RIPE AREA: The Art of Native Plants Festival
A recipient of a 2024 CA Parks Local Parks Implementation Grant, American River Conservancy (ARC) is partnered again with Myrtle Tree Arts (MTA) to host the RIPE AREA: Art of Native Plants Festival at Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville on September 21, 2025. The festival will feature local artists expressing the benefits and uses of native flora in many art forms, including culinary arts.
The event will offer a comprehensive range of artistic and cultural experiences using the farm’s native plant demonstration garden and riparian areas, Audiences will experience innovative ideas and artistic expressions with the goal of inspiring them to become informed land and plant stewards and advocates for environmental protection and preservation.
The work is supported by a grant from CA Parks Arts in the Parks Program 2024-2025.
The Arts in California Parks Local Parks Grant Program revitalizes local parks with diverse experiences that foster creativity, community connection, and transform them into vibrant hubs of art, culture, and nature. In 2024, Arts in California Parks, Local Parks Grant Program was launched with a $2.8 million investment to support 31 grant recipients across California to bring art and cultural programming to local parks.
Get Involved:
Are you a native plants expert? Contact us to learn about how you can get involved in the upcoming event!
RIPE AREA: Festival focuses on creativity, caring about the watershed
Spotlighted in the Mountain Democrat on May 29, 2024, RIPE AREA ARTS + NATURE FESTIVAL was a one-day event for the community that occurred on June 2, 2024 at Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville. Drawing over 500 attendees, the event inspired by riparian habitat was created and co-produced by Myrtle Tree Arts, and co-presented with our partner, environmental nonprofit American River Conservancy.
Combining ecological knowledge with the arts, the event featured the sound art walk entitled Music for 33 Drain Pipes, created by Paul Godwin. The piece is composed of underwater field recordings from the American and Cosumnes River watersheds and processed music, with additional music by Miguel Noya, and photography and writing by Ameera Godwin.
RIPE AREA: Festival focuses on creativity, caring about the watershed
Spotlighted in the Mountain Democrat on May 29, 2024, RIPE AREA ARTS + NATURE FESTIVAL was a one-day event for the community that occurred on June 2, 2024 at Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville. Drawing over 500 attendees, the event inspired by riparian habitat was created and co-produced by Myrtle Tree Arts, and co-presented with our partner, environmental nonprofit American River Conservancy.
Combining ecological knowledge with the arts, the event featured the sound art walk entitled Music for 33 Drain Pipes, created by Paul Godwin. The piece is composed of underwater field recordings from the American and Cosumnes River watersheds and processed music, with additional music by Miguel Noya, and photography and writing by Ameera Godwin.
Uniquely Artistic encounter with wildfire
Art Rock Opera for the Forest, A Performance and Forum Event at Wakamatsu Farm
Featured in the Mtn. Democrat, FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory – Inspiring Community Resilience is an art rock opera and public forum offering an artistic encounter with wildfire, recovery and resilience in El Dorado County and beyond. FIRE/LAND premieres as a one-night-only event June 10 at Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville, and is produced by Myrtle Tree Arts, Placerville-based arts collaborative founded by Ameera Godwin and Paul Godwin, and co-presented by the environmental nonprofit American River Conservancy.
FIRE/LAND: The Exhibition at Switchboard Gallery
As described in the Mtn. Democrat, FIRE/LAND: The Exhibition is at Arts and Culture El Dorado’s Switchboard Gallery in Placerville. FIRE/LAND: The Exhibition is an installation of Myrtle Tree Arts co-founder Ameera Godwin’s digital prints and video, representing the artist’s creative journey into local forest lands in response to wildfire and climate grief, vulnerability and responsibility. Featuring prints and looping video, the show is a companion to the Myrtle Tree Arts art rock opera for the forest, FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory, performed at Wakamatsu Farm. The show runs June 8- August 6, 2023.
On THE radio
CapRadio's Insight with Vicki Gonzalez
Co-founder of Myrtle Tree Arts, Ameera Godwin, and Exhibition Curator, Marya Osucha are interviewed in this June 21, 2023 live radio segment of Sacramento's CapRadio NPR show, Insight with Vicki Gonzalez about the creation of FIRE/LAND: The Exhibition, and issues related to wildfire, history, and resilience in El Dorado county and beyond. Listen to "Fire/Land: The Exhibit".
On Main Street
Main Street Collective - A community musical collaboration formed by Myrtle Tree Arts
Main Street Collective is a musical collaboration of talented musicians across genres, featured in the June 24th, 2022 Mt Democrat. Founded in 2021 with monthly performances at Placerville's Green Room Social Club and other local venues, MSC has gathered a retinue of musicians, especially those who work on Placerville's Main St., to present high-caliber live events for the Foothills and beyond. With tribute concerts to Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Bowie, and Talking Heads - standing-room-only gigs have become a monthly highlight of the local arts scene.
Ameera Godwin, Co-founder of Myrtle Tree Arts, Receives Artist Fellowship
In 2022, Ameera Godwin was awarded a fellowship grant to develop a new site-specific media project entitled: “Fire/Land: Knowing the Territory”. From a competitive cohort of applicants, Ameera is one of five artists who were selected to receive the Gloria Burt Sacramento Region Arts Fellowship of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, and joint project of the Sacramento Alliance for Regional Arts (SARA), Blue Line Arts, and , in honor of long-time creative arts advocate Gloria Burt. More information can be found here. The project is being presented in collaboration with American River Conservancy and Arts and Culture El Dorado.