Lifeline: A Water Storytelling Project is a series of projects that unfold in chapters, transforming and uniting the collective atmosphere, a change-making endeavor that can feel miraculous in these times given the culture of fear that separates us. Marea is the title of the next chapter, intertwining of both creative visual and oral storytelling, weaving together our intricately interconnected lives. Can we learn to become stronger together in the spirit of reciprocity?
In these deeply challenging times, we see division everywhere and feel the weight of the environmental challenges daily. True authentic collaboration, cross-pollination and shared creative experiences that are reciprocal in nature are rare and change-making. I am dedicated to that work – focused on bringing community together in meaningful shared creative experiences and lasting positive impact. I am seeking to tell sacred water stories that move and transform us, using a wide range of materials and methods to tell these stories in order to engage our senses and hearts.
Marea will launch in spring of 2026 in Venice, Italy. It addresses the fact that Venice is being flooded–with waters due to climate change and with people due to mass tourism–and this is having a devastating impact on Venetian residents, local traditions and the city itself. The project offers a timely, powerfully evocative and uplifting message of community vitality, unwavering spirit and resistance in the form of transformative creative action in this city of water. Marea is a collaborative public intervention, a book and a film project that offers a timely message of community and resistance in this city of water.
Learn More: https://www.melissamcgillartist.com/