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    Director’s Series | Life: The Arnold Arboretum as an Institution of Public Health

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum—Online

    The Arnold Arboretum's sesquicentennial Director's Series traces the Arnold’s significance in the landscape architecture movement, value for the people of Boston, and leadership in creating global connections between plants and people.

    Panelists include:

    • Dr. Michelle Kondo, Research Social Scientist, UDSA-Forest Service

    • Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space, City of Boston

    • Laurence Cotton, Consulting Producer, “Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing...

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    Art Exhibit | Stoneroot Epistle: Collage and Words in Conversation

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum (Hunnewell Visitor Center), 125 Arborway, Boston

    Visit the Arnold Arboretum's newly reopened Hunnewell Visitor Center and immerse yourself in this truly unique exhibition. The book, Stoneroot Epistle, was born out of Joyce Swagerty (Harvard class of '78) and Daina Swagerty's desire to understand the connection between themselves, the natural world, and the universal journey inspired by the African diaspora. The project by this mother and daughter was a spiritual adventure.

    ...

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    Art Exhibition | Seeds for Tomorrow: Woody Plants of the Arnold Arboretum

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum—Online

    Laura Fantini uses colored pencil to render seeds in exquisite, hyper-realistic drawings. This series is called “Hope,” and therein lies the power of seeds. They are emblematic of both birth and growth—small, complicated, and extraordinary, like the wonderful drawings in this exhibition.

    Learn more about and view this virtual exhibition....

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    Lessons from Plants

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History—Online

    Plants are essential to humans and the environment: they provide food, absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, serve multiple ecosystem functions, and beautify landscapes. In Lessons from Plants (Harvard University Press, 2021) Beronda Montgomery invites us to appreciate our interdependence with plants and the many lessons that can be gained from a better understanding of the ways in which plants grow, adapt, and thrive.

    In this conversation with Brenda Tindal, she will address what plants can teach us about relating to one another, building diverse communities and...

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    Harvard Dance Center Showing: Initiation – In Love Solidarity

    Location: 

    Harvard Dance Center—Online or in-person

    Initiation – In Love Solidarity is a choreographic narrative exploring the embodiment of the Middle Passage, and the resilience and evolving identities of women in the African diaspora. A film component of the work was created at historic sites in New England related to the transatlantic slave trade and emancipation. The imagery of the cowrie shell is present throughout, chosen as an emblem of the transformative identity of the Black female body.

    Saturday, November 13, 4pm & 7pm: ...

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    In the Groves

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Immerse yourself in the deep beauty of trees in this story and music journey through the Arboretum. Led by Oracle award-winning storyteller Diane Edgecomb and Celtic harper Margot Chamberlain, this unfolding performance of ancient tales and songs from cultures around the world takes place in a variety of groves—birch, cherry, and evergreen—at some of the Arboretum’s loveliest spots.

    This event is free, but registration is required and limited. Not designed for children under 12, and dogs are not allowed. COVID guidelines will be followed.

    ...

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    Virtual Exhibition: A Walk in the Arboretum: Digital Photocollages by Amy Ragus

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum—Online

    Photographer Amy Ragus specializes in multiple frame images of New England landscapes—digital photocollages. Before and during the pandemic, Ragus spent time in the Arboretum, particularly interested in its role as a public space, its open access to everyone. Her work captures the discoveries she found just off a road or path, as well as the people who share this space and enjoy nature throughout the seasons. Explore her sensitive, creative depictions of walks in the Arboretum in this virtual exhibition.

    ...

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    "Every Pecan Tree": Trees, Meaning, and Memory in Enslaved People’s Lives

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum—Online

    This is the third lecture in the Arnold Arboretum's 2021 Director's Lecture Series. Tiya Miles takes up the pecan tree as inspiration for exploring the meaning of trees in the lives of enslaved African Americans. Using a family heirloom, slave narratives, oral histories, and missionary records, her talk underscores the importance of trees in the Black experience of captivity and resistance, ultimately revealing the centrality of the natural world to Black, and indeed human, survival.

    ...

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    A History of Path-Making at the Arnold Arboretum

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum—Online

    At the time of its founding in 1872, the land on which the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is sighted was a patchwork of farmland and forest. As the Arboretum was planted, pathways were developed to lead people through the picturesque landscape. As the landscape developed, economies shifted, wars took place, and directors changed. Each of these factors subtly influenced shifts in the park’s path system. Join the Arnold Arboretum on Zoom with Jared Rubinstein as he reveals the layers of change in this beloved landscape.

