The Boise premiere of the video “Culture of the Irrigated West” will be held from 6-8 p.m., Oct. 21 in the Student Union Barnwell Room. Light refreshments will be served. Admission is free.
Literacy professor Jamie Armstrong, literacy associate professor Lee Tysseling and former communication professor Peter Lutze will be on hand to discuss the multimedia project and answer questions after the premiere.
“Although we intend this video to be used in classrooms, we think that many other people may find the subject fascinating,” Armstrong said. “We hope to deepen people’s appreciation of their cultural heritage as well as the land and water that sustain all of us in Idaho.”
“Culture of the Irrigated West” combines historical research, photography from the era and original poetry in order to enrich people’s understanding of the history and culture of southern Idaho.
The project looks at the early irrigated settlements along the Snake and Boise rivers during a brief, but pivotal, point in Idaho history. This was a time when massive federal irrigation projects transformed southern Idaho from desert into arable land.
The video evokes a sense of what life was like 100 years ago as the high desert began to teem with new farms, towns and cities.
The DVD reproduction was made possible in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council and a fellowship award from the Boise State University Arts and Humanities Institute.
For more information about the presentation, contact Jamie Armstrong at jarmstr@boisestate.edu or AHI director Nick Miller at ahi@boisestate.edu or at (208) 426-3902.