Sycamore Island Kayak Tours & Listening Walks
August 24 & September 28 ✿ 9am–noon

Tours commissioned by Shiftworks Community + Public Arts (formerly the Office for Public Art) as part of a series of artist-designed tours.

Participants will kayak on the Allegheny River to Sycamore Island for a listening walk. Managed by the Allegheny Land Trust, Sycamore Island hosts a significant floodplain hardwood forest and presents an opportunity for the public to visit and experience a woodland that is imperiled in Pennsylvania. Participants will be led on island walking trails with a series of listening prompts, where they will practice redirecting their attention by closely listening to distant, subtle, and shifting sounds, increasing awareness of the larger sonic environment.

Participants will be led on island walking trails with a series of listening prompts focused on layers of human intervention and natural cycles. Participants will practice redirecting attention, practicing close listening to distant, subtle and shifting sounds, and increasing awareness of our larger sonic environment.

Shiftworks Community + Public Arts maintains a long-standing history of hosting and organizing walking tours for the public. To further expand this programmatic offering, Shiftworks commissioned artists Erin Mallea (Tree News editor) and Monica Cervone McElwain to design and experiment with how tour-goers experience the region’s public realm.

Photos by Ishara Henry from 2023 tour. Events made possible by Shiftworks and and 10.7 Marina.