Draft:Nature, Art & Habitat Residency (NAHR)

Nature, Art & Habitat Residency (NAHR), an ECO-Laboratory of Multidisciplinary Practice, is a non-profit collective dedicated to the organization of a summer residency program in Sottochiesa in the Taleggio Valley (Italy) since 2015, and, from 2021, also in Santa Ynez Valley, California (USA). NAHR aims to unfold and display a sensitive type of culture that relates to nature as a source of inspiration and a measure of available resources. The ultimate goal of NAHR is to unveil intimate links among all living organisms for more resilient inhabitation of the Earth in which humans and nature are shown to coexist.

Through their programs, NAHR brings together multidisciplinary scholars, artists, and professionals active in the fields of bio-inspired arts including visual art, dance, poetry and music, design and architecture, as well as anthropology, natural sciences, literature, technology, economy, or a cross-disciplinary blend of any of these fields. Participants focus on a common theme of nature each year and explore four main domains during their residencies: Regenerative Economy, Bio-Inspired Design and Architecture, The Body Performing Nature, and Designed Futures and Technologies. Over the years, NAHR has also helped to promote or create various events, often in collaboration with other organisations both local to the Bergamo area and internationally.

Programme
NAHR organises workshops, seminars, and residencies each year around a given nature-related theme. Throughout the years, themes have been:


 * FIRE: Renewal, Rituals, Power (2024),
 * AIR: Commons, Chaotic Fluid, Inspiration (2023),
 * SOIL: The Critical Zone (2022),
 * ANIMALS: Interdependence between Species (2021),
 * NAH_Remote: Coexistence (2020),
 * GRASSES and PASTURES: Imagining a Regenerative Economy of Cheese (2019),
 * WATER: Vital Flux, Energy in Transformation (2018),
 * ROCK and STONE: Material Culture and Cultures of Making (2017),
 * THE WOODS: Resiliency in Nature (2016),
 * NATURE and CULTURE (2015),

Participants are invited to reflect on these topics and their larger role in the Earth's ecosystems. Through their program, NAHR brings together multidisciplinary professionals active in the fields of bio-inspired arts, design, and architecture, as well as anthropology, botany, natural sciences, literature, technology, economy or a cross-disciplinary blend of any of these fields. Over the years, NAHR has also helped to promote or create various events, often in collaboration with other organisations both local to the Bergamo area and internationally.

Founders
NAHR was founded in 2015 and officially became a non-profit organisation in 2016. The organisation is coordinated by founder Ilaria Mazzoleni, by president Gabi Scardi, and by scientific committee chair Deborah Weintraub. Mazzoleni is an architect, author, educator, and founder of IM Studio Milan/Los Angeles. Scardi is an art critic, curator, and writer from Milan, Italy, and Weintraub is an architect in Los Angeles, California, USA. The larger NAHR team includes an international group of fellow artists, architects, and scientists whose vision aligns with NAHR's environmental mission.

Partnering Organisations
Over time, NAHR has partnered with multiple international institutions, including:


 * Ecomuseo Val Taleggio
 * Media Design Practices at Art Center (2018–2023)
 * Helms Design District - Culver City Arts (2021–2023)
 * Australian Poetry (2017-present)
 * UAL Art for the Environment (2022–2023)
 * Berlin University Alliance (2024- )
 * EMPACT:  The Art of Thinking Like a Mountain co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.  2023-2024, partnering institutions with NAHR are:
 * Cyprus University of Technology (Cyprus)
 * Espacio Rojo (Spain)
 * National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA) (Bulgaria)
 * Umetnostna Galerija Maribor (Slovenia)
 * Vorres Museum (Greese),
 * Fondazione Lamberto Puggelli (Italy)

In 2022,  in collaboration with the City of Bergamo: Bergamo Botanical Garden 'Lorenzo Rota', Bergamo UNESCO Creative City for Gastronomy (Culture Service and UNESCO), NAHR produced an "En Plein Air" exhibition in Bergamo called Coexistence. The project sought to re-engage with the ecological treasures hidden in the mountains of Bergamo's valleys through the exhibition of artworks conceived with the vision of Nature, Art & Habitat (NAHR).