August at Lynden

It’s August, which means the 13th Annual Backyard Barbecue is coming up at the end of the month. We hope you can join us on August 28 for music, magic, outdoor art activities for kids, a feast of local, sustainable foods catered by Braise, and a visit from Isa’s Ice Cream truck. With your support, we can continue to make a difference in the lives of K-12 students and educators in greater Milwaukee. We are grateful to those who have purchased tables and tickets, or made donations, and we look forward to hearing from more of you. Tickets on sale here.

It is past closing time and I can see Arianne King Comer and choreographer Reggie Wilson working together under the tent. Reggie standing, leaning over an electric frying pan filled with melted paraffin, and Arianne sitting, guiding his foray into batik and indigo dyeing. Arianne is winding down her indigo residency and heading back to Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina, just as Reggie arrives for a research residency. They will spend a few days together around the dyeing vats, catching up, sharing ideas, and imagining future projects. This intentional overlap is an important part of Call & Response, a way to strengthen the network that connects the core artists and their work—here at Lynden and as they spread back out across the country.

On August 9, we join with the Community Center for Immigrants for the HOME Citizenship Celebration, a day of celebrating the citizenship and naturalization of more than fifty new Americans from Milwaukee’s refugee and immigrant communities. Enjoy a free lunch prepared by local Afghan, Chin, and Indonesian chefs, and the music of Wade Fernandez (Menominee), Congo Gospel Music Band (Congolese), and Golden Melody Band U.S.A. (Burmese). The naturalization ceremony begins at 11:30 am. It will be one of the last opportunities to see Asher Imtiaz’s exhibition, Thank God for Immigrants, which closes on August 10.

We celebrate Chris Salas’s exhibition, Forms of Remembrance, with an afternoon of conversations on August 23. Arrive at 1 pm for a tasting featuring OK, Mmmm! (Open Kitchen, Milwaukee masa mole mill!). Using ingredients harvested from Lynden’s Cultural Garden, which they steward, and their urban garden in Riverwest, Rudy Medina and Alyx Christensen produce a “Midsummer Mole.” The mole will be accompanied by fresh masa tortillas milled from a Meadowlark Wisconsin Red Corn. Chris Salas will join OK at 2 pm to inaugurate a cross-draft earth kiln + cooking station, and to discuss adobe brick-making and the science behind firing rudimentary earth kilns. At 3 pm, we return to the gallery where Salas will be joined by Korina Victoria Hernandez, a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, for a conversation about the exhibition.

Spaces occasionally open up in our summer camps, which end this month. Tuesdays in the Garden continues to meet weekly in August. The late summer themes are Light and Shadows, Nature Meets Sculpture, Movement and Music in the Garden, and Flower Friends (fall registration goes live shortly). The Sturgeon Full Moon Sound Bath & Labyrinth Walk is August 9, our monthly art of birding walk with Chuck Stebelton is August 10, and dog day is August 16. You are always welcome to join one of our Wednesday Work Days or our monthly Garden Work Day (August 21—we’ll be tidying up the formal garden prior to the Backyard Barbecue). The HOME Book Discussion Group meets on August 21 to finish Javier Xamora’s Solito, and to choose our next book. On August 28, Kim Khaira introduces the latest refugee-to-refugee encounter in our virtual HOME interview series, Stories As We Move. The Bonsai Exhibit remains open on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 am-4 pm.

If this is August, September is next, which means it’s time to register for fall classes. Lynden’s Art + Nature Lab for ages 7-11, which meets on Thursday afternoons, is a dynamic studio experience where creativity flourishes through choice, exploration, and personal expression. This student-driven program encourages participants to work as artists—selecting their own subjects, materials, and approaches while developing confidence in their creative process. With access to a wide variety of tools and media, participants experiment, problem-solve, and refine their ideas into works of art while sharing inspiration, taking creative risks, and growing together in a supportive art community. More registrations will open up in the coming days including Creative Time for Families and Lynden by Night, our monthly moon walk.

Are your kids too old for Tuesdays in the Garden but too young for Art + Nature Lab? Or too old for the Lab but still art interested? Let us know by contacting our education director, Jeremy Stepien: jstepien@lyndensculpturegarden.org.

Keep your eye on the web calendar and the bulletin board as we add late summer and fall events.

August events, arranged chronologically:

Tuesdays, August 5, 12, 19, and 26, 2025 – 10:30 am-11:30 am

TUESDAYS IN THE GARDEN FOR PARENTS & VERY SMALL CHILDREN

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/tuesdays-in-the-garden

Join art educators Claudia Orjuela and Denice Niebuhr for hands-on art making and all-senses-engaged exploration of the outdoor world at Lynden. Tuesdays in the Garden, designed for children aged 1-3, provides a nurturing environment where children’s curiosity and wonder are extended through play and exploration, and children and their caregivers learn and discover side by side. We’ll consider different themes, each designed to connect Lynden’s environment with children’s interests. We will encourage experimentation and the manipulation of art and natural materials to tell stories, solve problems, and develop relationships. Tuesdays in the Garden meets weekly in August and the themes are Light and Shadows; Nature Meets Sculpture; Movement and Music; and Flower Friends.

Wednesdays, August 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2025 – 10 am-12 pm

WEDNESDAY WORK DAYS

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/wednesday-work-days

The Lynden land team is kicking off 2025 by launching a new series of Wednesday Work Days, a weekly volunteer opportunity on the grounds. Whether you are looking for a few hours of volunteer work or want a weekly activity that keeps you outside, you are welcome to join us on Wednesday mornings from 10 am to 12 noon. Projects vary from season to season; for the next few months, you will work alongside land staff to pull herbaceous invasive species in our natural areas, as well as help accomplish other projects around the grounds to enhance biodiversity and take care of the native flora and fauna. No experience is necessary, though you are encouraged to bring your favorite gardening gloves and digging tools if you have them. Water, snacks, and additional tools will be provided.

