Tag: news-import
Children Need Nature: Joining State Standards with Natural Learning
November 23, 2017By Nicole Brin, Assistant Director of Early Childhood Education
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
The inaugural Kindergarten class here at Nature Preschool is deep into its third month of school. If you walk into the classroom you will notice the book corner, art studio, block area, science and math manipulatives, and many other learning centers typical to an Early Childhood classroom. More likely however, you will be drawn to the more homey aspects of the room--the number line made from acorns and sticks, the wall of photographed discoveries, or the shelf of beetles, millipedes,…
Elemental powers
November 2, 2017By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art and Liz Jelsomine, Exhibitions Coordinator
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.
“I imagine a line in space. I build it straight and true and offer it to the wind.
The wind plays with it like a cat with a length of yarn. The wind is the artist.”
Yellow Zinger, Tim Prentice
Tim Prentice’s Yellow Zinger was part of an…
Roxborough’s Kay Sykora is the 2017 Meigs Leadership Awardee
October 26, 2017By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
On Thursday, November 16 at 7 pm, the Schuylkill Center presents our highest honor, the Henry Meigs Award for Environmental Leadership, to an old friend and Roxborough neighbor, Kay Sykora.
Founder of the incredibly successful Manayunk Development Corporation in the early 1980s, Kay has over the last 30 years pioneered and tirelessly championed the Schuylkill River Trail through Manayunk and Roxborough, leading the effort to transform the canal towpath into the River Trail, now one of Manayunk’s most-loved amenities. She played a key role in the planning efforts that led to the Manayunk Bridge’s reinvention as a…
The Norristown Program: Mentoring the next generation of environmental leaders
October 17, 2017By Damien Ruffner, School Programs Manager
In February of 2017 the Schuylkill Center entered a partnership with ESCC, or the Extended School Day Center. A vital program in Norristown, Pennsylvania that provides before-care and after-care for the youth in eight elementary schools in Norristown. Our partnership allows education staff to work with two of these schools to enrich their education while providing mentorship to students.
This Norristown mentorship program is something that is very near and dear to my heart. Not only is it one of the largest and most ambitious outreaches we have done, but the program brings environmental…
At the Schuylkill Center, #NatureWelcomes everyone
October 16, 2017By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Across the country, debate is raging on a wide number of increasingly political issues: health care reform, immigration, foreign policy, nuclear deterrence, the role of social media in politics, energy policy, public lands, climate change, and endlessly on and on. The stakes in these arguments only rise by the minute and by the tweet.
While these issues heat up, California is on fire, Houston (remember Houston?) still recovering from a flood, Florida coming back online after its hurricane, and Puerto Rico, well, Puerto Rico is a hellish nightmare of too many people having too little…
LandLab: Introducing our artists in residence
October 12, 2017By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
Even though I haven’t myself had a first day of school for a few years, in the fall, I still get a back-to-school-esque twinge of anticipation. In this season, you can feel something new coming in the air - something to be learned, something to gear up for - and I find it to be the most exciting time of year. This year, one of the most exciting new things for the environmental art program is the beginning of the second offering of our LandLab residency at the Schuylkill Center.
LandLab is a…
A playground for artists, Part II
October 5, 2017By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
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.
The Schuylkill Center asked six artists from the former co-op Nexus to respond to the history and physical space of Brolo Hill Farm site at the Schuylkill Center for the show Ground Play from September 19th - November 28th, 2010. Read our August post for a profile on the other three artists from…
Playing with place: Looking back on Sau Pines
September 14, 2017
by Aaron Asis, Making in Place artist
Back in May, Sau Pines was created to celebrate the spirit of the Pine Grove — as part of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education’s Making in Place exhibition — which featured the work of 14 different Art in the Open artists.
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The installation itself consisted of a series of visual tree wraps to highlight some of the unique environmental characteristics of the Pine Grove. A series of matching colored timbers were also distributed throughout the Pine Grove to activate visitor interaction within the context of the broader…
Shadows in the Forest
September 7, 2017By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
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.
Marisha Simons attempted to catalog human impact upon the environment in her installation, Ghost Forest. Ghost Forest was part of the show Ghosts and Shadows from September 6th, 2008 - January 2nd, 2009 presented in partnership with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists and guest curated by Warren Angle.
Simons was one of the…
Plants and People Connect through Art
August 30, 2017[caption id="attachment_268857" align="alignleft" width="824"] Photo courtesy of Vaughn Bell[/caption]
By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
Most people know that we rely on plants for the food we eat and the air we breathe, but the interconnections between plants and people actually go much deeper and are more nuanced. Scientists continue to discover the complexities of how plants take in and respond to information, even communicating with each other through underground networks and chemical signals. Human systems powerfully influence plant communities, locations, and health - and they also exert a powerful influence over us.
Yet, despite the intricacies of…
