GalleryThis is the growing visual archive of Collective Cartography — personal maps created by students, artists, teachers, and community members.
Each map tells a different story of connection to place.
Where I Grew Up by Brian Chu The fun of Ashland happens in and out of the city center. I prefer to stay in the city because I was born in a highly urbanized country. Ashland is my first exposure to nature. There is a fireroad in Lithia Park that allows you to either drive or walk. If you have the patience to get up there, and you look at the cityscape alongside its beautiful rustic surroundings, then you understand how humans can be great managers of the world. The views remind me of the serene Lake District in England, where Beatrix Potter lived.
Cozy Escape by Rowan This is a truly lovely town, in every sense of the word. The trees, the water, the mountains, the people. It's something approaching magical, and yet the beauty of it is so deeply embedded, so unassuming, that it oftentimes becomes easy to overlook. Moving here felt like moving into a storybook, like becoming part of a new and fantastical world. It gave me a place to belong, to feel wanted, feel human, possibly for the first ever time. I don't ever want to take that gift for granted. Thank you for everything, Ashland.
"Portal" by Fawn, 52 Young woman. Geographies. Cities. Roads. The places I loved—Ashland, Petaluma, San Francisco, Seattle, Missoula—eventually became places I lived, or lived near. As if loving a place long enough pulls you into its gravity. Returning feels like stepping through a portal in time. Each arrival layers new experiences onto what and who came before. I find myself collaging memory onto present tense, tracing old paths with older hands. Human made places are palimpsests– written, erased, and written again. And yet, something essential remains… a spirit of place that remembers us. I’m back. Or maybe I never left.
Lithia Heart by Erick Gordon
The Choice by Death Morales Age: 20 Junior at SOU in Theater/Performance
Untitled, Anonymous, 18 years old, freshman student at SOU and baker.
Fairy Tale: Maximilian
Work in Progress: Fawn, 52 Sister Corita's hand looks like ashland. Words, words, words!