Collins & Goto Studio

Environmental Art, Deep Mapping & Ecological Instruments

Selected CV

A selected record of the studio’s work since 1985: positions, public art and planning, residencies, talks, and writing about the work. Exhibitions and publications have their own pages.

On this page

At a glance

  • 1985–1997 · San Francisco Bay Area. Tim Collins and Reiko Goto meet at the San Francisco Art Institute (1985). Installations, temporary public works and permanent public art in San Francisco, Oakland and Marin County; residencies at Capp Street Project and the Headlands Center for the Arts.
  • 1997–2005 · Pittsburgh. STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University: Nine Mile Run (1997–2000) and 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (2000–05), and with Grant Kester the Groundworks exhibition, catalogue and conference (2005).
  • 2005–2012 · England and Scotland. Research leadership in UK art schools (Wolverhampton, Falmouth, Glasgow School of Art); Eden 3 / Plein Air; fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh.
  • 2012– · Glasgow. Collins & Goto Studio at Glasgow Sculpture Studios: the Black Wood of Rannoch, Lough Boora, HAKOTO and Horse | Tree | Earth.

Work has been developed and exhibited in Germany, Japan, Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK and the USA.

Education

Tim Collins

  • 2007 PhD, Art and Design, University of Plymouth
  • 1985 MFA, Sculpture, San Francisco Art Institute
  • 1982 BFA, Visual Art, University of Rhode Island

Reiko Goto Collins

  • 2012 PhD, Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University
  • MFA, San Francisco Art Institute
  • BFA, Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo

Positions and fellowships

  • 2023– Visiting Research Fellows, Bath Spa University (both)
  • 2022– International associates, Arts and Ecologies Research Network (AEGIS), RMIT University (both)
  • 2018– Members, Living Organisms and Their Choices research network, University of Edinburgh (Tim Collins)
  • 2023–25 Executive, Scottish Artists Union (Tim Collins)
  • 2017–23 Board, Glasgow Sculpture Studios; Secretary from 2018 (Tim Collins)
  • 2016–20 External Examiner, MA/MFA Art, Space and Nature, University of Edinburgh (Tim Collins)
  • 2016–18 Honorary Research Fellow, School of Social Science, University of Aberdeen (Tim Collins)
  • 2011–12 Acting Head of Research and the Graduate School, Glasgow School of Art (Tim Collins)
  • 2010 Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (Tim Collins; the 2013 studio bio records IASH fellowships for both)
  • 2009–10 Director of Research and Graduate Studies, University College Falmouth (Tim Collins)
  • 2009–24 Member, AHRC Peer Review College, and from 2017 its International College (Tim Collins)
  • 2006–19 Board, Landscape Research Group; Vice-Chair (Tim Collins)
  • 2005–09 Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, School of Art and Design, University of Wolverhampton; founder of the Centre for Art and Design Research and Experimentation (CADRE); Professor of Art, Society and Environment, 2007 (Tim Collins)
  • 1997– STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University: Tim, Distinguished Research Fellow, principal investigator of Nine Mile Run (1997–2000) and 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (2001–06); Reiko, fellow 1997–2005
  • 1994–97 Visiting Faculty, Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University (Tim Collins)
  • 1988–90 Lecturer, Sculpture Department, San Francisco State University (Tim Collins)
  • 1988 Eureka Fellowship (Tim Collins)

Public art, design and planning

  • 2014 Laboratory Medicine: Arts in Medical Science: a vision for the New South Glasgow Hospital laboratory building, for its Art of Science Committee, with Sara Ocklind (final draft, December 2014)
  • 2008–09 Emerald Green / Green Beacon: concept plan for a sustainability retrofit of the School of Art and Design building, University of Wolverhampton (unrealised)
  • 2006 Ecology and Recovery: Allegheny County: final report on the county’s aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, with map analysis of public spaces and a policy white paper. Collins with Goto, Kline, Vallianos and Fox
  • 2000–05 3 Rivers 2nd Nature: five-year analysis of green infrastructure in Allegheny County, STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
  • 2004 Pittsburgh Hillsides: interdisciplinary planning analysis and conservation zoning. Collins, Farber, Fox, Goto and Perkins Eastman Architects
  • 2004 Riverfront Access – Thurrock: a Visionary Brief, Thames Gateway, General Public Agency, London
  • 2004 The Tzin River Valley: a proposal to restore land and cultural values taken by a phosphate mine, Negev Desert; curated by Shai Zakai, Israeli Forum for Ecological Art
  • 2003–04 Die Wasserweg (The Waterway): water-quality study and public dialogue, Riesa-Großenhain, Germany, for Cultura 21 (curated by Heike Strelow)
  • 2000 Charlotte – Second Nature, a stream daylighting project, and A Gift for Fourth Ward Park, an ecological children’s park plan, Charlotte, North Carolina, with Reiko Goto
  • 1997–2000 Nine Mile Run: a restoration ecology model for sustainable open space on an urban brownfield, Pittsburgh, with Reiko Goto, Bob Bingham and John Stephen
  • 1990–93 Aqua Pura: permanent public artwork for the San Andreas Water Treatment Facility, San Francisco Arts Commission, with Reiko Goto
  • 1990 Gravity is a law in the material world; Levitation is a law in the spiritual world: permanent public artwork, City of Sausalito, Public Art Works of Marin
  • 1990 Bluebird: alternative housing, a permanent collaborative project with Reiko Goto and the Athenian School, Danville, California
  • 1989–91 San Francisco Waterfront Art Plan, California Arts Council: design team with Laura Farabough, Michael Oppenheimer and Peter Richards
  • 1987 Collaborative design with Amphion Environmental: a proposal for Todos Santos Plaza, Concord, California

Residencies

  • 2024 MuseumsQuartier Wien, artists in residence
  • 2023–24 Landscape, Ecology & Environment Research residency (LEER), Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland (HAKOTO)
  • 2000 Tryon Center for Visual Art (now the McColl Center), Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (both)
  • Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin, California (twice)
  • Capp Street Project, San Francisco

Selected talks

  • 2020–21 Creative Landscape Futures, research network, University of Aberdeen
  • 2018–19 Living Organisms and Their Choices, workshop series, University of Edinburgh
  • 2016–17 Uncertain Human Future Councils I–IV, Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes and IASH Edinburgh (Reiko Goto)
  • 2014 Keynote and workshop leaders, “Affective Habitus”, ASLEC-ANZ biennial conference, Australian National University, Canberra
  • 2013 “Imagination and Empathy: Artists with Trees”, Landscape and Imagination conference, Uniscape, Paris
  • 2013 “Art and Environment in a Post-Industrial Context: Pittsburgh 1996–2006”, Activating the Gap Between Knowledge and Imagination, Middlesex University and University of the Arts London
  • 2012 “Freedom and Empathy in Art Practice”, panel on Intervention and Embeddedness, Association of American Geographers, New York (Tim Collins)
  • 2011 “A Tree is a Living Thing”, lecture and five-day workshop, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa (Tim Collins)
  • 2011 “Emancipation and Freedom: Art with Living Things, People and Place”, Goddard College, Vermont
  • 2008 “Eden3: the loss of the tree and its ethical aesthetic impulse”, Embodied Values and the Environment, IASH, University of Edinburgh
  • 2007 “Aesthetics, Post-Industrial Ecologies and Practical Art”, LADYSS, Université de Paris (Tim Collins)
  • 2003 “Pittsburgh’s Rivers: From Urban Industrial Infrastructure to Environmental Infrastructure”, Rivers in History, German Historical Institute, Washington DC (Tim Collins, with Muller and Tarr)
  • 2002 3 Rivers 2nd Nature, Art to Start, Van Alen Institute, New York (Tim Collins)
  • 2000 Reconstructing Ecologies conference, Guggenheim Museum, New York (Tim Collins)
  • 1999 “Nine Mile Run Greenway Project: Art and Post-Industrial Restoration”, College Art Association, Los Angeles

A selection from more than forty talks and conference papers, 1998–2014.

Writing about the work

  • 2015 Albelda, J. and Sgaramella, C. “Art, Empathy and Sustainability”, Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment 6(2)
  • 2012 Barker, T. S. “Information and Atmospheres”, M/C Journal 15(3)
  • 2010 Carney, L. S. “Ecology and the Ethics and Aesthetics of Collaboration: The Case of Nine Mile Run”, RACAR 35(3)
  • 2004 Gablik, S. Has Modernism Failed? (revised edition), Thames and Hudson
  • 2004 Miles, M. Urban Avant-Gardes: Art, Architecture and Change, Routledge
  • 2003 David, V., Prigann, H. and Strelow, H. Ecological Aesthetics, Birkhäuser
  • 2001 Thompson, I. “Nine Mile Run”, Landscape Design 305
  • 2000 Miles, M. “Reclamation: Nine Mile Run Greenway”, in The Uses of Decoration, Wiley
  • 1999–2000 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review on Nine Mile Run and the Miller Gallery
  • 1995 Smith, R. “Anchor and Balm for Restless Souls”, The New York Times, 4 August 1995
  • 1987–89 Baker, K., San Francisco Chronicle; Solnit, R. “Connecting with the Rock”, Artweek, 1988

Also: Minty Donald on A Caledonian Decoy (CCA, 2017), and Wallace Heim and Emily Brady on PLEIN AIR at the Glasgow Botanics.

Exhibitions and publications