What do Fort Andross and the vacant mills of eastern Europe have in common? Cotton Estes '07 spent the past year finding out.
After receiving a Watson fellowship at the end of her senior year at Bowdoin, Estes traveled to eight eastern European countries to find deserted factories and mills that were in the process of or had been converted for artistic and communal purposes.
On Saturday, Estes will be back at Bowdoin to present the drawings she created as a result of her travels and research in a show titled, "Only That Endures Which Changes: Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Sites."
Estes, a Rhode Island native, knew of many converted mills in New England, including Fort Andross, which piqued her interest in how other industrializing or industrialized countries were using their abandoned factories.
"Finding a new use for these places is a pertinent question in New England but also a big question in all industrializing societies," Estes said. "In Europe especially there's a penchant to recycle space because they've been developing territories for centuries longer than other places.
"I was interested in how communities were conserving spaces to evolve rather than letting them become a static monument to a bygone era," she added.
Estes traveled to the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Estonia. In each place, she researched sites, collected their histories and interviewed former and current employees as well as the architects responsible for transforming each place. She drew and photographed each place.
Although Estes carefully planned where she would travel before she left the country, everything changed once she landed in Europe.
"There are some sites you can only find once you're on the ground," she said. "There was a lot of opening and closing doors," she said.
Two European art networks, Trans Europe Halles and Art Factories, helped put Estes in touch with local coordinators in each place she went. She also received much of her information through word-of-mouth.
The ideas and conservation tactics of local people especially interested Estes during her trip.
"Grassroots appropriations of these spaces could inform a more enduring form of reuse," she said.
Istanbul, Turkey, was one area Estes cited where successful conservation has taken place. A large site in the densely populated Roma gypsy area of Kadik?y had been abandoned for 15 years before a three-week-long art festival took place there earlier this year.
The festival was organized by East Berlin art groups in the community of Kreuzberg, in partnership with the local government in Kadik?y as part of a bigger connection between Berlin and Istanbul.
"The festival involved local kids, children's art workshops, and was meant to strengthen the art relationship between the two communities," Estes said.
The local groups hope to turn the area into a community art center.
In Tallinn, Estonia, a theater group called Von Krahl has overtaken an abandoned mill. Local organizers also have plans to install wind turbines and other forms of green energy in the mill, although the local government is resistant to relinquishing the waterfront property.
Estes looks forward to coming back to Bowdoin to share her work.
"To finally get to share these ideas is great," she said.
Estes will present her work from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday in the Visual Arts Center. Her art will continue to be in the VAC until October 11.