"Future Monument to the Trees of the Public Garden" offers two public workshops on Saturday, September 28, 2024 and Saturday, October 26, 2024; and a public launch of an Augmented-Reality (AR)-enhanced audio walking tour featuring "Odes to Trees" penned by members of the public on November 9th, 10th, & 11th, 2024. All events will take place in the Boston Public Garden. Please meet at the Charles Street & Beacon Street entrance, which is near the Make Way for Ducklings statue.
Join Us!
Accessibility:
"Future Monument to the Trees of the Public Garden" is designed with accessibility in mind. Although there will be docent-led walking tours of the park, participants can complete the workshop in one place.
Please let us know if you have any accessibility concerns in your group to help us plan by filling out the following form:
WORKSHOPS:
Please join us for a two-hour workshop where you will learn about the project and conduct your own artistic research on the magnificent trees of the Boston Public Garden.
WORKSHOP ONE: Date: Saturday, September 28, 2024, 11am to 1pm
WORKSHOP TWO: Date: Saturday, October 26, 2024, 2pm to 4pm
WORKSHOP FORMAT:
Introduction and Overview (20 mins)
Walk-through of Selected Trees (20 mins)
Docent Led Group Discussions (20 mins)
Tree Narrative Exercise with Worksheet (40 mins)
DESCRIPTION: During workshops, the Public Garden is transformed into a field research site to consider environmental ethics in terms of humans’ relationship to nature. Each participant adopts a tree in the Boston Public Garden and considers it on three registers:
on a scientific/objective/historical or quantitative register (i.e., what knowledges does it hold? What is its history? What are its special properties? What are its uses? What makes it special as a tree?)
on an aesthetic or qualitative register (i.e., how does it appear in culture, myths, literature, art, music)? How does it inspire?; and
on an ethical register: (i.e., what ethical value does the tree hold? What ethical relationships bind us to it? What is our ethical obligation to the tree, and more broadly, to nature?
Participants will then be asked to submit a tangible contribution to the project as a result of their artistic research that will memorialize their Ode to a Tree. This can be a letter, a poem, a picture, or a creative gesture.
PUBLIC LAUNCH OF TEMPORARY MONUMENT: An audio walking tour of submissions will be compiled by the artist and made accessible to the public through Augmented Reality (AR)-enhanced audio walk of selected trees in the Public Garden from November 9-11, 2024. The "Future Monument to the Trees of the Public Garden" will be archived on: www.futuremonumenttotrees.org.
photos by Emily Rose Navarro
YEAR ONE