    ...

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    Over Time: Through Art, the Impact of Change in the Arboretum Landscape

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum—Online

     

    Five decades of weekly walks in the Arnold Arboretum find expression in Ginny Zanger’s art. “Ambling” gives her time to sketch and paint. Using the unique possibilities of her favorite medium—watercolor—and printmaking, Zanger explores, with articulate interpretations, the Arboretum’s rich botanical display. In this online show, most of her work is on Yupo, a silky, polypropylene paper that enhances the flow of the watercolor.

    ...

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    Over Time: Through Art, the Impact of Change in the Arboretum Landscape

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum—Online

    Artist and Harvard University alumna, Ginny Zanger, continued her decades-long weekly visits to the Arnold Arboretum throughout this past year. Here, she found a new and needed “sanctuary.” As she observed and recorded nature’s beauty, quiet, sublime images resulted, echoing the respite and spirit she found.

    ...

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    Painting Edo at the Arnold Arboretum: Japanese Black Pine

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums—Online

    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 and spirit with which artists of the Edo period (1615–1868) rendered their botanical...

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    Linda Shi, "Green Infrastructure Beyond Flood Risk Reduction"

    Location: 

    Online Event, Graduate School of Design

    This lecture explores whether it is possible to achieve both social justice and environmental sustainability in efforts to mitigate urban flood risk. The expanding scale of urban flooding under climate change has renewed interest in large-scale restoration projects that make room for water in metro centers. However, ecologically functioning green infrastructure – unleashed rivers, sprawling wetlands – is inconsistent with the current governance landscape of fragmented local governments seeking to maximize local land values and minimize affordable housing. Moreover, even...

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    Urban Ponds: Essential Ecosystems for the Enjoyment and Discovery of Nature

    Location: 

    Online Event

    Ponds are one of many beautiful features of the Arnold Arboretum’s ecosystem and landscape. The Bradley Rosaceous Collection garden is the setting for three eco-rich ponds—Dawson, Faxon, and Rehder—named for former Arboretum staff. Photographer Bruce Wilson brings his now practiced eye to the discovery of shadows, reflections, visitor interaction, and flora in those ponds, as well as in an urban pond in Newton. His pond images complement the trees, emphasize the subtle or saturated colors of water, and capture interactions between visitors and the scenes of rich pondlife.

    This...

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    Virtual Viewing: The Landscape Art of Nancy Sableski

    Location: 

    Online via Zoom

    Nancy Sableski, Arnold Arboretum Manager of Children’s Education, is also an artist who has been painting in the Arboretum since 1988, finding inspiration throughout the landscape. Join us for a virtual viewing of her work followed by a short discussion via the meeting app, Zoom.

    Learn more about and connect to a virtual session for Virtual Viewing: The Landscape Art of...

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    Virtual Viewing: The Landscape Art of Nancy Sableski

    Location: 

    Online via Zoom

    Nancy Sableski, Arnold Arboretum Manager of Children’s Education, is also an artist who has been painting in the Arboretum since 1988, finding inspiration throughout the landscape. Join us for a virtual viewing of her work followed by a short discussion via the meeting app, Zoom.

    Learn more about and connect to a virtual session for Virtual Viewing: The Landscape Art of Nancy...

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    Opening Reception for The Path Taken: Photography by Lawrence Mullings

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Join the Arnold Arboretum for an opening reception for their newest exhibition, The Path Taken: Photography by Lawrence Mullings.

    On any given day, Lawrence Mullings can be found exploring the paths and hidden corners of the Arboretum. While walking in the landscape to regain his health, his joy in photography was rekindled. He saw how the Arboretum was many different things to him, and to the many different people who come here from around the neighborhood and around the world. To Mullings, the Arboretum is its trees, as well as the myriad ways visitors enjoy them...

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    The Path Taken: Photography by Lawrence Mullings

    Location: 

    Online Exhibition

    On any given day, Lawrence Mullings can be found exploring the paths and hidden corners of the Arboretum. While walking in the landscape to regain his health, his joy in photography was rekindled. He saw how the Arboretum was many different things to him, and to the many different people who come here from around the neighborhood and around the world. To Mullings, the Arboretum is its trees, as well as the myriad ways visitors enjoy them and this landscape.

    Now revived in spirit and in creativity, Mullings brings to his exhibition the inspirational scenes he has captured along...

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