“也许耶稣是一个冰上渔夫."
Someone said it between baiting hooks, eating barbecues and playing dice in the belly of the Big Fish. It came off as a gentle joke, but it presented an interesting comparison.

耶稣在水上行走，对鱼有好感，用熟悉的事物来解释不熟悉的事物. These five 乐虎电子 students were "living" on the water. They aimed to preach a little gospel of art, of NDSU and the land. 他们用一条鱼做诱饵.

学生们刚开始在冰冻的魔鬼湖上组装“大鱼”，人们就来了. It's not every North Dakota fish house that has a dorsal fin. 并不是每个鱼屋的设计都是模块化的，在天气好的时候，它们可以组装在一起, 烧木头的炉子等等, 整整74分钟. Nor do most ice fishermen invite visitors inside to draw pictures on the walls. 所以，当游客问“为什么??，学生们就会用“共同点”的故事来吸引他们.

It all started a few years ago with the Kellogg Foundation. 凯洛格的兴趣在于发现赠地机构是如何与公众互动的，以及它们是否仍在履行作为人民大学的使命,加里·布鲁尔说。, who chairs the NDSU entomology department. 这项研究后来演变为制度变革领导倡议(简称LINC), a partnership of land grant universities in North Dakota, 南达科他州和明尼苏达州. “他们提供的培训的一个组成部分是利用艺术来打破沟通障碍，让人们分享他们对不同想法的想法和感受,布鲁尔说. Agriculture reached out to the art department. 建筑也参与其中. 约瑟夫·A总统. 查普曼喜欢这个主意. 于是在2001年秋天，在凯洛格的资助下，两名《乐虎电子》的艺术家被聘用.

Jon Offutt和Terry Jelsing是基于他们的公共艺术项目的建议而被选中的，这些项目将吸引大学社区并促进州内的关系, Kim Bromley说, 艺术部协调员. Offutt的项目是建立一个便携式玻璃吹制工作室，并用它与NDSU的学生和全州的人们分享他的专业知识. 杰辛发明了“共同点”, 这个项目将向NDSU的一群学生介绍特定场地的雕塑, take them on "art safaris" across the state, 并让公众参与进来. 虽然这两个项目的影响还有待全面评估，但布罗姆利表示:“我已经有几个项目了 许多学生告诉我，与特里和乔恩一起工作改变了他们的生活."

“共同基础”项目的学生们决定参加第一次说明会的那天起，他们的生活就发生了变化. Most of them remember how they got the call. One overheard other students talking about it. 一对夫妇通过电子邮件得知了这个消息. One heard about it from a girlfriend too busy to participate herself. 在他们意识到之前, “被选中的人”(这是一个竞争性的选择过程)在雨中漫步，沿着法戈西堤的红河，用麻绳和树枝建造雕塑.

The group's Doubting Thomas was revealed: Andrew Rising, 22, a senior in art and philosophy from Medina, N.D. “我才是那个想弄明白的人, trying to push whatever lesson there might be to its extreme, to try and get as much as I can out of it,他说. Rising没有“理解”树枝、草和麻绳的项目，他在喝咖啡的时候告诉了Jelsing. Jelsing said, "I'm glad you brought that up." And they talked, and they talked, and they're still talking.

A few students who began with the Common Ground team weren't able to continue for various reasons; schedule conflicts and that thing called winter graduation. 最后有五个人，每个人都有自己独特的个性和角色. 当然, 直到他们在密苏里河岸边的第一次艺术之旅，他们才知道这些角色是什么, 威利斯顿附近. On a chilly night in early October they pitched Jelsing's outfitter's tent, 给烧木柴的炉子添柴, 并开始讨论他们, 作为一群艺术家, 将创建. Jelsing, “思想的合成器”,宣扬信任, 尊重和诚实，并谈论这些共同的行为原则会如何影响他们的努力. The next day he turned them loose on the land, to scavenge and experiment with nature's materials: driftwood, 刷, 石头, 沙子. 杰辛称它们为“地球草图”." They were all different, some starkly stunning in their beauty. Site-specific works like these, Jelsing says, are transitory. "The weather, the water, the sun, will change them ... In that way this brand of public art is very fragile. 它是用强烈的能量和专注创造出来的，它存在于时间中，然后它消失或改变."

The sun went down and the serious talk began. The next day the team would collaborate on their first joint project. 由杰辛指导, they reached a consensus: they would use the flat, 沙子石头 rock from the shoreline to build a perfectly round disc, 12英尺宽，3英尺高. 它的一部分会停留在水中. 项目确定后，他们放松下来，听着牛仔诗歌和D.W. 蒙大拿州班维尔的格罗斯., a buddy from Jelsing's undergraduate days at the University of North Dakota. A coyote wandered by and the land quietly awaited the artists' assault.

