2005: Upon returning to HOBT, Sandy Spieler begins work with a team of artists (Masanari Kawahara, Duane Tougas, Julie Boada) asking the question of how to build awareness of the growing global crises of water within the water-rich state of Minnesota where water is often taken for granted.
One day Spieler looks at the drinking fountain in the lobby of the theatre. The fountain wears the sign “Out of Order”. Spieler recognizes this as a sad emblem of the lack of support for Our Public Water Commons.
As a microcosm of a much larger situation, the theatre had not invested in the repair and maintenance of their public drinking fountain and was instead selling water in plastic bottles to their audiences. Spieler proposes the beginning of a performance series about water quality, quantity and “ownership” using the renovation of the public drinking fountain as an emblematic focus on the stewardship of our Water Commons.
This marks the formal beginning of Invigorate the Common Well.
Many thanks to the MN State Arts Board for supporting the creation of this website through a 2014 Artist Initiative Grant with funds appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.