At Strouds Run State Park, you might see someone with headphones on, lying on the grass near Bull Dog Shelter House. Spreading their arms wide on Black Haw Trail. Writing in the sand near Dow Lake.
Chances are, they’re experiencing HOMING: An Audio/Movement Journey. Artists Katherine G. Moore and Kathryn Nusa Logan, in partnership with Appalachian Understories, have created a site-specific audio tour using sound and movement to invoke curiosity, calm, and connection.
The tour is part of Arts in the Parks, a collaborative program by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Arts Council.
Listening to the Land
“Bottom line, we’re hoping people come away with a different way of thinking about moving through the world,” says Moore. “What happens if you stand still, or lie down? Look backwards, or look upside down? Touch the earth? Touch a tree?”
HOMING asks an urgent question, Logan says: “If folks can be guided to attend to themselves and the natural world around them…might we treat the natural world differently?”
Moore and Logan created the first iteration of HOMING in 2024 at Scioto Audubon Metro Park in Columbus, Ohio. Through improvised dance exercises, poetry writings, and conversations with park staff, Moore and Logan developed a script that invited listeners into close attention to the land, their bodies, and the intersections between.
After its success, the two state agencies worked together to bring Moore and Logan’s project to more Ohioans through Arts in the Parks.
“It is our greatest mission to get folks out into nature, into one of our many state parks across Ohio, but to do it in a really cool way,” says Cynthia Amoah, who served as Arts in the Parks Coordinator during HOMING’s launch at Strouds Run.
To that end, she says, HOMING was a home run.
Attention and Intention
Moore and Logan met with geologists, historians, and park management to learn the landscape and history of Strouds Run. They selected locations that visitors could reach by foot and by car. They adapted to low cell reception by recording HOMING as podcast episodes to download in advance.
“Accessibility is of particular interest and importance to us, in addition to thinking about the history of the site,” says Logan.
Participants can experience HOMING on their own or in groups. At each location, audio cues nudge their attention and inspire safe, self-directed movement. Listeners learn about the land and are prompted to envision what lies beneath, both physically and spiritually.
By integrating the power of art and the power of nature, HOMING allows Arts in the Parks to broaden their reach. “It’s encouraging artists to let them know there’s a possibility to create in the greater outdoors,” says Amoah. “It’s also letting [nature-focused] folks know that there’s more than just a hike you can do on our trails or visiting our lodges. You can also be creative.”
“Folks feel so calm afterwards,” says Moore. “There’s just something a little bit meditative about this. That shift in attention does put you into a different sense of time and place.”
One of Moore’s favorite responses to HOMING came from a lifelong walk-taker in her seventies. “She told me, ‘This changes how I’m going to walk,’” Moore remembers. “I think that’s the goal. We’re interested in changing how folks react.”