Harvard University

Monday, February 22, 7:00 pm – The Pecan: A History of America’s Native Nut, Online

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This February 22 free Zoom talk at 7 pm Eastern is the first of three lectures in the Arnold Arboretum’s Director’s Lecture Series. Register at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kAicDT3WRwGwXUExDs4Oxg

In the United States, the pecan tree is native to a region stretching from central Texas to western Alabama, and from the Gulf of Mexico to southern Illinois. Today, most pecans grown for commercial consumption come from New Mexico and Georgia, places with no native pecans. What makes the extension of pecan production beyond its native habitat possible is the art and science of domestication. The pecan tree went from being primarily wild to primarily domesticated in an astonishingly quick period of time–a matter of decades. James McWilliams’ talk will explore the intricacies of this process while challenging us to think more critically about what we mean by ideas such as “natural,” “artificial,” and “authentic,” all of which are central to understanding the food we produce and consume.

Thursday, February 11, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Growing Small Fruits in Your Backyard, Online

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This Massachusetts Horticultural Society class on February 11 from 7 – 8:30, online, is for those who want to grow small fruits in their backyard or on small commercial fruit farms. Growing blueberries, brambles, strawberries, or currants in your backyard can be rewarding and fun. This class will provide an overview on how to successfully grow these attractive fruits in your home landscape, be it a rural, suburban, or urban lot for ornamental purposes and for fruit production.

Instructed by J. Stephen Casscles, Esq.

J. Stephen Casscles is a government lawyer with over 35 years of experience in New York State and municipal government. He has dedicated his life to public service and has practiced law in a broad range of areas such as health, insurance, alcoholic beverage control, gaming, agriculture, economic development, municipal finance, and land-use law. 

An enthusiastic viticulturalist, Stephen has a 12-acre farm in Athens, NY, called Cedar Cliff, where he cultivates over 110 different French-American hybrids, 19th Century heritage grape varieties from the Hudson Valley and Massachusetts, and own rooted chance hybrids that he evaluates, makes wine from, and lectures about. In addition, he lectures on wine, grape cultivation, 19th century American horticulture and landscape architecture at botanical gardens and historical societies throughout New York and New England. Mr. Casscles operates a small grape nursery that specializes in propagating rare French-American hybrids, 19th Century heritage grape varieties developed in the Hudson Valley, Boston’s North Shore, the rest of New England, and own rooted chance hybrids identified at his farm Cedar Cliff. He is an award-winning winemaker who currently works at Sabba Estate Vineyards, in Old Chatham, NY and formally of the Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY (2007-2019) and his wines been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Wine Enthusiast, New York Post, Hugh Johnson’s Annual Pocket Wine Book (2021), and The Albany Times-Union. 

As a regional historian, Stephen authored Grapes of the Hudson Valley and Other Cool Climate Regions of the United States and Canada, which details the history of the Hudson Valley fruit growing industry, how to make wine, establish and maintain a vineyard, and the growing characteristics of over 170 cool climate grape varieties. He is currently working on two new books, The Prince Family Nurseries of Flushing, NY (1720-1869) and The Life and Times of E. S. Rogers and the Heritage Grapes of New England. 

In addition to his full length works on grape varieties, grape cultivation, and 19th century horticulture,  Stephen is a frequent contributor to academic and trade journals such as Arnoldia of the Arnold Arboretum of Boston, MA, Fruit Notes of U. Mass Amherst, Horticultural News of Rutgers University, Wine Journal of the American Wine Society, New York Fruit Quarterly of the NYS Horticultural Society, and the Hudson Valley Wine Magazine

As a culmination of his horticultural pursuits, Stephen advises and lectures at the Fermentation Sciences Program at SUNY at Cobleskill, and has a working relationship with professors at U-1 University Youngdong, Korea, and with many in the Korean grape and wine industry. 

Stephen can be reached at cassclesjs@yahoo.com or by cell at 518-755-5475. 

$18 for Mass Hort members, $26 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org

Thursday, January 28, 7:00 pm – Racial Equity in Urban Climate Action, Online

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Joan Fitzgerald, Professor of Urban Planning and Policy at Northeastern University, will build on key concepts in her new book, Greenovation: Urban Leadership on Climate Change (2020). On January 28 at 7 pm, with the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, she’ll discuss how cities are rethinking their approach to climate action by placing racial justice at the forefront. She’ll draw from recent experiences with Providence, Austin, and Oakland in creating participatory planning processes and new priorities for a just transition to a carbon-free society. She’ll conclude by discussing how the transition can be linked to jobs in the green economy. Join us via Zoom.
Free, but registration required by clicking HERE.

Through Sunday, February 7 – If Winter Comes … The Promise of Each Year in the Paintings of Anthony Apesos

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The Arnold Arboretum comes to life in Tony Apesos’s sensitive and expressive oil paintings. Working in his studio, he recaptures an essential essence derived from his frequent walks in the Arboretum. When elements of the landscape catch his eye, he interprets them with brush and spirit in accomplished works. His series of winter landscapes are especially vibrant, layered so finely that the cold and stillness of the land reverberate within the image.

Apesos is a professor at Lesley University College of Art and Design and has been extensively represented in solo and group exhibitions. He has received many honors, been included in numerous publications, and lectured widely. You can visit his website.

All rights of the images reside with the artist. For more information on making a copy, or reusing an image, please send your request to arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu

For information on the work itself, or to inquire about purchasing artwork, please also send your requests to arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu We will put you in touch with the artist.

Saturday, November 14, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Fabulous Fungus Fair, Online

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Explore the wondrous world of fungi! Join Harvard students on November 14 from 2 – 3:30 for a closer look at the mushrooms, yeasts, and molds found in gardens, forests, labs—even in our own refrigerators. This popular annual event turns virtual this year, featuring videos created by Harvard students. Join the webinar to participate in live conversation in response to student projects. Be prepared to see fungi in a whole new way!