Saturday, August 9, 2025 – 11 am-4 pm

HOME 2025: CITIZENSHIP CELEBRATION

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/home-2025-citizenship-celebration

We join with the Community Center for Immigrants for a day of celebrating the citizenship and naturalization of new Americans from Milwaukee’s refugee and immigrant communities. Enjoy a free lunch prepared by local Afghan, Burmese, and Indonesian chefs and music from Wade Fernandez (Menominee), Congo Gospel Music Band (Congolese), and Golden Melody Band U.S.A (Burmese). Naturalization ceremony begins at 11:30 am.

Saturday, August 9, 2025 – 6:30-8 pm

STURGEON FULL MOON SOUND BATH & LABYRINTH WALK

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/sturgeon-soundbath

Join artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp and collaborator Sevan Sevan Arabajian-Ries for August’s sound bath. Under the light of the full moon, take some time out of your week to pause and take notice of all that you’re currently outgrowing, questioning, and longing to explore. Relax into a healing sound bath and sunset candle-lit labyrinth walk.

Sunday, August 10, 2025 – 10-11:30 am

THE ART OF BIRDING WITH CHUCK STEBELTON

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/birding-2025

Join poet and Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteer Chuck Stebelton on the second Sunday of each month to bird by eye and ear with a focus on the life histories of wild birds. We’ll watch for seasonal migrants and resident bird species and seek out the best bird habitats to identify as many species as we can. Please dress for the weather and plan to walk in varied terrain. Bring your binoculars and field guides if you have them; no previous birding experience required.

Saturday, August 16, 2025 – 10 am-4 pm

DOG DAYS AT LYNDEN

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/dog-days-2025

Bring your canine friends for a summer stroll. Dogs must be leashed and considerate of other visitors, canine and human.

Thursday, August 21, 2025 – 10 am-12 pm

GARDEN WORK DAY: FORMAL GARDEN

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/2025-garden-work-days

Join us for our monthly formal gardens work day. In August, we will weed, prune, and deadhead the annual garden, simultaneously collecting the plant detritus to create floral teas or bath soaks to take home.

Thursday, August 21, 2025 – 7-8 pm ***VIRTUAL***

HOME BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/home-book-discussion-group-2025

The Lynden/HOME Refugee Steering Committee book discussion group, moderated by Lynden’s Kim Khaira, is for those interested in firsthand accounts of displacement. We consider works of non-fiction and fiction, including autobiographical and semi-autobiographical works, by writers who have faced or are facing forced displacement as refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants. In August, we finish Solito: A Memoir, by Javier Zamora. Newcomers welcome!

Saturday, August 23, 2025 – 1-5 pm

OPENING RECEPTION: CHRIS SALAS – FORMS OF REMEMBRANCE

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/forms-of-remembrance-chris-salas-opening

We celebrate Chris Salas’s exhibition, Forms of Remembrance, with a reception, an appearance from Open Kitchen’s Milwaukee Masa Mole Mill (Mmmm), and conversations with the artist. Salas discusses adobe brick-making and the science behind firing rudimentary earth kilns with Open Kitchen, and then he will be joined by Korina Victoria Hernandez, a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, for a conversation about the exhibition.

Thursday, August 28, 2025– 2-3 pm ***VIRTUAL***

STORIES AS WE MOVE: A HOME INTERVIEW SERIES

https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/stories-we-move-2025

Stories as We Move launched in 2020 as part of Lynden’s HOME virtual platform. The series pairs individuals who have faced forced displacement in its many forms in a conversational setting. Refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants interview those that have resettled to the United States, including friends and family that are based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as those that remain overseas. These interviews are reflections of relationships and conversations that we continue to have long after resettlement; they explore issues that our refugee friends and family members continue to face as they remain in their country of origin or interim country.

Thursday, August 28, 2025 – 5 pm-8 pm

13th ANNUAL HARRY & PEG BRADLEY’S BACKYARD BARBECUE

http://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/bbq

Join us for our annual fundraiser to benefit Lynden’s education programs, featuring a feast of local, sustainable foods catered by Braise; dessert from Isa’s Artisan Ice Cream truck; magic from Matthew Teague; tunes from Caley Conway; and a mix of classical and pop from members and alumni of the Nathan Hale High School Orchestra.

COMING UP IN SEPTEMBER

The sculpture garden will be closed on September 1 for the holiday. The next day, September 2, we open the 2026 application cycle of the Nohl Fellowship program for visual artists. Our fall classes for children resume in September: Art + Nature Lab (ages 7-11) meets on Thursday afternoons beginning September 11. Tuesdays in the Garden continues to meet weekly, and Creative Time for Families resumes on September 28. For adults, Kellen “Klassik” Abston offers KLASSROOM, his hands-on songwriting workshop, on September 13, and Jeremy Stepien hosts a Greenwood Gathering on September 27. Artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp and Sevan Arabajian-Ries return for a corn moon sound bath and labyrinth walk on September 5. The HOME Book Discussion Group will begin a new book on September 18—come join us. We’ll be turning to fall tasks on our Wednesday Work Days, and we’ll be sprucing up the garden along the bluestone walkway during the garden work day (September 25). We end the month by participating in Doors Open on Saturday, September 27.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.