到目前为止, Common Ground's major projects have been extremely physical, 与岩石打交道的人, 另一个拿着锯子, 螺丝和胶合板. And each was executed under less than choice conditions, 一个寒冷的, 多风潮湿, the other - in an art department Quonset - dry, 尘土飞扬，拥挤不堪. 小组中的两名妇女受到岩石工作的物理性质和对电动工具和施工的不熟悉的挑战, 但不要气馁. They persevered for the love of the process and the camaraderie. "I kind of wimp out early if I don't have other people working with me,辛迪·桑德里尔承认, 24, a senior in landscape architecture from Grand Forks, N.D. "When we were picking up all those rocks, and they were talking about more layers, I knew in the end it would look great, but I needed everyone there working with me in order to keep going.22岁的阿曼达·亨德森(Amanda Henderson)来自纽约州斯克兰顿，主修建筑/辅修艺术.D.,他. "The thought crossed my mind that 'This is crazy, all we're doing is making a big pile of rocks,但同时, 事情不止于此." How much more, Henderson discovered the next day. "I remember as I was walking up to it ... 我的心开始狂跳. I felt so much excitement and energy coming from the piece. 我很难离开. I really felt personally attached to it."

这种感觉是相互的. 这支队伍是伪造的. 他们开始传播他们所看到和做过的伟大的事情.

这一势头引来了后来的补充. 里克林地, 41, 一个在爱达荷州长大的视觉艺术专业的学生通过努力进入了这个团体, 对大鱼伸出援手. 自私的, he wanted to spend a little more time around the "young minds" he'd grown to appreciate; generously, he thought he might play the role of helper perhaps even mentor. "They're becoming a unit - a small patrol," observes Woodland. "I think they could capture and dominate anything they decide to do." 有人可能会认为，艺术家建造一个看起来像鱼的鱼屋的主要原因是为了享受绘画的乐趣和挑战. 21岁的特洛伊·曼恩(Troy Mann)不是这样。他是一名建筑学和视觉艺术专业的四年级学生，来自纽约州迪金森(Dickinson).D. “这是我喜欢的东西,他说, 当他测量时, 削减, 适合, re-削减 and installs one of the collapsible bunks in the Big Fish. Wood and metal are more his media as an artist; as a team member his tools are honesty, 幽默感, 以及对绝对的拒绝. “我是鼓动者 ... 对于教唆犯,. I like to disagree and play devil's advocate,曼恩说. 特里也这样做. 他说过这样的话, 'Why don't you do it the opposite way of how you do it, then you'll know what it is that you do.'" Or, 正如曼恩在一堂哲学课上所记得的那样:理解反题就是理解正题.

The Big Fish is the antithesis of the Missouri River Project. 明显的. 俗丽的. 幽默的. 在一月的魔鬼湖钓鱼德比和二月的另一个周末. People come to have their pictures taken beside the Big Fish. Guys in earflap caps volunteer to drill ice holes. A group of teenage fishermen from South Dakota donate a Northern pike, which is hauled back to Fargo and tested as a printing tool. 启发, the team develops a printing project for kids, 他们在魔鬼湖麋鹿旅馆举行的“颤抖节”辣椒烹饪大赛上指挥的. 最重要的是, 该队在钓鱼比赛中赢得了一台索尼家用立体声音响(他们把它捐赠给了艺术部门)，而大鱼队则在全州范围内刊登报纸.

The media also covered the intimate exercise out west, 创造将会持续下去, 但它永远不会吸引人群. “我不后悔第一个项目没有被看到，”Sondreal说，表达了团队的观点. "I feel like it was the right project to do. 它来自陆地. 它是如此完美. 它是如此幽静. Our piece just reacted to that seclusion." 该团队的最终作品可能与石盘比木鱼有更多的共同之处. Maintaining the serendipitous water theme, a canoe trip is planned. Consensus is yet to be built on what they will create, 但杰辛说，学生们有自己设计和执行项目的工具. “如果你的背景是艺术理论，认为艺术和生活是平等的, 然后，到目前为止，他们所经历的经历将为他们构思一个项目并将其执行到底做好准备. 对我来说，最大的收获是看到学生们走到一起，为了集体的共同利益放弃了一些个人的自我. ... I think wherever these artists go, they will engage others in team art projects."

Common Ground has profoundly affected the students. Each has a high point, a low point, a point of revelation. Each confesses a deeper appreciation of the land because of the project. And each has exciting ideas of how they will apply to their own work, 无论是现在还是将来, 领导力的教训, 团队合作, 艺术创作和冒险. But ask them - one by one - what they believe is the Common Ground, 答案是一致的:人. “如果你没有这些人, 你就不会有共同点,曼恩说, "六人共同立场, 以及他们所影响的人, without that - in my mind - you wouldn't have anything."

凯瑟琳主教