility or extraction.
Designing for embodied transformation by prioritizing depth and durability over speed.
How We’re Different
The Art of Exploration works at the level where change begins: in relationship. By knitting together creative exploration, mindfulness, movement, neuroscience, and community-powered storytelling, this project is exploring a new pathway—one that helps us not just understand a place, but feel accountable to it.