Handcraft was once integral to daily life. Traditions like basketry, knitting and woodworking created useful and beautiful objects for our lives, while also being the basis for social and intergenerational webs of knowledge. And those traditions were almost universally connected to nature—formed from the organic materials we sourced to make things.
Today, our lives are flooded with screens and stressful news cycles . . . and fewer and fewer nature experiences. The consequences are clear: spiking rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
Creative experiences that combine art and nature can play a powerful role in helping us regain what’s been lost in this disconnected era, providing relief, restoring a sense of agency, and allowing people to engage deeply with the world around them.
Humans are hard-wired for connection and creativity, and you can’t fool the brain long before we see upticks in anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
Humans are hard-wired for connection and creativity, and you can’t fool the brain long before we see upticks in anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
Start with Your Own Connections
How is your personal connection to art and/or nature going?
I talk a lot about the power of craft and nature to calm and connect us, but I can fail to follow my own advice. I spend hours every day on my computer and phone, and stream TV shows most evenings.
These diversions are great escapes from the stress of work and the world. But they are far from restorative. In fact, research shows that I’m actually taxing my brain further rather than getting the break I need.
On a recent basketweaving weekend at Woodspirit School of Traditional Craft in Ashland, Wisconsin, I got a spoonful of my own medicine. Two days of transforming willow branches into weavable strips with a sharp knife and then weaving a Swedish picnic basket left my mind noticeably relaxed and renewed when I returned to my desk on Monday—as if cobwebs had been removed.
Most people don’t know that the hands take up a disproportionate amount of our brains’ real estate when compared with other body parts. That’s why handwork is known for mitigating stress—it opens us up to new ways of thinking and helps us connect with one another as we relax into activities like knitting, cooking, and puzzling.
When we lose once-common activities like cooking from scratch or taking a nature walk with a neighbor, we pay a price. Humans are hard-wired for connection and creativity, and you can’t fool the brain long before we see upticks in anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
Research proves the efficacy of art and nature experiences, from reducing cortisol levels to increasing cognitive abilities. That applies no matter what your digital habits are, whether you have a stellar connection to nature, or feel at all like a “creative person.”
After just 20 minutes observing nature or making things with your hands, you’ll find yourself better able to connect with others and tackle your to-do list.
Don’t overthink it. An experience with art or nature can be as simple as standing by a tree and breathing or tracing a leaf at your desk.
Need some inspiration?
Here are two prompts to build these habits in your own way. Try one, and make a mental note of how you feel before and after.
Trace a Leaf Take a BreathArt and Nature at Work
Beyond supporting our personal wellbeing, art and nature can also transform our work, no matter one’s profession.
Bringing art and nature together in arts programming or in your artistic practice forms a wide on-ramp for attracting people who likely have wildly different starting points. As an example, a sound-based installation about bird calls could interest an expert birder as much as a family with small children.
In my own practice as the Artist-in-Residence at the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO), I develop arts-engaged outreach that helps people understand the science of watersheds and build personal connections to the Mississippi River.
My public art project Weaving Water is a creative platform where participants experience textile handwork near a body of water. I set up a temporary fiber art studio where people of any age can take part in indigo dyeing, weaving, and spinning while conversing about how cloth connects us to water.
Many people are attracted to the art project at first, but then find themselves lingering to learn about watersheds, contemplate the amazing river in their backyard, and connect with their fellow community members.
Whatever your angle or starting point, you can bring this type of thinking into your work:
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Start with what you know
Or, something you’d like to learn more about! Water, trees, or birds. Drawing, painting, or DJ-ing. Any artform or nature subject will do. It’s the juxtaposition of the two that is inherently compelling.
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Don’t be afraid to be a trailblazer
Combined art and nature programming is in demand! We are all touched by the changing climate and its social and environmental ripple effects. Most of us would love to make a positive impact on this monumental challenge, but can’t fathom where to begin.
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Think creatively about partners
I recommend using Google Maps to view the geographic area you want to reach. What arts organizations—large or small—exist there and have roots in the community? What is the connection to nature that needs to be made and why?
Pick up the phone, send an email, and start a conversation with someone who can help you get your idea off the ground. You might be surprised how game people are.
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Better, Together
Don’t be afraid to learn from other people doing this work, both within and outside of the arts.
Though artists and environmental professionals share many of the same goals and interests, it can sometimes be difficult to connect due to siloed career paths.
To help address this gap, I co-founded a professional network called AWE (art+water+ecology) Network, a Minnesota-based group of artists, scientists, educators, and natural resource professionals striving to connect communities to nature.
In just the first year, we pulled together over 300 people working at the intersection of art, nature and community
Explore AWE Network Case Studies
We’ve pulled together examples of community engaged, art-powered projects that build bridges between the public and water and environmental organizations, plus practical advice on how to tackle common roadblocks like contracts, project scoping, and misconceptions about how art functions in non-arts sectors.
Seeing the Impact
You can measure the impact of art and nature experiences in ways that don’t necessarily require hard data.
- Photos: Plan ahead to capture photos of community engagement in action.
- Quotes: Jot down anecdotes and ask participants for testimonials when possible.
- Numbers: Reach for more sophisticated tools and guides if you need to dig into numbers. I recommend the Practitioner Guide to Assessing Connection to Nature and Continuum of Impact Guide from Americans for the Arts.
Once I led a residency working with second graders that emphasized self-taught artist-naturalists. When I showed the class how fun it is to trace leaves and observe the trees in their schoolyard closely, one student told me, “I didn’t know I could be my own teacher!” This was a clue to the impact of her experience with both art and nature.
Our project was to transform their leaf tracings into T-shirt designs that they screen printed themselves. I was thrilled to hear that students wore them proudly after the residency, and the student I mentioned went on to start her school’s Nature Club. Our project even made the local paper.
Weaving Water includes participants weaving on a small floor loom. Often, they weave two rows and announce, “This is the most relaxing thing I’ve ever done!”
When we take back our birthright as knowledge-makers through hands-on experience, we ignite powerful circuitry in the brain called the effort driven rewards circuit. The participant at the loom requires no significant training to send the shuttle back and forth and create cloth: they learn by doing, and delight in it. This kind of indelible experience brings people back for more, a key impact you can measure.
Small Impacts, Large Effects
Arts-engaged programming has transformed the way the MWMO does outreach and become part of the organization’s identity in their official Creative Watershed Plan published in 2025.
Their outreach programming now draws on many different artists who help them reach families and folks who can’t sign up for traditional volunteer opportunities like buckthorn busts.
Bringing art and nature together is a winning formula at every level. From the personal to the professional, we stand to make a difference for ourselves, our communities, and maybe our planet if we can re-establish our creative roots in nature despite our modern lifestyles.