Category: Uncategorized
Dear Mayor: Schuylkill Center Members Write to Jim Kenney
January 19, 2016By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Dear Mayor Kenney,
Congratulations on being sworn in as the 99th mayor of Philadelphia. While you’ve got your hands full with a number of things—schools, public safety, jobs—your environmental agenda is crucial. Your predecessor, Michael Nutter, smartly advanced a strong environmental agenda, famously declaring that Philadelphia would emerge as the greenest city in the country—and took us a long way there. Last year, City Council happily decided to permanently retain the Office of Sustainability, and your choice of Christine Knapp to run the office signals that this momentum will continue.
And your promotion of Michael…
Dear 2040: Riverbend Environmental Education Center Imagines the future
December 10, 2015By the staff of the Riverbend Environmental Education Center
Dear Friends of 2040,
We at Riverbend Environmental Education Center in Gladwyne, PA, hope the future finds you well. Living in 2015, we hear reports of melting polar ice caps and experience an increasing number of violent storms. Perspiration trickles down our necks as we work through higher summer temperatures. Climate scientists tells us that global climate change will have accelerated over 25 years. While the Western United States and many parts of the world are projected to be drier and hotter, we imagine our already very-green corner of Southeastern Pennsylvania will…
Interview with Deenah Loeb: Art in the Open
June 8, 2015By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
Editor’s note: Deenah Loeb is a Schuylkill Center trustee who also serves as the Executive Director of the City Parks Association and was on the founding creative team for Art in the Open, a citywide event in which artists create their work outdoors on the Schuylkill Banks for three days in May. This summer, nine artists from Art in the Open 2014 will present their work in the Schuylkill Center gallery and on the trails this summer in the show Open Spaces. Director of Environmental Art Christina Catanese recently sat down with Loeb…
Wildlife Clinic Rescues Owl Tangled in Net
March 19, 2015By Ezra Tischler, Public Relations and Environmental Art Intern
As the seasons transition from winter to spring we are fortunate enough to witness the flora and fauna of our region busily prepare for warmer weather and new beginnings. This time of year also brings many patients to the Schuylkill Center’s Wildlife Clinic, sometimes harshly illuminating the clash between our own activities and those of the natural world. Over the weekend the Wildlife Clinic dealt with one of those clashes when a great horned owl was brought in after being tangled in a soccer net.
[caption id="attachment_266156" align="aligncenter" width="377"] Michele with…
Weaving Art into Nature
November 21, 2014By Ezra Tischler, Public Relations and Environmental Art Intern
LandLab resident artists Kaitlin Pomerantz and Zya Levy, of WE THE WEEDS, have been busy collecting invasive plants like oriental bittersweet, mile-a-minute, wisteria, Japanese stiltgrass, and bush honeysuckle at the Schuylkill Center. These gathered vines are then woven together using hand-built looms, creating beautiful tapestries of varying color and texture. Be sure to check out their guest blog post detailing the process and progress of their botanical weaving project.
Zya, taking full advantage of her resident artist title, recently spent some time exploring the Schuylkill Center's property. Her exploration resulted in some impromptu land art capturing…
Fall Festival at Nature Preschool
November 10, 2014By Shannon Dryden, Nature Preschool Manager and Lead Teacher
October and November are a time of transition and growth here at Nature Preschool. The leaves are changing, the children are growing and bonding, and the environment is preparing for the colder temperatures to come. This is the time when I hear, “Does my friend John come today?” or “Miss Shannon, look what I found, it’s the fur from a milkweed plant!” The children are becoming more aware of each other and even better observers when it comes to the outdoor world.
Perhaps one of the times when this is most…
Follow us on the main SCEE blog!
April 17, 2014We are posting new blog content to the main Schuylkill Center blog: http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/blog/
Please continue to follow our program's happenings by viewing environmental art posts here: http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/blog/category/environmental-art/
Beyond the Surface
August 13, 2013On May 31, 2013 The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education presented Beyond the Surface: Environmental Art in Action - A conference of ideas and innovative thinking about the relationships between art and nature.
This unique, first time conference brought over 100 professionals from the region and beyond (as far as Maine and North Carolina) to hear from the Advisory Team about their own individual practices, and then to join them in conversations. Below are each team members’ presentations, for those of you who wish to hear from them directly.
The afternoon sessions were titled “Activate,” Integrate” and “Engage.” Undoubtedly, this one-day conference has…
Land Lab Program
August 2, 2013[caption id="attachment_913" align="alignleft" width="617"] Stacy Levy, Kept Out, 2009[/caption]
We are very excited to announce our new residency program, The LandLab Program.
As a collaboration between The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education (SCEE) and The Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), The Landlab program invites professional artists to create projects which operate on the multiple platforms of artistic creation, ecological restoration and education. Specifically, four paid residencies of $3,000 each, taking place from April – October 2014, will grant selected artists resources and space on SCEE’s 340-acre property to engage audiences in the processes of ecological stewardship through scientific investigation…
Collaboration As a Means, Not an End
June 13, 2013By Amy Lipton, Curator and SCEE advisory panel member, 2012-2013
In my work with ecoartspace over the past 12 years focusing on ecological artists and their projects, the term collaboration has been frequently evoked. The intention behind much of this work is to restore, remediate or transform damaged landscapes and also to educate the public about specific environmental problems or challenges. Artists taking on this imperative seek to inspire modification of human behaviors that have negatively impacted the earth’s ecological systems. Their work embodies what German artist Joseph Beuys coined as “social sculpture” over 50 years ago to illustrate art's potential…
