The State of Water: Our Most Valuable Resource
New Bedford Whaling Museum
November 20, 2026 – March 1, 2027
Upper-level galleries
71% of the earth’s surface is covered in water. Water also exists in the air as vapor, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture, and in aquifers. 2.5% is fresh water; the rest is ocean-based and saline. Eight billion people need water to survive, but only 0.007 percent of the planet’s water is consumable.
Water is the most important chemical compound on earth used daily by humans and while many Americans care deeply about water quality, drinking water is often taken for granted. It comes out of a faucet or fountain by an easy turn of the knob or push of a button. In truth, that water has taken a long, complicated journey to reach us, travelling through a vast network of systems most will never see. More than 700 US cities reclaim wastewater and stormwater, recycling it for agricultural use and human consumption. Today, human-made industrial water treatment processes mimic nature and separate impurities like sludge, salt or chemicals, transforming one of our most basic elements into something usable.
In The State of Water: Our Most Valuable Resource, Guggenheim award-winning photographer Brad Temkin celebrates water as a resource and reveals the architectural inventiveness and infrastructure of wastewater engineering. In the process, he shows how people have met human demand and where we fall short, demonstrating our need to conserve water and reclaim our most valuable and essential resource. This bilingual exhibition (English/Spanish) is rich in STEAM information. Exhibition texts demystify this essential infrastructure by illustrating the scientific and engineering processes of a variety of water systems. Curious visitors learn about the complexity of water purification and its immense importance in our day-to-day lives.
About the artist
Brad Temkin (American, b.1956) is best known for contemporary landscape photographs. His work is held in numerous permanent collections, including The Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, and Eastman Museum, among others. His images have appeared in Aperture and TIME Magazine, and he is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship. He has taught photography at Columbia College in Chicago since 1984.
This touring exhibition is organized by Mid-America Arts Alliance and toured by ExhibitsUSA. This exhibition originated at The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, where it was supported by the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.
