Lilacs and Lilies
June Events at the Lynden Sculpture Garden
June at-a-glance:
* Women’s Speaker Series: Lauren Willig, Thursday, June 6
* Majolica: Painting with Glaze with Katheryn Corbin, Saturdays, June 8 & 15
* Temari: Decorative Japanese Thread Balls with Edie Whitten, Saturday, June 15
* Bonsai for Beginners, Saturday, June 15
* Family Free Day: Home, Saturday, June 22
* Silk Scarf Painting with Leslie Perrino, Sunday, June 23
* Recurring events: Tuesdays in the Garden, Dog Days
Today my office is filled with the scent of lilies of the valley and lilacs. They are in a vase perched above my piles of paper, and were delivered by our naturalist, Naomi Cobb, who makes a point of bringing the natural world to those of us whose work keeps us indoors most of the time. Like the turkeys, deer, and coyotes that traverse the space before my windows, Naomi regularly makes her way past the magnolias, rounding the corner of the house with a bucket of bird seed tipping her body to one side or the other. Naomi is also keeper of the bird feeders, and maestro of Project FeederWatch, and as I write this, she is preparing to leave us for, among other things, alluring grandmotherhood. Naomi came to us early on, determined to put the nature into our mix of art and nature, and her delight in the natural world, her enthusiasm for the very young, and her deep commitment to outdoor education have shaped our programs and the way we live with the landscape here at Lynden. She won’t be disappearing entirely–she will be with us for one more summer camp for the very young, Forest Friends, and will lead Tuesdays in the Garden through August (the theme this month is pond pals)—and we are confident that her imprint will remain for a long time after that. Thank you, Naomi.
We finally removed Jordan Rosenow’s wonderful winter carnival piece, much to the displeasure of the geese, who—having returned to Lynden around the time the large squares of caution orange netting emerged from beneath the snow–had made it a home. Traces of the grid remain in the orderly alternation of tufts of grass, giving the piece an unanticipated afterlife as a kind of grass quilt. Prompted by the depredations of the wind, Gary Gresl has been remaking his pop-up sculpture near the parking lot, The Big Whimsy, enabling us to enjoy it a little longer, too. We begin our extended summer hours tomorrow, remaining open until 7:30 pm on Wednesdays, and tomorrow evening might be just the time to catch these ephemeral works before they disappear.
As we wait for the puddles and mini-lakes of our aquascape to recede—those of you who participated in our first-ever iron pour in late May are probably still removing the mud from between your toes–we are preparing for HOME, our celebration of refugees. Expect music, dance, food, crafts, and resources for refugees on June 22, as well as participation from several of our Call & Response artists (drop in and dye with Arianne King Comer; draw in the gallery with Evelyn Patricia Terry; wander out to Folayemi Wilson’s Eliza’s Peculiar Cabinet of Curiosities to see what Scott Barton is cooking). HOME is a Family Free Day, and we will be offering free bus shuttles from a variety of pickup points on the north and south sides. We are still looking for volunteers to help us with the logistics on the day, so send us an email if you have some time to help. Whether you volunteer, visit, or just help us get the word out, you can be a part of HOME. Watch for updates here: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/calendar/home
The rest of June is busy, too. We just reopened the Suitcase Export Fund for artists, and the 2018 Nohl Fellows open their exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art with a reception on Thursday evening. Back at Lynden, the Women’s Speaker Series is hosting author Lauren Willig, author of The Summer Country, on June 6. Arianne King Comer will be arriving just before HOME to set up her outdoor dyeing studio, and she will remain at Lynden through July 15. We will begin posting her daily dyeing schedule on Facebook soon. We are offering several other workshops this month: a two-part majolica workshop with Katheryn Corbin; a temari workshop with Edie Whitten (temari are those thread-covered, decorative Japanese balls); and silk scarf painting with Leslie Perrino. The Milwaukee Bonsai Society is offering a bonsai for beginners workshop this month, too.
And just a reminder that it’s not too early to secure your tickets to Harry & Peg Bradley’s Backyard Barbecue on August 22. Info and tickets here: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/bbq
June events, arranged chronologically:
Wednesdays, June 5-September 25, 2019
LATE WEDNESDAYS
In the warmer months, Lynden stays up until 7:30 pm on Wednesday evenings, a perfect time to visit the Bonsai Exhibit, share a picnic, or take a stroll.
Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 7 pm
WOMEN’S SPEAKER SERIES: LAUREN WILLIG, AUTHOR OF THE SUMMER COUNTRY
This event is co-presented by Milwaukee Reads and Boswell Book Company, with snacks from MKE Localicious. Emily Dawson is the poor cousin in a prosperous, mid-19th-century English merchant clan. Everyone knows that the family’s lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day. But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados—a plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned. When Emily accompanies her cousin and his new wife to Barbados, she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, reduced to ruins in 1816, when a rising of enslaved people sent the island up in flames. Rumors swirl around the derelict plantation; people whisper of ghosts. Why would her practical-minded grandfather leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills? The answer lies in the past— a tangled history of lies, greed, clandestine love, heartbreaking betrayal, and a bold bid for freedom. A brilliant, multigenerational saga in the tradition of The Thorn Birds and North and South, The Summer Country will beguile readers with its rendering of families, heartbreak, and the endurance of hope against all odds. Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Ashford Affair and The English Wife, the RITA Award winning Pink Carnation series, and two novels co-written with Beatriz Williams and Karen White—The Forgotten Room and The Glass Ocean.
Two Saturdays, June 8 & June 15, 2019 – 10 am-3 pm
MAJOLICA: PAINTING WITH GLAZE
A CERAMICS WORKSHOP WITH KATHERYN CORBIN
The island of Majorca and the surrounding Mediterranean countries produce decorative and utilitarian pottery known as Majolica. Majolica ware uses an opaque white glaze as a ground and brush painting with colorful ceramic oxides and satins to create surface decoration. The brush work is similar to painting with watercolors, and this is an excellent workshop for painters new to ceramics. On the first day you will learn basic slab and coil construction, and will hand-build a clay vessel of your choice—perhaps a platter or shallow bowl with plenty of surface for painting. Return a week later to paint your bisque-fired piece in bright spring colors.
Saturday, June 15, 2019 – 10 am-5 pm
DOG DAYS AT LYNDEN
Bring your canine friends for an early summer stroll. Dogs must be leashed and considerate of other visitors, canine and human.
Saturday, June 15, 2019 – 10 am-4:30 pm
TEMARI: DECORATIVE JAPANESE BALLS – A WORKSHOP WITH EDIE WHITTEN
The practice of making temari originated in China and made its way to Japan, where it is said that Japanese noblewomen, confined within castle walls during times of war in the feudal period, made the decorative balls for their children. Temari are now made by mothers and grandmothers for a new child on New Year’s Day. Spend the day learning to make one of these beautiful thread jewels as a gift or decoration. Starting with a 2 ½-3-inch Styrofoam core, we will focus on the different stages of creating a simple ten-division/five-petal design, from padding the ball, to covering it with a thread wrap, to finishing it using a Kiku herringbone stitch.
Saturday, June 15, 2019 – 10 am-1 pm
BONSAI FOR BEGINNERS: A WORKSHOP WITH THE MILWAUKEE BONSAI SOCIETY
Bonsai is living sculpture. Unlike traditional sculpture however, it changes from day to day, season to season, and year to year. Because it is never finished, it celebrates all of nature: its cycles, its harshness, its resilience, and its balance. Bonsai is for people who enjoy art, nature, trees, gardening, and sculpture. It combines the principles of design with the science of horticulture. Participants in this workshop will create a bonsai from a dwarf shefflera, which is an indoor plant in Wisconsin. In the class, you will design your bonsai and transplant it into a ceramic container. This is a hands-on class in which you will learn the basic principles and techniques of bonsai design, and how to work in harmony with nature. You will return home with the bonsai that you created in the class, and a new appreciation for the world of trees.
Tuesday, June 18, 2019 -10:30am -11:30 am
TUESDAYS IN THE GARDEN: AN OUTING FOR PARENTS & VERY SMALL CHILDREN
The 40 acres that house the Lynden collection of monumental outdoor sculpture are also home to many birds, insects, frogs, mammals and plants. Naturalist Naomi Cobb offers a nature program that explores a different theme each month, taking into account the changing seasons, and provides an opportunity for those with very small children to engage in outdoor play and manipulation of art materials. The theme for June is pond pals.
Saturday, June 22, 2019 – 10 am-4 pm
FAMILY FREE DAY: HOME
“Home” is the theme for a community-led Free Family Day coordinated by artist-in-residence Kim Khaira and Rohingya refugee leader Hasinah Begum. Working together with other refugee community leaders, community members, Call & Response artists, and allies, we are building a space of leading, of coming together, and of celebrating refugees. This free outdoor festival celebrates Milwaukee’s refugee communities through art, food, dance, and music. Sample foods, crafts, and performances on Lynden’s grounds, and join several of Lynden’s Call & Response artists for workshops and activities. Arianne King Comer launches her open dyeing studio, which will be in residence through mid-July; Evelyn Patricia Terry offers an all-ages drop-in workshop that invites you to draw the ethnic dolls in her collection; and chef and food scholar Scott Barton and interdisciplinary artist Portia Cobb invite you out to Eliza’s Peculiar Cabinet of Curiosities (Folayemi Wilson) and Lizzie’s Garden for some tasting. Other activities include bird walks with artist-in-residence Chuck Stebelton. We invite you to come to the table and to leave with your bellies and hearts full. This is a Call & Response event.
Sunday, June 23, 2019 – 10 am-4:30 pm
SILK SCARF PAINTING: A WORKSHOP WITH LESLIE PERRINO
Join Leslie Perrino for this daylong workshop that will explore easy and artful ways to apply dye to pre-hemmed silk scarves. From simple techniques such as tie-dyeing, resist and salt, to interesting ways to make marks, we’ll let ourselves be inspired by the wonderful art and nature surrounding us at Lynden. Each student will create three wearable and uniquely painted scarves using this centuries-old painting form.
COMING UP IN JULY
We start off the month with a docent-led tour (July 7). Our annual Innovative Educators Institute summer lab (the theme is Re+stor+ation) takes place the week of July 8, and at the end of the month the participating teachers will install their projects in the porch area—these will remain on view for the first week of August. Tuesdays in the Garden meets twice (July 9, July 23) to explore rainbow gardens. Beatriz Williams, author of The Golden Hour, visits the Women’s Speaker Series on July 14, and Katheryn Corbin invites you to participate in a summer sawdust firing (July 20 to load, July 27 to unload). Dog day falls on July 20. Several Call & Response artists will be visiting in July, and some of them will be participating in our Family Free Day on July 27. Lynden will be closed for the holiday on July 4.
The sun is shining,
Polly
6/4/19
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.
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