Last Library: Reading Rooms, Bridges, and Tools for Integrating Ecological Ethics into Practice

This week marks the opening of Last Library at the University of Colorado Art Museum—an evolving space for collective learning that emerged from a semester-long residency at CUAM. The library is an experiment in categorization, with four loosely defined subject areas: commons, ecosophy, geology, and art. But in practice, these boundaries blur, much like the interconnected systems they attempt to describe.

On opening night, I had the opportunity to work with John Sabraw’s pigments made from mining tailings, watch Water Warriors by Michael Premo, imagine new habitats for barn swallows with Aaron Treher, and explore North Gate with Sarah McCormick. These moments reinforced the core intention of Last Library: to build bridges between disciplines, materials, and modes of understanding, integrating ecological ethics into practice through reading, making, and shared experience.

The library is filled with interactive objects, books, media files, and artworks by artists whose practices exist between categories—like The Wake by Dana Levy and Blacktop Book by Basia Irland. It is the first iteration of The Ecotopian Library, a co-learning space that will continue to expand.

I’m excited to be sharing works and tools from thinkers and artists including Lonny Grafman, Ed Roberson, Sophy Tuttle, Elisabeth Phelps Meyer, Paula Harris, Clint Carroll, Blair Butterfield, and many more. If you’re in Boulder and interested in a working residency at Last Library, let me know.