In Progress - Purple Sea, an exhibit and book project.
Purple Sea takes a single species—the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus)—as a lens on the entanglement of ecology, culture, and creativity along the eastern Pacific coast, from Baja California to British Columbia.
Support the project ⟶
Bite Back!
A purple sea urchin pop-up and fundraiser.
Eating Our Way Out of an Eco Crisis • Purple sea urchin bites • Natural wines • Live DJThis fundraiser supports the creation of the multidisciplinary project, Purple Sea.
About the Project
Purple sea urchins have devoured 90% of California's kelp forests. But along the entire Pacific coast - from Baja, California to British Columbia - communities are responding with remarkable resilience and innovation.
Purple Sea is an ambitious multidisciplinary project, book, and exhibit that traces these interconnected stories of collapse and recovery across borders. We're creating a platform to showcase the scientists developing restoration techniques, the anthropologists documenting Indigenous stewardship traditions, the divers working underwater restoration, the artists reimagining ocean relationships, and the chefs transforming invasive species into culinary solutions.
The purple sea urchin serves as the sentinel of the pacific while highlighting the web of relationships, knowledge systems, and creative responses emerging along our shared coastline. At once an artful experience and a work of cultural ecology, Purple Sea invites viewers to witness how one small creature illuminates the interconnected fate of oceans, climates, and cultures.
Your support helps us create a vital platform that connects and celebrates these efforts, showing how local initiatives are part of a larger story of resilience stretching the length of the Pacific coast.
