Author: news
How to Be Like the Glaciers Melting
January 12, 2017Guest contributor Leslie Birch, 2014-2015 LandLab Resident Artist
A few years ago I sat at my computer reading the latest on the demise of the glaciers in the Arctic. I was angry with the polluting corporations, fed up with the greed of the oil industry, disgusted by people’s consumption, and alienated by a government ruled by lobbyists. I felt frozen, as if calamity had already happened; some days I was even bleak about the future. My home thermostat was set to 69, two of my computers were on, I was surrounded by electronic parts for a project and I was…
Reflection of Environmental Art and Time: January
January 3, 2017By Liz Jelsomine, Environmental Art & Public Relations Intern
Editor’s note: The Schuylkill Center produced a wall calendar for 2017 in celebration of the environmental art program. Throughout the year, we’ll run a monthly post on our blog highlighting the art works featured in that month of the calendar.
Artist Jake Beckman, LandLab Resident Artist from 2014-2015, sheds light to the often over looked world of forest decomposition in his ongoing installation at the Schuylkill Center, Future Non-Object #1: Sol’s Reprise.
Beckman explored the detritus cycle of a forest and its disruption by invasive earthworms by creating sculptural installations that…
Children Need Nature: Teaching Peace
December 21, 2016By Rebecca Dhondt, Sassafras Classroom Lead Teacher
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
This time of year tends to be full of excitement and energy. With so much baking, decorating, and visiting going on there are many stories that Nature Preschoolers are eager to share. Children naturally begin to compare notes, trying to understand what is happening in their own homes and wondering about the ways others might celebrate teachers in the Sassafras room heard exclamations such as: “I have a Christmas tree too!”, “What is an Elf on the Shelf?”…
Climate Change Art Spotlight: Jill Pelto
December 15, 2016By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
Looking back over the year of environmental art at the Schuylkill Center, one of the highlights of 2016 was our gallery show, Going Up: Climate Change + Philadelphia. Along with the work of seven other artists exploring the various facets of climate change, this show included a new work by Maine artist Jill Pelto which was created specially for this exhibition, called Philadelphia Sea Level Rise Scenarios.
Pelto herself is both an artist and a scientist, and uses her watercolor paintings to communicate scientific data in a more visually compelling way. Starting with…
Call for Art: Community
December 8, 2016Jenny Ryder, Environmental Art & PR Intern
With the dawn of a new year approaching, it’s as good a time as ever to commit or re-commit yourself to new year resolutions and opportunities for the future.
At the Schuylkill Center, we are committed to using our various platforms and resources to help inspire meaningful connections between people and nature—whether that be through our Nature Preschool, here on the blog, in our gallery, or just a simple retweet. As we renew our commitment to the planet and our ecosystem this year, we must necessarily renew our commitment to all of those…
Field Guide: Fallen Leaves
November 23, 2016By Jenny Ryder, Environmental Art and PR Intern
Enjoy our mobile field guide as you walk, hike and play in the fall forests. Take in the beauty of crunchy fallen leaves in the city and the forest and easily identify the trees from whence they came.
See other Field Guide posts here.
Tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera), commonly referred to as Tulip Poplar, are abundant in the forest at the Schuylkill Center, and their mostly-yellow turning leaves roughly resemble the shape of a cat’s head or—as you might have noticed—a tulip! Another mark of a Tulip tree leaf…
Climate Change: Making the Global Personal Through Art
November 3, 2016 By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
What does climate change mean for Philadelphia? As a large, complex, global process, it’s not an easy concept to wrap our minds around.
As you might expect, climate models project pretty clearly that Philly will face a future that is hotter and wetter.
According to CUSP – the Climate & Urban Systems Partnership , scientists predict that in our region we could experience as many as three additional weeks of days over 90° by the 2020s. All that heat not only is unpleasant, but can also lead to serious health risks. CUSP also…
All about our staff vegan challenge
November 3, 2016By Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager
Michelle Wilson’s Carbon Corpus, in our fall gallery show Going Up, explores food and carbon – for this conceptual art piece Wilson ate vegan for each week that participants sponsored, essentially selling credits for the carbon saved by eating vegan (estimate at 35 kg of carbon per week of veganism).
Inspired by this, eight of our staff gave veganism a try. Here, they reflect on learning to eat without animal products for a week.
Emily, Public Programs Coordinator
Having been vegetarian in the past, I was not at all worried about missing meat. …
Children Need Nature: Getting Ready for Kindergarten
October 28, 2016By Shannon Wise, Nature Preschool Manager
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
If you walk along the trails with a Nature Preschool class, you might think you are just out for a breath of fresh air, to run and let go of some extra energy. Yes – it is that and so much more. You might notice children gathering leaves, counting as they go. Their teacher furthers the experience as she takes out four-colored pieces of construction paper to allow the children to sort by shades of fall. Soon, the children…
Field Guide: Fall in Bloom
October 20, 2016By Jenny Ryder, Environmental Art and Public Relations Intern
Enjoy our mobile field guide as you walk, hike, and play in the fall meadows. See other Field Guide posts here.
Flat-top goldenrod (Solidage graminifolia)
Flat-top goldenrod provides nectar for many types of pollinators such as butterflies, wasps, both long- and short-tongue bees, flies, moths and beetles. One particularly interested beetle is named after the plant itself—the Goldenrod Soldier Beetle! Many people mistakenly believe they’re allergic to goldenrod , but in fact, what little pollen it has is too sticky to be blown around by the wind! Wherever you are, it…
