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Claudia Bonn is Wave Hill’s President and Executive Director.
What a true delight it was for me to leave behind my meetings, office and the flurry of papers to sit under Wave Hill’s magnificent sugar maple tree and read stories to 20 young children!
This summer, Wave Hill staff are "mystery readers" Tuesday mornings, when we invite children ages three and older to join us outdoors for a story.
Yes, I was the “secret reader” a few Tuesdays ago regaling the preschoolers with the adventures of the runaway bunny and the bird who couldn’t find his mother (my own children’s favorites). It brought me back to my years of teaching – those sure were “the olden days” – and the real joy in sitting quietly on a magnificent summer day and gazing into the faces of these beautiful children visiting Wave Hill.
It was a real unexpected joy and an important reminder of why we work as hard as we do at Wave Hill. All of us should take some time to step out of our everyday routine and put on another persona. To see the world through the eyes of a young child is priceless.
This post was contributed by Armina Del Toro, Wave Hill’s School Programs Manager.
The third year of the Wave Hill-Bronx Institute Salamander Project came to a close on Saturday, May 22, 2010. Salamander Project teens―25 students from MS280-Mosholu Parkway and MS 505-The Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice―and their families came to Wave Hill to watch the students describe their experiences and present their scientific findings for 2010. But before students and families began sharing, they had a chance to learn how a pesky weed could make for a tasty plate.
Salamander Project teens spent many hours this summer collecting data to determine the relationship between salamander populations and invasive plants―garlic mustard, chickweed, bedstraw and Japanese knotweed, to name just a few―in Riverdale Park. They had been curious about the name Garlic Mustard and some students were brave enough to take a nibble of the leaf to experience that garlicky taste. But it did not end there. One afternoon, with go-ahead from Wave Hill’s Director of Horticulture, Scott Canning, the teens spent an hour pulling garlic mustard weeds from Wave Hill’s Woodlands. Such was the students’ enthusiasm that they collected seven large bags in one hour.
Often repeated by the teens, the question “What do we do with all this garlic mustard?” got us thinking “What would Laurel and Charley do” (Laurel Rimmer is Wave Hill’s Assistant Director of Public Programs, and Charles Day the Ruth Rea Howell Horticultural Interpreter.) Cook with it? Why not?
Now, over the previous five weeks the students explored ways of disposing weeds and household vegetable products, investigating Wave Hill’s worm bin and learning that this was one way to mimic processes that naturally occur in the environment. After the worm bin, the students learned about the value of composting and other disposal methods. However, we had never discussed other methods of weed disposal, specifically what can be done with edible plants like Garlic Mustard.
Corinne Flax (Wave Hill Environmental Educator), Marjorie Lune (Bank Street Intern) and yours truly pulled and washed the garlic mustard leaves, prepared the blender, cut bread and laid out all the ingredients for Garlic Mustard Pesto. The delicious smell engulfed the entire room and even we were prone to sneak a taste.
The students were hesitant to taste it, but after carefully dipping a corner of bread into the pesto sauce, they took the ultimate plunge, giving the recipe a taste. There was much scrunching of faces at first, but then their eyebrows lifted and smiles appeared on their faces as almost everyone agreed “It’s not bad”! Some of the students even really liked the pesto―and all of the instructors thought it was delicious.
It was a fitting end to a great program and an invasive weed, proving that we have some great ideas for cooking with invasive plants…Move over Rachel Ray, we’ve got Pest to Pesto, Perfecto!
Pesto Petiolata (or Garlic-Mustard Pesto)
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons pine nuts or walnut pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, about 1 ounce
4 cups garlic mustard leaves (Alliaria petiolata) or 2 cups garlic mustard with 2 cups basil leaves
Place all of the ingredients except the basil in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Add the garlic mustard and/or basil a handful at a time. Blend until all of the greens are incorporated and the pesto is smooth. Makes about 1 cup.
We gratefully credit Whitewater Valley Land Trust for this inspired concoction!
Stephanie Lindquist, Wave Hill’s Arts Programming Fellow, is a frequent presence in the Sunroom, where Robyn Love has set up her workspace and invites visitors to drop by twice a week.
