August at Lynden
The sculpture garden will close early (at noon) on Sunday, August 11, 2024, for a private event.
It’s August and I must begin with the Annual Backyard Barbecue, which is right around the corner. Braise is finalizing the menu, the ice cream is chilling at Isa’s, magician Matthew Teague is flexing his fingers and cracking his knuckles, the Nathan Hale Orchestra musicians are resining their bows, and I’m not sure what Caley Conway does to get ready–but we hope you can join us on August 22. Ticket sales are moving briskly, so if you’re thinking about coming, don’t delay.
Arianne arrived in time to see the final showing of the Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group ChoreoLab. We made our way around the sculpture garden last Friday afternoon on a hot, mostly still afternoon, sharing the work made by the participating choreographers: Oluwadamilare (Dare) Ayorinde, Laila J. Franklin, Annie Wang, and Tara Aisha Willis. Each chose a different spot—many in proximity to trees, and shade—in which to explore space, time, and movement. There were solos, a trio, and an improvisation for four inside Forrest Myers’s Quartet. The dancers celebrated that night at State Fair. Reggie spent the days following the ChoreoLab in a residency-within-a-residency with artist Nicholas Galanin. On this third trip to Lynden, their joint project began to come into focus. Nicholas was able to watch Reggie work with dancers and to better understand what that process is like from Annie’s and Dare’s point of view. There was a lot of discussion, some dancing on the beach at Doctors Park, and rumors of another trip to State Fair. Now, if anyone has a suggestion for how to get Dare home (his flight has been cancelled repeatedly) we’d appreciate it!
Yesterday morning two more tents arrived in preparation for our HOME Celebration of Community, Culture & Citizenship on August 17, a collaboration with Community Center for Immigrants. The third tent (a first for us!) is for a naturalization ceremony that is at the heart of the day’s festivities. We’ll be celebrating the citizenship and naturalization of new Americans from Milwaukee’s refugee and immigrant communities with lunch, CCI’s school supply giveaway, dance, music, and an outdoor market featuring handicrafts and other goods from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Indigenous makers. No HOME celebration would be complete without hands-on artmaking and Arianne will open her studio for T-shirt dyeing. Artist and Nohl finalist Asher Imtiaz will be in the gallery producing portraits of each new citizen, so not an ideal time to see our current exhibition, Elnaz Javani’s Inner Compulsion, but I highly recommend another visit to see it.
KP Kaszubowski begins Planetary Elegies, a series of poetry workshops that explores elegies, the poetic form for reflection and lamentation of the dead and the dying, in relation to our brief lives on our planet (August 10). Chuck Stebelton leads his monthly bird walk on August 11 and, on August 14, conservation biologist Emilie Burmeister will show you how to monitor bumble bees at home or in our local parks and gardens. The HOME Book Discussion Group meets on the 15th. On August 19, Jenna Knapp and Sevan Arabajian-Ries celebrate the full blue moon with a sound bath, labyrinth walk, and ice cream social (the social begins at 5 pm, the sound bath at 6 pm). Dog day is August 24, and our August work days are the 27th (natural areas) and the 29th (gardens).
Keep your eye on the web calendar as we add fall events.
August events, arranged chronologically:
ARIANNE KING COMER RESIDENCY AND DROP-IN DYEING DAYS
August 1-August 18, 2024
For more information and to register for open dyeing days (August 6, August 10): https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/akc-am-2024
IBILE! Ancestral Call in Cloth, is the latest iteration of a CALL & RESPONSE residency we began with artist and indigo advocate Arianne King Comer in 2017. Over the years, King Comer has collaborated with several of her fellow CALL & RESPONSE artists, including Portia Cobb, Reggie Wilson, Scott Alves Barton, and Daniel Minter. She is also a member of the HOME Refugee Steering Committee. This summer, Comer is in town for a two-week residency at Lynden, where she will resume her all ages, open-air, indigo-dyeing studio, inviting groups and individuals to join her at the dyeing vat as she relates the history of indigo and teaches different resist-dyeing methods, particularly traditional batik, adire (Yoruba), and shibori (Japanese) techniques of designing on cloth. While at Lynden, Comer will gather the artists and community members who participate in Lynden’s programs—CALL & RESPONSE, HOME, the Innovative Educators Institute–for workshops. Comer’s residency will intersect with Pulang Balik, Kim Khaira‘s residency that focuses on her personal art practice and work with Milwaukee’s refugee communities.
OUT OF THE SUITCASE 2024: AN EXHIBIT OF AWARDEES OF THE MARY L. NOHL SUITCASE EXPORT FUND
The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design is proud to present a special iteration of its biennial Suitcase Fund exhibition. This year’s showcase features not only awardees from the current cycle, but also those recognized in the previous cycle due to the pandemic’s pause on the exhibition in 2019. This expanded exhibition offers a unique survey of visual artists from the region, and it highlights the diversity and depth of talent creating new work in the Milwaukee area.
Tuesdays, August 6, 13, 20 & 27, 2024- 10:30 am-11:30 am
TUESDAYS IN THE GARDEN FOR PARENTS & VERY SMALL CHILDREN
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 and the themes for August are Light and Shadows, Decomposers, Paper Clay Sculptures, and Movement and Music in the Garden.
