January 2022 Designing a Gathering Space - Pilsen Artists

Jacob Campbell

Burnham Corridor

Planting Trees wth Pilsen Neighbors

Pilsen Artists and Design Team

Bronzeville Musicians

Dio de Los Muertos Celebration

Dr. Joy O'Keefe, Assistant Professor and Wildlife Extension Specialist, at University of Illinois spoke to us via Zoom from Urbana, Illinois.

Dr. Joy O'Keefes' research primarily focuses on ways to facilitate the coexistence of bats and humans in human-altered landscapes. She works to understand the roosting and foraging ecology of bats, identify best practices for studying bat ecology, characterize bat behaviors, and assess the quality of mitigation practices designed to help bats. Dr. O'Keefe collaborates with many organizations and people who interact with bats, including private landowners, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, and state agencies.

For more informatiom, visit these websites:

4/7/2022

Ikebana Spring

Our guest presenter, Margot Wang of the Ohara School of Ikebana, who spoke to us via Zoom in February, returned for an in-person demonstration of Ikebana floral arranging using spring flowers.

This was a program to showcase how ikebana relates to the season and the landscape. The Ohara School of Ikebana is known for its focus on naturalistic styles and the use of seasonal materials. The school was founded by Unshin Ohara (1861-1916). Ohara School believes that it is important to observe nature.

The Moribana style features a triangular one-sided floral structure in which the triangle is composed of a subject (heaven), an object (man) and a secondary (earth). The tall piece is the subject and should be twice the diameter of the base while the object measures one-third of the subject and leans 45 degrees toward the viewer. The secondary surrounds the subject and object. Space between elements is considered to be part of the arrangement.

See if you can identify the three elements in the finished pieces shown below.

May

Program To be Announced

Gardens to Heal via Zoom

PROGRAM NOTES

Our monthly programs are usually held on the 1st Thursday of the month at 7:00 PM in the Warren Park Field House, 6601 N. Western Ave. Chicago.

We usually feature a social get-together with refreshments followed by a guest speaker.

3/3/2022

Bat Ecology via Zoom

Our speaker was Margot Wang, Ikebanist. Ms Wang wears many hats including:

President, Ikebana international Chicago Chapter
2nd Term Master, the School of Ohara in Japan
Master Instructor, Ikebana on Halsted Chicago
Active Member, North American Ohara Teachers Association
Admin, World Ikebana Society Facebook Group
Docent, Chicago Lincoln Park Conservatory

A healing garden is designed to provide "positive distraction and sensory engineering that stimulates a full range of senses including hearing, touch, taste, smell and memory through exposure to natural elements.” ~ KirisuI nternational

The elements of a Japanese healing garden are:

Water: Flexibility
Boulders: Strength
Horticulture: Growth & Life
WU-XING 5 elements: metal, wood,
water, fire, earth

She introduced us to Hoichi Kurisu, noted designer of Japanese Gardens and his vision that gardens should provide restorative spaces for collective and individual well being. Some examples include:

Oregon State Penitentiary, the first garden based on the healing concept.
Legacy Garden at the Midwest Temple, Chicago.

She also discussed the design and creation of the Caldwell garden at the north end of the Lincoln Park Zoo.

The garden at the Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP) is the first penitentiary garden in the country and uses prisoners for building and garden maintenance. The results are amazing.

To view a You Tube viseo about the the OSP garden,click below,

The Healing Garden Behind Prison Walls Video

1/6/22

Roots and Routes Program

via Zoom

Our guest speaker, Jacob Campbell, PhD, is an Environmental Anthropologist with the Keller Science Action Center at the Chicago Field Museum. The mission of the Keller Science Action Center is to put science into action for the Earth's future, to protect and restore the places that are critical to life on earth.

Jacob leads the social science team for the Chicago region. He established and sustains the Roots & Routes initiative with the Chicago Park District and a network of community leaders, artists, and organizations.

From their website Mission Statement:

“Roots and Routes” is a collaborative project aimed at creating and sustaining the longest stretch of lakefront natural area within the Chicago Park District system, the Burnham Wildlife Corridor (BWC), in order to maximize benefits for neighboring communities and nature.

Dr. Campbell had the NGS participants mesmerized by the description and photos of the work he is doing with community members and artists in developing 5 Gathering Spaces along the Burnham Wildlife Corridor south of McCormick Place. The neighborhood communities particpating in this project are Pilsen (Hispanic), Bronzeville (African American) and the Chinese-American Museum. The Gathering Spaces are unique to the designing culture and are connected by paths along the lakefront.

For more information on this project, visit these websites:

Roots and Routes Initiative at the Field Museum

Burnham Corridor Map

Burnham Corridor Gathering Spaces Map

Field Guide for Burnham Corridor

Community-wide Art Initiatives

Row 1. The first arrangement using cherry blossoms and ranunculus

Row 2. The second arrangement using cherry blossoms, ranunculus, grasses, fiddleleaf ferns, hyacinth and tulips

Row 3. A horizontal arrangement using cherry blossoms, ferns, grasses and boxwood.

Nancy Wieting and Margo Wang

2/3/2022