While Glyndor Gallery is usually closed to the public in the winter, this year it has come alive with Wave Hill’s Winter Workspace program. From January until the end of March, a total of seven artists will use the galleries as studios.
Robyn Love, whose studio is located in the Sunroom, decided to use her workspace for a community project called House Study/Handmade. Every Tuesday and Saturday from 11am to 3pm through February 20, Robyn opens the Sunroom to the public. During these workshops, visitors are welcome to card, spin and knit wool that Robyn has naturally dyed, with the promise that they will return hats to Robyn by the end of February. The hats will then be put on display in Wave Hill House beginning in March. After the exhibit, participants are welcome to attend a hat party and exchange their hats amongst each other. All leftover hats will be donated to a local nonprofit. House Study/Handmade has been a fun opportunity for visitors to learn new skills, namely carding, spinning and knitting; but more importantly it has been an opportunity for individuals to contribute to a group effort.
House Study/ Handmade has attracted diverse visitors—families, young adults, folks from the city and Westchester, master knitters and amateurs alike. It has been especially pleasant to watch visitors take ownership of the project—growing from nervous passersby to volunteer instructors. Once visitors understand the collective mission and begin to handle the fleece, it’s likely they will stay for hours! More than forty people have visited in one day, leaving Robyn busy on the spinning wheel — at left – producing as many skeins as possible. Visitors rush to take skeins (sometimes still wet) and often return for more. So far 15 hats have been collected, including three felted ones. To dye the wool Robyn has used cochineal, black walnut, tea, orange peels, onion skins, coffee, banana skin, indigo and more, some of which was collected by staff here at Wave Hill.
As the Arts Fellow in the Visual Arts Department, it has been a wonderful experience to work with Robyn. Like the visitors, I cherish the opportunity to work closely with a professional artist. Moreover, I’ve enjoyed observing Robyn realize this social experiment. Robyn writes in her blog http://myfairisle.blogspot.com/, “When I started this project, I thought one of the key components would be the trust between me, as the maker of the yarn, and the knitters, who had no real obligation to return with a hat. But somehow that issue seems a small point, almost beside the point. The real point, as it turns out, is the experience of making the yarn together. (The second shot here is of a visitor learning to use the spinning wheel. She’s one of the Sunroom’s repeat visitors.) Even the hats are beside the point. Everyone is enjoying seeing them come back, and some people are doing great things, but they are like little pieces of candy after a great meal. The meal, as it turns out, is being there together.” I agree with Robyn. The social contract between Robyn and the knitters has become a trivial challenge. Simply the communal pleasure of working with wool has naturally united disparate individuals. For me, this fact has undoubtedly been the best part of Robyn’s workshop.
Leigh Ross, Assistant Curator at Wave Hill’s Glyndor Gallery, provided this posting.
Last winter, our Visual Arts and Education Departments collaborated to present Wave Hill’s first-ever public-program participants’ exhibition, Naturally Inspired. Displayed in Wave Hill House, it featured a truly exceptional selection of paintings, works on paper, photography and Family Art Project creations. I thought the show was a great success. I was fascinated to see the unique and intimate view of Wave Hill evident in each piece, and impressed to see how, cumulatively, they spoke to the richness of Wave Hill’s landscape and the variety of techniques taught in our workshops. Carol Mangis, one of the artist’s featured in Naturally Inspired, had this to say about her experience: “The photography workshop I took two winters ago with Benjamin Swett was truly helpful to me, as an amateur shooter, and I was really happy with some of the photos that resulted. So when Wave Hill called for submissions for the workshop show last year, I was thrilled; even more so when they accepted one of my pictures for the show. Wave Hill means a lot to me. It was an honor to have my photo displayed at one of my favorite places in the world, and an inspiration to view the work of other participants. “
Carol Mangis' photograph from last year's exhibition. Submissions for this year's exhibition are due October 8.
This year we plan to reprise the public-program participants’ exhibition with Illuminating Nature, scheduled to be up November 27, 2009–February 28, 2010. Paula Morvay, Wave Hill’s Nature and Art Programs Manager, has set a deadline of Thursday, October 8, 2009, for the Call for Submissions. This is intended only for current and previous participants of Wave Hill art workshops and the Artists’ Circle Program and for artwork not previously exhibited at Wave Hill. For basic questions, please contact me, Leigh Ross, at 718.549.3200 x397, or leighr@wavehill.org.
