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Planet Ord started as a small-scale art project aiming to document the landscape, ecology and community of Fort Ord - the largest decommissioned Army Base in the American West - and present that documentation to the world in a free and easily accessible form.
Created by artist Enid Baxter Ryce, this project became a partnership with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project which held a special pop-up exhibition and ceremony recognizing the Planet Ord project in the Library of Congress.
Enid's film, 'A Land for War' (based on the project) premiered at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C in 2017 along with a collection of her students' films. 'A Land' will next screen at the 2017 Philip Glass Days and Nights Festival. The film was made over a span of 10 years.
During the course of the project, Enid and her students discovered thousands of murals, painted by thousands of soldiers. They also developed a model for recording homeless veterans oral histories for the Library of Congress.
The project inspired two museum exhibitions: at Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, and Monterey Museum of Art. Paintings about Fort Ord created by Enid are permanently displayed at the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and the Veterans Transition Center. Enid has done more than 100 lectures on the project, including at the USC Huntington Libraries' Center for the American West and at the National Council on Public History 2016 and 2017 (in collaboration with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project staff).
Enid has also created related arts workshops for homeless veterans at the Veterans Transition Center and events and exhibitions at branches of the Monterey County Free Libraries.
Over 200 veteran oral histories recorded by Enid's students have become part of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Her photographs have become the official U.S. Army archive of Fort Ord.
PlanetOrd.com has been visited over 6 million times.
This project's Facebook page is a community conversation of soldiers, veterans, artists, students, activists, ecologists, historians and community members who share their experiences of a dynamic, beautiful, violent and important place.
Historic Fort Ord is part of Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen tribal lands. It became an active military base during the Civil War and Indian Wars. Fort Ord was historically significant in many ways including being the primary training site for drafted soldiers during the Vietnam War, the first racially and gender integrated military base, the home of VOLAR and the innovative Lightfighters, as well as being designated a National Monument in 2012.
The original base is roughly the size of San Francisco, and is a critical wilderness area in California. Over 1 million soldiers served at Fort Ord. Here's a brief history: http://planetord.com/history.html and timeline: http://planetord.com/insignias.html
Enid Baxter Ryce (nee Blader) is an artist, filmmaker and musician. She grew up in a strip-mining town that was also a Revolutionary War reenactment park. Her works have exhibited internationally at venues including the National Gallery of Art and Library of Congress, Washington, D.C; the J.P. Getty Museum, Director's Guild of America and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Location One and Academy of Art and Sciences, New York City; Sundance, Park City UT; The Kunsthalle Vienna; The Arnolfini in London; Center for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; CCA Andratx, Mallorca.
Her work has been written about in The New York Times, Artforum, Artreviews, The Los Angeles Times, and many others. Enid has been the Community Director for the Philip Glass Days and Nights festival since 2013. She has won awards for her work as an artist and arts educator from government agencies and non-profit festivals. Enid studied fine art at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Yale University and Claremont Graduate University. She is Professor of Cinematic Arts and Environmental Studies and Interim Director of the Salinas City Center for Arts, Culture and Humanities at CSU Monterey Bay.
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/09/stand-down-recording-homeless-veterans-stories/
https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-17-023/special-display-on-fort-ord-at-library-march-17/2017-03-06/
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/02/visual-art-military-history-and-sense-of-place-fort-ord-and-the-veterans-history-project/
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/entertainment/art/library-of-congress-and-national-gallery-of-art-collaborate-with/article_77a0828e-0f39-11e7-a674-dbb97303d3e2.html
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/entertainment/art/exhibition-shows-everyday-military-life-at-fort-ord/article_cfac5870-d03a-11e5-97ae-5397f7a15646.html
http://www.montereyart.org/event/the-veterans-history-project-with-members-of-the-library-of-congress/
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/10aa/10aa566.htm
https://csumb.edu/cinearts/csumb-s-enid-baxter-ryce-have-fort-ord-projects-highlighted-washington-dc
https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/22/docs/R2_InConvRyce0215.pdf
https://www2.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/research/highlights/monterey-bay/Pages/chronicling-the-history-of-fort-ord.aspx