March at Lynden

The landscape I watch from my window is a largely silent one, or at least the sound backdrop tends to be a mix of ventilation systems turning on and off, people checking in at the front desk, printers spitting out paper, and the ebullience of children examining nests with Claudia in the front room, or pounding on clay in the studio with Jeremy. This morning, I stepped out into the dawn chorus in Riverwest, and walked several blocks attempting to distinguish the calls—some lone, some the chatter of groups—within the sphere of sound that surrounded me. And then, suddenly, it was gone, subsumed by the grinding of school buses and the whoosh of cars passing by on Humboldt Boulevard.

Still, I think about sound when I look out the window. I have a clear view of the tree at the center of the Sound Tree Project, a collaborative art installation created by our teachers in residence, Sue Pezanoski Browne and Katie Hobday and, increasingly, the members of the public who contribute to the accumulation of ceramic chimes, yarn wrappings, and root-like outcroppings that are beginning to redefine the lower half of the dead tree. Two weeks ago the teachers in our Innovative Educators Institute revisited the installation to see how the work they had done in December was holding up and to hear the sounds made by their ceramic pieces. It was gratifyingly windy, and one teacher lay down in the snow to listen and watch the chimes moving in the tree. A written memory is mixed, enfolded, or enclosed in each piece—often burning away in the kiln—and at our February reconvening Sarah Luther prompted the teachers to use those memories to guide meditative walks. As they spread out from the base of the tree, they traced a web of lines across the landscape: footprints in the snow, memories in the air, senses taking in the sights, smells, and sounds of Lynden on a Saturday morning.

As we sit on the cusp between winter and spring—not that one can sit on a cusp, and cusp is hardly the word to describe a period that sometimes stretches for months—some of our workshops look forward to summer while others meet us right here where we are now. For the gardeners out there: Justine Miller will introduce you to <b, and Angela Curtes begins a series of composting workshops. In a workshop rescheduled because of the, um, flu, Angela Kingsawan will show you how to cook up an herbal cold and flu remedy, and later in the month Mike Paré offers another incense-making workshop. You can sew baskets with Molly Hassler, draw the natural world with Todd Mrozinski, and Leslie Perrino>fused silver loop earrings. If you’d prefer to be outdoors, there’s a prairie workday in the labyrinth, you can join Sue and Katie during their monthly drop-in workshop at the Sound Tree, and you can bring your canine friends to Lynden for Dog Day. Our sound baths with Cat Soteira resume this month, and though this full moon sound bath is likely to take place in the gallery rather than outdoors, Jenna Knapp will be offering guided walks through the labyrinth in the hour ahead of the sound bath. Our new art drop-in for the very young is off to a good start, so if you have been waiting for a weekly art activity for your small children, this is it. (We have two more weekly art drop-ins for the less young.) The last homeschool day of the season examines the secret lives of nonhumans, and Tuesdays in the Garden searches for signs of spring.

Don’t miss the conversation between sculptor Robert Murray (whose exhibition in the gallery remains on view through mid-April) and writer and curator Jonathan Lippincott on March 28, and don’t forget to sign up for summer camps.

March events, arranged chronologically:

Sunday, March 1, 2020 – 10 am-3:30 pm
FUSED SILVER LOOP EARRINGS: A WORKSHOP WITH LESLIE PERRINO
Fusing is an ancient technique used to permanently connect precious metals, in this case, fine (pure) silver wire. Cleaner, faster, and less toxic than soldering, fusing involves the use of a hand torch. Leslie Perrino will show you how to fuse fine silver wire into loops that can then be made into earrings complete with earwires. Once you master the techniques, you will have time to make more earrings. No experience required, this workshop is suitable for complete beginners or those looking to expand their jewelry-making skills.

March 4, 11, 18, 25 – Wednesdays, 3-5:30 pm
WEEKLY ART DROP-IN FOR KIDS AGED 11 and Up
Drop into our studio for informal art exploration. Come for 30 minutes or stay for 2 1/2 hours; visit weekly or stop by when you need an after-school activity; bring a friend or sibling or try it on your own. Each week we’ll introduce different materials, processes and themes, and get you started on a project. We’ll focus on three-dimensional artmaking–though we will also do plenty of painting, drawing and collaging–and make use of Lynden’s special resources: the collection of monumental sculpture and 40 acres of park, lake and woodland.

March 5, 12, 19, 26 – Thursdays, 2:30-5 pm
WEEKLY ART DROP-IN FOR KIDS AGED 6-11
Drop into our studio for informal art exploration. Come for 30 minutes or stay for 2 1/2 hours; visit weekly or stop by when you need an after-school activity; bring a friend or sibling or try it on your own. Each week we’ll introduce different materials, processes and themes, and get you started on a project. We’ll focus on three-dimensional artmaking–though we will also do plenty of painting, drawing and collaging–and make use of Lynden’s special resources: the collection of monumental sculpture and 40 acres of park, lake and woodland.

March 5, 12, 19, 26 – Thursdays, 3:30-4:30 pm
NEW! WEEKLY ART DROP-IN FOR THE VERY YOUNG (AGES 4-6)
In our new Art Drop-In for the Very Young, art educator Claudia Orjuela provides an hour of informal, parent-free art exploration and material investigation for children aged 4-6 years.

Saturday, March 7, 2020 – 10 am-2 pm
SEWN BASKETS: A WORKSHOP WITH MOLLY HASSLER
Baskets can be made in many ways, and in this workshop artist Molly Hassler will show you how to use a sewing machine to create baskets from clothesline and colored thread. Once you master the technique, you can make baskets of different sizes and you can sew them into totes or backpacks. You will learn (or relearn) the basics of machine sewing as you construct your own reusable baskets. Hassler will guide you through threading the machine and will teach you how to use different stitches and settings. You’ll get plenty of practice as you work your way through two baskets. Sewing machines and all supplies provided.

Sunday, March 8, 2020 – 11 am-1 pm
INTRODUCTION TO NATIVE PLANT LANDSCAPE DESIGN: A WORKSHOP WITH JUSTINE MILLER
Learn how to use native plants to design for four-season interest and year-round wildlife benefit. Landscape designer Justine Miller will teach design fundamentals and introduce you to great native plants for the home landscape. Different garden styles and planting methods will be covered, and participants will participate in design exercises to explore texture, color, form, and seasonal interest. Combine art and ecology to create a beautiful, functional yard for yourself and your environment.

Sunday, March 8, 2020 – 1-3 pm
LYNDEN’S GARDEN SERIES
COLD AND FLU REMEDY: A WORKSHOP WITH ANGELA KINGSAWAN
Feeling under the weather or just fatigued this winter? Join herbalist Angela Kingsawan for this herbal cold and flu remedy workshop. Learn how to make a simple, all-natural recipe. Even if you’re not sick, this remedy helps to boost immunity and supply much needed nutrients to keep your emotions and body healthy throughout the cold season.

Sunday, March 8, 2020 – 4:30-5:30 pm
LABYRINTH SOCIETY OF LYNDEN SCULPTURE GARDEN: FULL MOON SOUNDBATH
The full moon is a time for releasing and cleansing. The light of the full moon illuminates any obstacles or interferences in our lives. Once we recognize our blocks, it becomes easier to let go of what didn’t serve us in the most recent lunar phase. It is an amazing time to reevaluate and recollect. Join Milwaukee’s own sound healer, Catherine Soteira (Cat Ries), initiated by Akhilanka of the Temple of Singing Bowls in Mysore, India, to celebrate the full moon with a healing sound bath. Sound baths are an ancient form of deep meditation; they include various ambient sounds playing in a space where you can hear and feel their vibrations. The soundbath will probably be indoors; please bring a yoga mat, blanket, or towel to rest on for the duration. Come early: artist Jenna Knapp will offer guided walks in the labyrinth between 3:30 and 4:30 pm.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020 -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. Educator Claudia Orjuela offers a program for the very young 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 art making. The theme for March is signs of spring.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020 – 10 am-12 pm
LABYRINTH SOCIETY OF LYNDEN SCULPTURE GARDEN: PRAIRIE WORK DAY
Artist Jenna Knapp, now in the second year of her residency at Lynden, is calling for volunteers to help with buckthorn removal to aid in prairie restoration in and around the labyrinth. Land Manager Kyle Welna will explain how to identify and remove buckthorn; hand tools (pruners) will be provided to cut invasive woody plants. Dress for the weather and bring work gloves. Volunteers will receive free admission to Lynden for the day and a guest pass for future use.

Saturday, March 14, 2020 – 10 am-1 pm
EXPERIMENTS IN MARK MAKING: DRAW THE NATURAL WORLD WITH TODD MROZINSKI
Students will experiment in the studio with a variety of media, such as graphite, vine and compressed charcoal, Conté crayons, and ink as they draw natural objects gathered from the Lynden’s grounds. Students will set up their own gathered still life, and then focus on light, composition and proportion.

Sunday, March 15, 2020 – 12:30pm – 2:30pm
FAMILY DROP-IN WORKSHOP: THE SOUND TREE PROJECT
Sue Pezanoski Browne and Katie Hobday, Lynden’s teachers-in-residence, invite you to participate in the Sound Tree Project, the focus of their collaborative artist residency. Working in a grove of trees on the Lynden grounds, Pezanoski Browne and Hobday are constructing an environment filled with clay chimes that they make and fill with personal narratives. This exploration of art, nature, memory, and materials is informed by their thinking about movement and migration—about life as movement interspersed with pauses of various lengths.

Thursday, March 19, 2020– 9 am-2 pm
HOMESCHOOL DAY: THE SECRET LIVES OF NONHUMANS
Lynden artist-in-residence Yevgeniya Kaganovich recently began Tree Intuits Chair, a five-year project that asks this question: If a tree was able to foresee its existence as a chair, what would it think of it? The project, which involves grafting and shaping poplar and aspen trees into living chairs, is part of a larger body of work, Divergent Fates, that explores issues of material agency, sustainability, and consumption, as well as human impact on the environment. In this workshop, we will examine the everyday objects that surround us and consider our relationship to them. Outdoors, we’ll check the progress of Kaganovich’s trees and select a non-human object from the natural world. Back in the studio, we’ll imagine that object’s secret life in a zine, and we’ll “unmake” discarded paperback books into tree sculptures. Ages 6-15.

Saturday, March 21, 2020 – 10 am-5 pm
DOG DAYS AT LYNDEN
Bring your canine friends for an afternoon of romping in the garden. Dogs must be leashed and considerate of other visitors, canine and human.

Saturday, March 28, 2020 – 2-4 pm
ROBERT MURRAY AND JONATHAN D. LIPPINCOTT IN CONVERSATION
Join artist Robert Murray and curator Jonathan D. Lippincott for a conversation about the artist’s work. They will discuss the sculptor’s process of working with fabricators and foundries, issues of public art and the siting of sculpture, Murray’s early years, his close friendship with Barnett Newman and relationships with other artists, his lifelong interest in flying, and the current resurgence of interest in abstract modern sculpture. A reception and book signing follow the talk. To reserve your copy of Robert Murray: Sculpture or Large Scale: Fabricating Sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s (which is out of print), email staff@lyndensculpturegarden.org. Books are $65 and $30 respectively.

Saturday, March 28, 2020 – 2-4 pm: Preparing the way for home composting and bountiful gardens
Saturday, April 25, 2020 – 2-4 pm: Composting 101 – making our gardens self-sufficient
KITCHEN CUTTINGS TO GARDEN GOLD: A TWO-PART COMPOSTING WORKSHOP WITH ANGELA CURTES
Angela Curtes, owner of Grounded LLC, offers a two-part workshop designed to enthuse and engage participants in home composting as the next step toward a self-sufficient garden. Part 1 is an indoor workshop and Part 2 is an outdoor, experiential compost-building workshop. Take one or both. In March, we ask: How do we begin to look at our organic household and yard waste as the heart and soul of our gardens? How can our kitchens and gardens work in concert to regenerate and create living soil? Join Angela Curtes for an indoor afternoon discovering why the earth beneath our feet is so important and what we can do to prepare the way for home composting this spring. In April, we move outdoors for a hands-on workshop designed for those wanting to take their gardening experience to the next level by incorporating a small home compost system. You will go home with all the information and elements needed to start a simple compost system that can be managed throughout the year.

Sunday, March 29, 2020 – 1-4 pm
AROMA ARTS: AN INCENSE-MAKING WORKSHOP WITH MIKE PARÉ
Learn the basics of making your own natural incense. This workshop introduces a Japanese style of incense-making using traditional materials. Artist Mike Paré, founder of Zouz Incense, a natural incense company, draws from the history of incense to introduce students to a variety of aromatic herbs, spices, tree resins, and powders; discusses the philosophy of fragrance formation; and teaches participants to roll cones or joss sticks. Each participant will finish the workshop with 12-20 pieces of incense.

COMING UP IN APRIL

In April we move outdoors more wholeheartedly, while keeping an eye on the weather. We start the month with a workshop with Native herbalist Angela Kingsawan, who will show us how to make an herbal stress remedy (April 4), and end with a bird walk led by poet and birder Chuck Stebelton on April 26. On April 10 Claudia Orjuela leads another Lynden by Night adventure, and the next day John Holzwart offers a pine needle basketry workshop. We host our final Conversation on Displacement and the Arts on April 18 (next up is our HOME refugee celebration on World Refugee Day, June 20). Jewelry makers who missed Leslie Perrino’s last resin pendant workshop in January, or enjoyed it so much that they want to do it again, have another chance on April 19. Katheryn Corbin will teach you how to make simple ceramic vessels on April 25 (which is also International Sculpture Day—watch for more details) in the run-up to another sawdust firing in May. Gardeners hoping to up their home composting game in time for the gardening season can take the second part of Angela Curtes’s composting workshop (the first part is not a prerequisite) on April 25. You will come away with all the information and elements needed to start a simple compost system that can be managed throughout the year. The weekly art drop-ins>Tuesdays in the Garden meets on April 14 (the theme for April is, aptly enough, gardening at Lynden); our teachers-in-residence host another installment of The Sound Tree Project on April 19; and dogs are welcome on April 18. The sculpture garden will be closed April 12 for the holiday.

Stop and listen,

Polly
3/4/20

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.