It’s never too late to share our connections with nature! This posting from Courtney White, Director of Education & Public Programs, dates from late July.
Early Tuesday morning, I ran into Nancy Talley, a Wave Hill gardener who has done an amazing job on the Conifer Slope, near the Sally and Gilbert Kerlin Learning Center. With a big smile, she shared that she had just come from looking at the work in the woods done by the Family Art Project children at our weekend workshop, A Tiny Village Among Trees. I immediately knew that I needed to head that way before starting the day.
I turned the corner of Wave Hill House to find a Red Admiral butterfly’s beautiful colors standing out in the mist. It fluttered away into the woodland path, and I followed. Determined to find the tiny dwellings, I soon forgot about the butterfly and all of a sudden an American Robin began to call from above. It was not the typical “cheerup, cheerily, cheerily”; instead it was much more demanding, as if wanting all of my attention. I thought to myself that I must be near a nest and should move on to find the children’s work.
I moved, and the Robin moved. I moved again, and the Robin moved again. Finally, I stopped and gave my full attention to the sounds above me, “cheerup, cheerily, cheerily,” “feebee, feebee”, “what-cheer, what-cheer, what-cheer”, “tee-shaay.” Right above my head on the same tree branch, as content as could be, sat the American Robin, along with a Northern Cardinal, a Black-capped Chickadee and a Sparrow. I had never seen such a thing and watched with delight. In time, each flew away. Standing in awe, I looked back down to the ground, only to discover that I was standing among the children’s most amazing work—small twigs supporting a dried evergreen roof, a hammock perhaps for a newborn mouse, itsy ladders to the lowest branches, bitty beds for ants, centipedes or spiders, and so much more.
As I walked away, reflecting on the beauty of the children’s creativity and imagination, I thought how these birds must have enjoyed all the excitement, too. I was glad to see this special place with the birds. I walked back up the hill…and the Red Admiral returned to follow.
This post was contributed by Armina Del Toro, Wave Hill’s School Programs Educator.
They say that “all who wander aren’t lost.” In fact, at Wave Hill’s education department, we encourage wandering by finding innovative ways to work it into our curriculum. With wandering comes wonderment, and with wonderment comes an understanding of how all things are woven into the pattern of life. All the greatest inventions and movements have been sparked by an observation or experience. We give students the opportunity to have these moments because who knows where children’s experiences will lead them in their lives.
If you can find time to wander in wonderment, whether in life situations or because of classroom requirements, you are guaranteed to make clear decisions and create unforgettable, knowledge-filled connections with anything that may confront you. So go ahead…..we suggest you GET LOST and TAKE A HIKE (no pun intended), because perhaps you or your child could be the next Einstein, Mozart, da Vinci or Mark Twain of our century!
This post was contributed by Armina Del Toro, Wave Hill’s School Programs Educator, and Judith Hutton, School Partnerships Manager.
Too often, inner city children have limited access to green spaces in and around their schools. Wave Hill’s School Partnership Program aims to teach children to see and appreciate nature nearby. It is our hope that in exploring nature through science and art, we can create future advocates for the environment as well as the well-being of all who inhabit it. We also hope to encourage families to see Wave Hill as a place where they can come together to connect to nature and to each other.
Family retreats are a culminating celebration of the student’s work and experiences during a partnership. Recently, the School Partnerships Program hosted its last Family Retreat for the school year. During the event, students and families are invited to spend the day at Wave Hill, where they work on science-based art projects and explore exotic plant collections as they tour Wave Hill. We also display the students’ writings and photographs and even provide an interactive PowerPoint presentation of students’ work.
Students develop a strong relationship with Wave Hill and they eagerly share nature expertise and accomplishments. This is a time for the students to become the teachers. They have the chance to spend quality time with their families while appreciating the scenery at the garden. Parents also get to see what students are doing in the classroom and how it applies to real world experiences, raising awareness about nature both at Wave Hill and in all communities throughout the Bronx and beyond.
An enthusiastic class!
Oh say, what can you see?