Saturday, August 10, 2024 – 1-3:30 pm
PLANETARY ELEGIES: A POETRY WORKSHOP WITH KP KASZUBOWSKI
In this workshop, we will read and write elegies – the poetic form for reflection and lamentation of the dead and the dying. These elegies will often focus on our planet and will just as often celebrate and grieve our brief lives on our planet. Part climate grief circle, part creative development, this workshop is a container to feel deeply and to find language for what might be difficult to express. Workshop guide KP Kaszubowski will lead participants in welcoming, playful, and contemplative writing prompts. Participants will be encouraged to share what they write and affirming feedback and discussion will be woven throughout.
THE ART OF BIRDING WITH CHUCK STEBELTON
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.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024 – 10-11:30 am
CITIZEN SCIENCE: IDENTIFYING BUMBLE BEES WITH CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST EMILIE BURMEISTER
Would you like to monitor bumble bees at home or in your local parks and gardens? Attend this workshop to learn more about how you can contribute to important bumble bee data in the state utilizing your smart phone or camera. Wisconsin is home to 20 species of native bumblebees, many of which live here in Milwaukee, including the federally endangered rusty-patched bumble bee. This workshop will introduce you to monitoring methods and bee identification.
Thursday, August 15, 2024 – 7-8 pm
VIRTUAL
HOME BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
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 continue with Ishmael Beah’s Radiance of Tomorrow. Newcomers welcome!
Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 11 am-4 pm
HOME 2024: COMMUNITY, CULTURE & 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 refugee chefs and refugee-run businesses; gather around the dye vat to dye your own T-shirt with artist-in-residence Arianne King Comer; take a tree walk; and browse a curated outdoor market featuring handicrafts and other goods from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Indigenous makers. Bring your dancing shoes to learn some new dances and immerse yourself in the music of different cultures. Naturalization ceremony begins at 11:30 am.
LABYRINTH SOCIETY OF LYNDEN SCULPTURE GARDEN: FULL BLUE MOON SOUND BATH AND ICE CREAM SOCIAL
Join artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp and collaborator Sevan Arabajian-Ries for an evening of full moon celebration. We’ll kick off the evening with a special treat (5-6 pm): a blue moon ice cream social on the patio, with ice cream from Lynden artists-in-residence Open Kitchen. Then, under the Full Blue Moon we’ll reflect on all that’s come to fruition in the most recent lunar cycle with a relaxing sound bath and sunset candle-lit labyrinth walk.
Thursday, August 22, 2024 – 5 pm-8 pm
12th ANNUAL HARRY & PEG BRADLEY’S BACKYARD BARBECUE
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.
Saturday, August 2024, 2024 – 10 am-4 pm
DOG DAYS AT LYNDEN
Bring your canine friends for a summer walk. Dogs must be leashed and considerate of other visitors, canine and human.
Tuesday, August 27, 2024 – 10 am-12 pm
NATURAL AREAS WORK DAY
Join the Lynden land team—Robert Kaleta, Esther Portnoy, and Alyx Christensen–for a volunteer work day on the grounds. The Lynden Sculpture Garden is transforming its natural habitats and formal landscapes into sustainable and diverse ecosystems that highlight the natural beauty inherent in them. The Lynden’s goal is to steward healthy habitats for an array of native plants and wildlife while adding a vibrant mosaic of color and texture to this sculptural landscape through every season. In August, we will spend some reflective time in Lynden’s labyrinth while also encouraging the native prairie plants to fill out by removing competitors like wild oregano, Queen Anne’s lace, Shasta/oxeye daisies, turf grass, and smooth bromegrass.
Thursday, August 29, 2024 – 10 am-12 pm
GARDEN WORK DAY
Join the Lynden land team—Robert Kaleta, Esther Portnoy, and Alyx Christensen–for a volunteer work day on the grounds. The Lynden Sculpture Garden is transforming its natural habitats and formal landscapes into sustainable and diverse ecosystems that highlight the natural beauty inherent in them. The Lynden’s goal is to steward healthy habitats for an array of native plants and wildlife while adding a vibrant mosaic of color and texture to this sculptural landscape through every season. In August, as we weed, prune, and deadhead the annual garden, we will be collecting the plant detritus to create floral teas or bath soaks to take home.
COMING UP IN SEPTEMBER
More information: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/2024-09
The sculpture garden will be closed September 2 for the holiday. The next day, September 3, we open the 2025 application cycle of the Nohl Fellowship program for visual artists. Our fall classes for children and youth resume in September—registration opens soon. Tuesdays in the Garden continues to meet weekly. For adults, KP Kaszubowski offers another episode of Planetary Elegies, a series of poetry writing workshops, on September 14. Other workshops include a Turf to Habitat workshop (also September 14) and From Crop to Fiber: Growing and Processing Flax with Kallia Walkowiak and Dennis Carl (September 15). Artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp and Sevan Arabajian-Ries return for a full corn moon sound bath and labyrinth walk on September 18. Chuck Stebelton leads a bird walk on September 8 and dog day is September 21. Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series broadcasts a new interview on September 11. The HOME Book Discussion Group finishes its discussion of Ishmael Beah’s Radiance of Tomorrow on September 19—then on to a new book! We’ll be going behind the scenes to clear paths during the natural areas work day (September 24), and we’ll be sprucing up the garden along the bluestone walkway during the garden work day (September 26). We end the month by participating in Doors Open on Saturday, September 28. Offsite, there will be a closing reception for the Out of the Suitcase Exhibition at MIAD on September 19.
Don’t blow away,
Polly
8/6/24
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.
Mentioned in This Press Release
Recent Press Releases by Lynden Sculpture Garden
