Care & Stewardship: Through Action and Art

Join us for the second installment of our 2025 Lecture Series with presenters Nancy Floyd and Allison French.

Date: June 19th

Time: 6 - 7:30 p.m.

Location: Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture

We are excited to host Allison (Alli) French, of Talent Maker City and internationally acclaimed photographer, Nancy Floyd, to discuss their diverse experiences in caretaking and stewardship; Alli, as a visionary educator while Nancy brings us closer to the natural world through the lens.

Lecture Highlights :

• In 2020, the rural community of Talent, Oregon was devastated first by COVID, then by the Alameda Fire. Alli French’s Talent Maker City mobilized local businesses, nonprofits, and community members to provide essential supplies and refuge to the community’s most needy members.
• Through her camera, Nancy honors the efforts of people doing the work to build resiliency in our forests. Her photographs explore the work and care given by those who practice sustainable logging, re-planting and protection of the forest.

Environmental challenges impact us all and Alli French and Nancy Floyd’s contributions are examples of how action and art can change the world and how we see it.

This event is free and open to the public. Space is limited so registration is required.

About the Speakers:

With over 27 years in education, Alli French has taught everything from middle school health to college level courses, where she developed a knack for sparking curiosity and building connections. During her time at Ashland High School, Alli developed a school-wide Advisory curriculum designed to create community and connection. Alli co-facilitated AHS’s Fresh Start Program for all incoming high school students, focusing on empathy and engagement. She also co- created a very successful project-based, alternative education program for some of the district’s most challenged and trauma impacted youth.

Her experiences have molded her beliefs in equity, diversity, cultural agility and developing meaningful community partnerships. As one of the founders of Talent Maker City, Alli is dedicated to fostering inclusive spaces where education, innovation, creativity and community collide. The highlight of Alli’s career continues to be working alongside the incredible TMC team as they continue to collaboratively build Talent Maker City from scratch. She is proud that Talent Maker City has become a vibrant hub where individuals from all walks of life come together to learn. Alli lives in Talent with her partner and two sweet dogs. She loves hiking and biking when she isn’t in the shop making and creating.

Nancy Floyd uses photography, video, and mixed-media to address the ways in which lens-based media can connect deeply with experience and memory. Much of her work addresses the passage of time, representations of women, and the aging female body. More recently she’s begun a wide-ranging exploration of trees and the people who care for and study them.

Floyd has received numerous grants and awards including a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2024 her tree work was featured in Oregon Public Broadcasting’s series and in 2021, her 39-year self-portrait series, Weathering Time, was published by the International Center of Photography and GOST books and the work was featured in the Photobooth. She lives with her husband in Bend. They share their yard with a 140-foot Ponderosa pine.

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Host or Publisher Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture