SIDE LAKE — The Secret Tree Society at McCarthy Beach State Park is an interactive adventure that puts people in touch with nature in an unconventional way.
The outdoor text message adventure open through April 9 is one of Side Lake artist Margo Gray's most recent endeavors. Arrive at McCarthy Beach State Park in Side Lake, about 17 miles north of Chisholm, text a greeting to 720-864-7646 and the adventure begins.
A series of missions invite participants to find different trees along the way.
"Each one of them has a task for you to complete to show that you have the skills that you need for the secret society," Gray said. "And then, yeah, when you get to the end — if you've done your work — then you can be inducted into the secret society.”
Gray, who appeared on Area Voices Wednesday, March 29, said the experience encourages adventurers to think of the park in new ways.
"Think of the residents of the park — the trees and the animals and the plants that live there. That's their living room, that's their home," she said.
The producing artistic director of Playable Artworks describes herself as an "experience designer" — intentionally creating experiences she hopes inspire empathy and understanding about a topic, people or place.
“It's really about creating work with the audience at the center, where the audience has some power over what's happening and is really involved in a central way," said Margo Gray, the Side Lake designer behind the project.
She melds her work in theater, art and design with curiosity and the five senses.
“It might be audio, it might be the written word. It might be something game design. Like, it might be performance. It might be ritual," Gray said. "So it's really sort of opening oneself up as an artist to using any of these tools to really put the audience at the center.”
This summer, Gray will launch an interactive audio experience for people adventuring on the Mesabi Trail between Hibbing and Virginia.
"Think of the residents of the park, the trees and the animals and the plants that live there. That's their living room, that's their home."Margo Gray
“A lot of people who use the trail come to visit the area and don't necessarily know a lot about the place," she said. " … I think even those of us who use the trail frequently don't necessarily always have the context about different places.
"So it's been a couple of years now that I've been researching about the history of the trail, different places along the trail. And so there's different stops along the trail where you stop, there's a little audio story, and then there's an activity to do.”
Area Voices is made possible by the MN Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of MN.
