Book release: Proje SU: Leto Joins the Springs

Co-hosted by The Lynx Books and University of Florida Imagining Climate Change (ICC), join UF College of the Arts alumna Margaret Ross Tolbert for an evening celebrating the release of her book, “Proje SU: Leto Joins the Springs.”

“Proje SU: Leto Joins the Springs” is a more than 400 page record of the efforts of a team of American and Turkish hydrologists, cave divers, artists, activists, journalists, photographers, and archeologists to explore the rivers, ruins, and deep cave systems of southwestern Türkiye.

Tolbert will describe the history of the “Water Project,” read from the book, and discuss its extraordinary photographs, paintings, and illustrations. "The waters and aquifers of the world are under threat,” she observes. “I want to celebrate their importance and call for our connection through waters in the visual arts and literary and scientific storytelling." Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase from The Lynx.

This event is free and open to the public. Additional info and RSVP at TheLynx.com
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About the Speaker:

Margaret Ross Tolbert has long investigated the lenses and points of view that create different realities. She earned her BFA and MFA in painting at the University of Florida, and soon after began her underwater explorations in the springs heartland of the Floridian aquifer. There, she discovered that the lens of water is not only a metaphorical construct but also a physical space; when we enter it we are transformed. Her work since has been about communicating the experience of immersion through painting and installation, writing and film.

Since the 1980s, Tolbert’s springs paintings have featured in exhibits and collections in the US, Europe, and Türkiye. In 2010 her book AQUIFERious received a gold and silver medal in the Florida Book Awards, and the accompanying AQUIFERious exhibit and film was shown in New Orleans, at the University of Virginia, and in numerous museums and art centers in Florida through 2019. Tolbert was a producer of Lost Springs (2017), a plea for restoration of a historic river and springs, with a premiere exhibition at the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art. Her public art installations include Orlando Springs (2011), at the Orlando International Airport, and Connected Worlds of Forest and Springs, at the Austin Cary Memorial Forest (2015). Tolbert has had several exhibits in the Art and Embassies program in Türkiye. In 2023 her commissioned 18 ft diptych Ulupinar/Great Spring was installed in the new United States embassy in Ankara. Her solo exhibition Water’s Margin was on display at the Appleton Museum of Art (Ocala, FL), from January–June 2024. She is based in Gainesville, FL.

“Proje SU: Leto Joins the Springs” is sponsored by Imagining Climate Change and The Lynx Books. For more information, including a slideshow of the book, see https://imagining-climate.clas.ufl.edu.

Address

601 South Main Street Gainesville
FL USA 32601