Daily Archives: June 22, 2021

Thursday, July 8, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm – Antique Roses and Ferns: A Modern Take, Online

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Take creative inspiration from 19th- and 20th-century English gardens blooming with delicate roses such as Amnesia, Quicksand, and Early Grey. Step-by-step, learn easy techniques for crafting an opulent tabletop from a bygone era. Our choice of container-faux mercury glass-footed compote bowls and fern-covered glass hurricane vases-is the key element that turns Victorian style into modern design. Students will source flowers per instructor guidelines. This online New York Botanical Garden class is taught by Trish O’Sullivan on Thursday, July 8, from 10 – 12:30, and is $85. For containers, use everything & any object as long as it is holds water with an opening between 4” to 6” wide for centerpiece and a variety of smaller containers with 2” to 3” opening. Family heirlooms, teapots, cups, glassware and garden tools like a watering can and flowerpots are a perfect setting for garden roses. Check out TrishOSullivanDesign.com for great ideas in repurposed containers. Floral material, to be acquired in advance by students and not included in fee, are 15-20 garden roses in 3 different shades of the same color palette (monochromatic). 10-15 stems of Boston fern or designer’s choice of fern, ivy or vine material , and dried plumosa in a shade to compliment roses. You will also need a roll of clear 1/2″ florist tape or any strong tape, floral clippers, a knife, and scissors. Register by clicking HERE

Habitat Management Grant Applications

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bobolink

MassWildlife’s Habitat Management Grant Program (MHMGP) provides financial assistance to private and municipal landowners of conserved lands to enhance wildlife habitat, while promoting public access for outdoor recreation. Over the past 6 years, the MHMGP has awarded over $2.2M in funding to 33 different organizations and individuals for 84 habitat improvement projects.

The MHMGP encourages landowners to engage in active habitat management on their properties to benefit many types of wildlife, including game animals and species of greatest conservation need  identified in the State Wildlife Action Plan. Although MassWildlife and other conservation organizations have made unprecedented investments in land acquisition in Massachusetts, acquisition alone is not enough to guarantee the persistence of biological diversity. Investment in habitat restoration and management is urgently needed on public and private lands across the state. To address this need, MassWildlife and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs have substantially increased their investment in habitat management on state wildlife lands and are committed to working with partners to promote these efforts on other conserved lands across the state.

MassWildlife will be offering technical assistance to landowners who are interested in applying to the MHMGP from now until July 14th. If you want to speak to a MassWildlife Habitat Biologist about habitat management on your property or your eligibility for the MHMGP, please contact Brian Hawthorne, Habitat Program Manager.

If your project site is within priority habitat (check here) a pre-review of the project is highly encouraged. Please e-mail Emily Holt, Senior Endangered Species Review Biologist of the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP),  with a site map and description of the project to begin the pre-review process.  Retain copies of the feedback provided as proof of consultation will be needed during the MHMGP application process. Pre-reviews should be submitted to NHESP a minimum of 2 weeks before the MHMGP application closing date.

Grant applications will open mid-July and will be due in late August. More information is available at the Habitat Management Grant Program page. Technical assistance on potential grant application projects needs to be completed by the opening of the application period. Visit the MHMGP webpage at any time to learn more about the application process, and to see examples of funded projects. For general questions about the grant program, contact James Burnham, Program Coordinator.

Through June 1, 2022 – Jeffrey Gibson: Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House

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The Trustees announce a large scale exhibit at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum beginning this June and running through June 1, 2022. A monumental sculpture by renowned artist Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw-Cherokee), the title, Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House, comes from a song Gibson associates with nightclubs that have provided haven and community especially for LGBTQ+ people and BIPOC.

The ziggurat form references the earthen architecture of the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia, which flourished in the seventh through fourteenth centuries, well before European contact. The installation will be adorned with phrases advocating for Indigenous space and culture and wheat-pasted posters co-created by Gibson and artists Eric-Paul Riege (Diné), Luzene Hill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), and Dana Claxton (Hunkpapa Lakota).

Gibson has invited Riege and Hill to stage performances on and around the installation. Additionally, he invited Claxton to adapt one of her photographs, titled Lasso, to a monumental scale as a billboard which will be on view in the Sculpture Park by June 1. The installation opens with Riege’s performance on Friday June 4th from 12-4pm. Click here to learn more.

Learn more about the past programs and performances for Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House while it was on view at Socrates Sculpture Park.

About the Artist

Jeffrey Gibson’s vibrantly patterned work addresses his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage as well as his queer identity, and the aesthetics and biases associated with those identity markers. He works across painting, sculpture, video, performance, and installation art. He draws on Indigenous process and materials, and queer histories that use camp aesthetics as a critical strategy to deny any romanticizing of Indigenous cultures. By exaggerating these aesthetics Gibson forges conversations that transcend binary thinking. Merging styles and historical references, Gibson states, “I have continued to think about my practice as encompassing the past and present while considering the future.”

Gibson (b. 1972) earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA from the Royal College of Art, London. His work has been featured in recent solo exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum and the New Museum, New York, and was included in the 2019 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, as well as more recently at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. A 2019 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, Gibson is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

This project was originally commissioned by Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City. VIA Art Fund is the commissioning sponsor. For more information and hours, visit www.thetrustees.org