Harvard University

Monday, February 24, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Food Waste Policy: Using Systems Change to Stop Squandering One of Our Greatest Resources

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More than enough food is produced to feed every person, yet nearly 40% of food is wasted in the United States. This waste squanders our natural resources and has negative impacts on the environment and the economy. The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic has been at the forefront nationally in terms of educating about the relevant laws, supporting innovative models to increase food recovery, and driving policy change at the federal, state, and local levels to align incentives to reduce food waste. Emily Broad Leib will share the key knowledge developed by FLPC, providing an overview of the causes of food waste, the key legal and policy opportunities, and a snapshot of current trends in federal and state government approaches to the issue. on February 24 at 7 pm as part of the Directors Lecture Series at the Arboretum.

Emily Broad Leib founded Harvard’s Food Law and Policy Clinic and is recognized as a national leader in Food Law and Policy. She was named by Fortune and Food & Wine to their list of 2016’s Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink. The list highlights women who had the most transformative impact on what the public eats and drinks. Broad Leib was one of the inaugural recipients of Harvard President Drew Faust’s Change Solutions Fund in 2015.

Fee Free. Members only. Registration required as seating is limited. The Director’s Lecture Series is a benefit of membership. Become a member of the Friends of the Arnold Arboretum.

Tuesday, January 28, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Botany Blast: What Is Biodiversity and Why Does It Matter?

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Jake Grossman, PhD, Putnam Postdoctoral Fellow, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, will speak in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on January 28 at 6:30 pm.

Most of us have an intuitive sense of what counts as “biodiversity” and why it is important to live in a biodiverse world, but these questions have also powered decades of revelatory and complex ecological research.

Join Putnam Postdoctoral Fellow Jake Grossman for an exploration of the world of biodiversity research. Our focus will be on how scientists define and quantify biodiversity and how biodiversity loss affects the way that ecosystems work. Jake will share highlights from his dissertation research, which entailed the use of experimentally planted “forests” to study the role of biodiversity in supporting tree growth, health, and nutrient use.

Free, but registration requested. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

Tuesday, January 14, 7:30 pm – Mound-building Termites and How They Coordinate Their Work

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The public is invited to attend the January meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club on Tuesday, January 14, at 7:30 pm at Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street MCZ 101. Dr. Justin Werfel, Senior Research Scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, will present a talk entitled Mound-building Termites and How They Coordinate Their Work.

Termites construct complex mounds that are orders of magnitude larger than any individual and fulfill a variety of functional roles for the colony. The traditional understanding of how the insects organize their efforts focuses on stigmergy, a form of indirect communication in which actions change the environment and thereby provide cues that influence future work. Dr. Werfel will discuss studies that point to the importance of cues including surface geometry, active excavation, and humidity, but, surprisingly, show no role for the putative cement pheromone that has been central to the theory for six decades. There will also be robots!

Justin Werfel leads the Designing Emergence Laboratory. His research interests are in the understanding and design of complex and emergent systems, with work in areas including swarm robotics, social insect behavior, evolutionary theory, engineered molecular nanosystems, and educational technology. His work has been featured by numerous national and international media, highlighted among Science’s “top 10 scientific achievements of 2014”, and denounced by a former assistant secretary of the US Treasury as “an enemy of the human race.” (which to our mind is high praise) The meeting is free.

Wednesday, January 15, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Jumpstart Spring: Forcing Bulbs

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Cure the winter doldrums! Students in this Arnold Arboretum workshop on January 15 from 5 – 7 will learn the basics of bulb forcing and will plant a layered bulb container containing daffodils, hyacinths, grape hyacinths, and tulips. Bulb arrangements will be taken home to nurture and enjoy. Fee for all materials, including bulbs, soil, and container, is included in the cost of the class.

Limited to 10; register early. Register no later than Monday morning, January 13 as we must prepare materials for this class. The session will be led by Tiffany Enzenbacher, Manager of Plant Production at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. $40 for Arboretum members, $48 for nonmembers. Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

Image courtesy of Jamaica Plain News

Thursday, November 21, 6:00 pm – The Remarkable Nature of Edward Lear

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Robert McCracken Peck, Curator of Art and Artifacts, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University , will speak at a free public lecture on November 21 at 6 pm in the Geological Lecture Hall of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge.

Edward Lear (1812–1888), best known for The Owl and the Pussycat and other nonsense poetry, was also an accomplished painter of birds, mammals, reptiles, and landscapes, and an adventurous world traveler. His paintings of parrots, macaws, toucans, owls, and other birds are among the finest ever published. Robert McCracken Peck will discuss the remarkable life and natural history paintings of this beloved children’s writer, who mysteriously abandoned his scientific work soon after achieving preeminence in the field.

Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage

Saturday, October 26, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – The Light You Cannot See: Infrared Photography by Betsey Henkels

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Betsey Henkels uses the camera to explore the world in two ways–first by noticing and appreciating objects that she might otherwise overlook, and second, by transforming ordinary scenes into prints that are compelling and unexpected. To make these transformations, Henkels experimented with different techniques–she slowed down shutter speeds, threw subjects out of focus, tipped scenes upside down, and came in close.

Then, she discovered infrared. Infrared is magical and mysterious. The photographer shoots images without knowing exactly what will show up in the print. Looking through the viewfinder of an infrared camera, only the light that’s visible to the eye is seen–not the “near infrared” light that the camera records. Henkels spent many hours in the Arboretum, photographing tree canopies, bark, and above ground roots, hoping to capture their spirits. She photographed them in infrared, which show green as white, darkens the sky, and makes clouds prominent. Strange colors are introduced, and a different fresh and surprising world of Arnold Arboretum trees is opened up, even to those of us who know and love them.

