“Welcome agents of change!” cheered Tim Collins, artist and conference organizer, as he welcomed attendees to the Groundworks Monongahela Conference, a public exchange of international views on art, ecology and planning. From these first few words, it was clear that something refreshing, important and transformative was happening here. Set on the Pittsburgh, Pa., campus of Carnegie Mellon University in the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, the environmental-art weekend, October 15-16, 2005, featured a full schedule of artists’ presentations describing community-specific projects.

Observation became engagement, instantly promoting discussion as attendees moved through the gallery. Balancing interpretation of place, community collaboration, planning, negotiation, physical transformation of sites and the aesthetic presentation of projects, these visual artists working in the field of environmental art have been problem solving and planting seeds of change.