Confluence Project in the Schools (CIS), a school-based arts education program, linked students and teachers in grades K–12 with professional artists, tribes and community partners. Students undertook the same commission given to artist Maya Lin, a response to the Lewis and Clark commemoration. Through the artistic process, they discovered the complexity of American history and the multiple narratives that have shaped American culture and the Pacific Northwest>

A two-year demonstration project, Confluence Project in the Schools included schools in communities from the Pacific Ocean to the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers 450 miles to the east. Twenty-nine schools completed public art projects in 2004-05.

Commission for Public Art

Commission Given to Maya Lin, and to Students

Students were given the same commission as the Confluence Project gave to Maya Lin. The commission can easily be modified to use with any community.

1. Select a special place along the river, and consider it from an environmental history point of view, a community point of view, and a tribal point of view.

2. Create a body of work that will engage the public in thinking about how they could play a role in the preservation of our cultural and environmental resources.