Zoom Registration information at https://hmsc.harvard.edu/event/fabulous-fungus-fair-0.

To join the program, you will need to download the free Zoom app in advance. If you already have Zoom, you do not need to download it again. For details on how to improve your Zoom experience, visit the How to Attend an HMSC Program webpage

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University’s New Website

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The Arnold Arboretum has just released an entirely new website, a fresh portal to the institution that has been two years in the making! Ned Friedman says: “We set out to create an online identity as evocative, welcoming, and revelatory as the collections and landscape themselves.  Over the next few weeks, we will introduce you to newly curated stories from the Arboretum including plant biographies, tales of plant exploration, scientific discoveries, and the institution’s multifaceted roles in promoting social and environmental justice. We will pull back the curtain to reveal some of the magic that lies behind our roughly 16,000 woody plants and 281 acres of Olmsted-designed landscape. Today I’m excited to share a new feature with you. “Walks” offer virtual tours of the Living Collections, curated and designed by our staff, including me. The Director’s Tour illuminates just a few of the thousands of plants I’ve photographed and been captivated by over the past decade. Join me to find out why I love snakebark maples (and why you should too), why inhaling putrid ginkgo seeds is vivifying, and why I worship the acorns of the Oriental oak. And when you next visit, make your way to these very plants to experience their charms through the seasons in person. ” Very exciting news indeed.

Arnold Arboretum Expeditions App Now Available

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Discover a whole new way to interact with the Arnold Arboretum! Expeditions is a mobile app, created to help visitors get better acquainted with the Arboretum’s 281-acre landscape and some of the most spectacular collections. Expeditions shares stories about plants, conservation, and exploration history through a variety of media including photos and audio clips. Hear behind-the-scenes stories from staff illuminating how plants are collected, cared for, and shared with the world. Download Expeditions  free of cost from the Apple and Google Play stores, or view it on an internet browser at home.  The complete description may be found in the Harvard Gazette article by clicking HERE.

Wednesdays, July 22 – August 12, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Plant Based Printing Processes Online

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This Office for the Arts at Harvard class is an introduction to plant-based printing processes that use light and common plant materials. It will cover anthotypes, chlorophyll printing, and other plant-based printing methods. We will meet with instructor Anne Eder via online platform once a week for demonstrations and students will then take what they have learned and complete that week’s assignment, returning for troubleshooting, critique and a new demo each week. Everything needed to take this course should be easily obtainable from the backyard, a nearby park, or even the grocery. (4 classes, Wednesdays, July 22 – August 12, 6:30 – 8:30 Eastern).

$120 – register online and access the materials list at https://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/classes/plant_print1_eder For questions regarding course content, policies or materials, please contact Director, Kathy King at kking@fas.harvard.edu.

Inspired By Nature: Five Printmakers at the Arnold Arboretum Online Exhibition Through July 19

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Please note that all exhibitions are suspended due to the closure of the Hunnewell Building and Visitor Center as part of Harvard University’s COVID-19 response. See our current art exhibition online.

When our Visitor Center reopens, on site-exhibitions will resume and continue to be free and open to the public in the Hunnewell Building at 125 Arborway, Boston.

For five printmakers, sketching trips to the Arnold Arboretum solidified what they already had in common—the many ways that nature and plant life informs their art. Although their media covers a wide range of print techniques, and each artist has a unique approach to their art, all are attracted to the natural world, often trees. From white line woodcut to monotype, a keen sensibility of botanical life emerges that is portrayed through the eye and craft of these artists.

Printmakers Arlene Bandes, Lynda Goldberg, Mary Beth Maisel, Amy McGregor-Radin, and Gayle Smalley have been meeting monthly for more than ten years to discuss works in progress. They critique, support, and challenge each other to explore beyond the limits of their art. Ideas, sketches, and current prints are shared. There is a commonality that emerges in the art exhibited in this show of homing into the essence of nature.

Each artist is an active member of the Nature Printing Society, an international association of artists whose philosophy is based on respect for nature as demonstrated through the art of the print. Members have exhibited in numerous galleries and museums including Attleboro Art Museum, The Art Complex Museum (Duxbury), The Boston Athenaeum, and the Fuller Museum of Art (now Fuller Craft Museum), among others. Maisel and Goldberg contributed chapters to The Art of Printing from Nature, published by the Nature Printing Society. Goldberg and Bandes are instructors in the Greater Boston area. For more information on this exhibition or individual works, please contact arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu. See a post on ARBlog to learn how this show was affected by, and was adapted to COVID-19.

Chinese Chestnut by Gayle Smalley 10 ¾” x 7 ¼” Monotype copyright 2020 Gayle Smalley

Thursday, June 4, 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Painting Edo

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“Painting Edo” at the Arnold Arboretum is a collaboration between the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Harvard Art Museums, inspired by the exhibition Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection.Observing artworks from the exhibition alongside the living collections of the Arnold Arboretum, we invite you to marvel at the remarkable accuracy with which artists of the Edo period (1615–1868) in Japan rendered their botanical subjects.  In this online talk, Rachel Saunders, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art, and William (Ned) Friedman, Director of the Arnold Arboretum, will discuss the striking Magnolia sieboldii, also known as Siebold’s magnolia or the Oyama magnolia. After a close look at a very rare painted specimen in the Feinberg Collection with Rachel, Ned will bring us into the Arboretum’s landscape to learn about the live specimen’s unique biology and gorgeous bloom.  
This virtual program will take place live in Zoom. Free admission, but registration is required. Rain date Friday, June 5. Register here: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Frp8sRcWTqG1S_aZKI7gZg