Pocket Watersheds
A hand-felted watershed tile.
Photo Credit: Sarah Nassif
Collaborating Partner:
Abby Moore, Outreach Manger at Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO)
Artist:
Sarah Nassif, MWMO Artist In Residence
Time & Place:
Longfellow Gorge Fest is a growing outdoor festival that draws neighborhood residents to explore and learn about the Mississippi River gorge area with a variety of local partners.
MWMO collaborated with Sarah Nassif to bring Felted Watershed to the festival in September 2023 and Pocket Watersheds in 2023 and 2024.
Project Description:
A hands-on lesson in watershed structure and stewardship. To be good stewards of local waterways, the public needs a basic understanding of how watersheds work. But watersheds are abstract and hard to imagine. In this hands-on activity, people of any age and skill level create “pocket watersheds” that illustrate how an area of land drains to a single point. Using wet or needle/dry-felting techniques with wool, participants make small felted wool tiles of a real or imagined watershed using local watershed geography as inspiration.
This intergenerational activity opens a space to talk about local waterways, how human activity impacts water, and practices that keep these resources healthy. When done, participants can keep their felted square or add to a group display.
Goals or Outcomes Achieved:
Increased deep engagement. Compared to the traditional tabling, MWMO found the arts-engaged activity draws a larger number and wider range of people who stay longer.
Conveys complex watershed concepts appropriate for all ages and interest levels
Connects the public to MWMO's work in an accessible, memorable way
Celebrates our relationship to the Mississippi River and creates a collectible artifact that reminds people of the experience
Sets the stage for curiosity and conversations about our relationship to the Mississippi River Watershed
What did you learn? Artistically? Administratively? About the community?
The Felted Watershed and Pocket Watersheds projects drew hundreds of participants who lingered for periods up to an hour. During the first year participants helped with finishing Felted Watershed, a 4’ x 5’ wool map of the Mississippi River Watershed. Engaging directly with watershed residents, we noticed how both adults and children were happy to take part in the soapy water felting fun. We also learned that the concept of a watershed is not well understood, and nearly no one knew that our watershed is the fourth largest on Earth! Felted Watershed returns each year to the festival as a backdrop for Pocket Watersheds.
In 2024 and 2025, the Pocket Watersheds project allowed participants to make and keep their watershed tiles as conversation pieces. While MWMO always offers the traditional walk-up information table with brochures, watershed education games, and a chance to talk with MWMO staff, the tactile art project is what draws people into learning about the MWMO’s work and makes space for deeper discussion and personal reflection.
Links
Quote from the project:
"Our collective imagination is important to caring for our shared ecosystems, and each of us can learn new ways to talk about them and even have fun by creating something unexpected." — Sarah Nassif
Participant with her pocket watershed in front of Felted Watershed (2023)
Photo Credit: Sarah Nassif
Festival paricipants making pocket watersheds.
Photo credit: Sarah Nassif
Photo credit: Sarah Nassif
Photo credit: Sarah Nassif
