Project overview: Create a series of five to six visitor events throughout the park, highlighting Yosemite connections to art and traditions. Events include Parsons Memorial Lodge Summer Series and the annual Obata event.

How your support helps: Yosemite National Park continues to make strides in expanding programming to meet more and more diverse audiences. This visitor event series pushes the park forward, actively spotlighting cultures and visitors who may not often see themselves reflected in park happenings. 

This project combines existing and new visitor experiences, including art, customs, and traditions.  

This year: In 2024, your support will fund this important series of events, including: 

  • Parsons Memorial Lodge Summer Series: Offering diverse perspectives and voices to celebrate the park through science, art, and poetry, this four-weekend summer series is a key place where complex and diverse ideas are shared with visitors and Yosemite staff in the historic Soda Springs district of Tuolumne Meadows. 
  • Yosemite Visions: This one-week summer event of art-based drop-in experiences highlights art forms and artists from diverse sources.   
  • Obata Mini-Event: Funded by a previous Conservancy grant with great success, this event highlights Japanese-American artist Chiura Obata’s role in Yosemite and will follow immediately after the Parsons Memorial Lodge Summer Series. 
  • Knap-In: This two-day event brings together experts in the traditional art of knapping (a traditional technique that includes making arrowheads on other stone tools) in the Indian Village area as a drop-in event.  
  • Guest Cultural Demonstrator Program: We hope to expand to four demonstrators at the Indian Cultural Museum this year, with a strong focus on recruiting from the seven associated Tribes. 

Project partner: Yosemite National Park

Sharon Miyako

Project Notes

"A culture-based series across the park, and at different times, appeals to both existing visitor audiences, as well as non-traditional groups like historically excluded audiences, non-outdoor adventure audiences, and audiences that may not immediately connect to the sciences but find their attachment to Yosemite through art and culture."