This Arnold Arboretum exhibition in the Hunnewell building runs from October 25 – February 2, with an opening reception on October 26 from 1 – 3. Free and open to the public. For more information visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

Thursday, September 12, 7:00 pm – Landscape Lecture: Picturing Social Reform

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Big Plans examines the role of visual images in support of progressive social reform in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum exhibition features large-format urban plan drawings and small-format documentary street photographs. Big Plans considers the urban planning proposals developed in the service of social reform by Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Eliot in relation to the political picture-making of Lewis Hine, and the cultural place-making of Isabella Stewart Gardner. The exhibition presents the invention of landscape architecture as a progressive response to the social and environmental conditions for working-class immigrants in the industrial metropolis and raises contemporary questions as to who advocates for the social, cultural, and environmental health of the city today.

Join us at the Museum on September 12 at 7 pm for a discussion of urban plans as cultural works and the role of cultural imaginaries in progressive urban reform, featuring presentations by and conversations with:

Anita Berrizbeitia, Harvard University
Toni Griffin, The Just City Lab
Nikil Saval, Reclaim Philadelphia
Sara Zewde, Dumbarton Oaks

Introduced and moderated by Charles Waldheim, Ruettgers Curator of Landscape. Tickets are required and include Museum admission. $15 adults, seniors $12, students $10, free for members. Register buy calling box office at 617-278-5156, or online at https://www.gardnermuseum.org/calendar/event/lecture-big-plans-20190912

Friday, August 16, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Eco-Tour: Ecology and Agriculture at Charbrook Farm

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Charbrook Farm is the modern homestead of Lauren and Stephen Stimson and their family at 71 Gates Road in Princeton, Massachusetts. Located down the road from the historic Stimson Farm and Charbrook Nursery, this working farm has become a field station for the STIMSON landscape architecture practice. A Master Plan for Charbrook Farm has been in process since 2008. Seasonal events, lambing, plant walks, nursery digs and studio retreats are all integrated into the culture and life of STIMSON. Long-term goals for the property include an agricultural arboretum, demonstration perennials and working gardens for a future design studio. A guided tour by Lauren and Stephen on August 16 from 3 – 5, sponsored by the Ecological Landscape Alliance, will discuss the concept of integrating ecology, agriculture and landscape architecture. $23 for ELA members, $33 for nonmembers. Register at www.ecolandscaping.org

Lauren Stimson, ASLA, holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her B.A. from Bates College in Maine where she studied Theater and Geology. She is a licensed Landscape Architect in the state of Maine. Lauren has a deep love for New England, where she was raised, and an interest in the overlap between the built environment and the rural landscape, especially as it relates to historic villages and farms. She is an avid oil painter and uses the medium to document the familiar character of regional landscapes and agrarian patterns. Painting helps inform her design thinking as a landscape architect and conceptual approach to graphic representation. She learns a great deal about plants from her garden and is passionate about food and cooking. Lauren has been a studio instructor at the University of Massachusetts, and has given talks and lectures at the International Symposium of Landscape Ecology, the Ecological Alliance, the ABX Symposium, Smith College and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. She currently serves on the Stewardship Council for the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

Stephen Stimson, FASLA, is Principal and Owner of STIMSON. Born and raised on a dairy farm, Stephen’s agrarian heritage has inspired and shaped the landscapes he has created across New England and the country. He received his education from the University of Massachusetts and the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has been practicing landscape architecture for over thirty years. He founded the firm in 1992 and is licensed in thirteen states.

Stephen’s work has been widely recognized with numerous awards from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects. He has taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Massachusett, and has lectured and served on award and design juries throughout the country. Stephen was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2004 for his outstanding achievements in the field of landscape architecture. For over a decade now, he has been cultivating Charbrook Nursery on his family’s historic dairy farm, for project use and field research related to native plant propagation, collected species, planted form and soil specifications. He remains passionately involved in design and projects at all levels throughout the studio and loves to draw by hand. When he is not in the studio or at a site visit, he can usually be found on a tractor somewhere on the farm, with his daughter and son on his lap.

Friday, July 26 – Sunday, October 13 – Between the Leaves: The Unique Prints of Sarah Cross

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The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University will be the site of an exhibit running July 26 – October 13, entitled Between the Leaves: The Unique Prints of Sarah Cross. There will be a free opening reception on Saturday, July 27 from 1 – 3, and a cyanotype workshop on Sunday, July 28 from 10 – noon (registration required.)

Between the Leaves focuses on the ephemeral quality of light.  Behind each photograph is Sarah Cross’s hand in the physical construction of what is set up in front of the camera, or through a cathartic printing process. The artist works with a range of photographic media, including 4″ x 5″ color negatives, and gum bichromate printing to create photographs. After a strong degree of photoshop manipulation, the prints are made through the historic gum bichromate process. With this lengthy process, each color is printed as a single layer, resulting in fragile, painterly, and unique prints. Although large in physical presence, these prints are meant to express small invitations to reverie. 

Saturday, July 13, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Art Workshop: Making Art in the Landscape

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Join Paul Olson, the Arnold Arboretum’s exhibiting artist of Drawn to Paint, for a sketching workshop “en plein air” (outside, in the landscape), on Saturday, July 13 from 1 – 3, beginning in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum. Olson, an instructor at Mass College of Art and RISD, will focus on teaching you to sketch trees from direct observation outdoors. He will encourage you to think about simplifying your design with just the essential shapes to make a good composition in light pencil. Then, you can use ink and water for an expressive tonal image. Bring pencils and sketchbooks. Some supplies will be available. Fee $10 member, $20 nonmember

Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.