Greener Pastures

The MFA Garden Club project was officially completed upon my graduation from UC Santa Barbara in 2009. There are still a few tales to tell of those days, and I will continue to update this blog with news of the Community Garden, the participants in the MFA Garden Club activities, and art around the world which explores ecological themes. I will be changing the name of the blog shortly, and some other aspects of its configuration, and I look forward to sharing my ongoing research with you.
-Calico Brown

Stills from documentation video shot by Masha at the Fritz Haeg reception/performance of James Orsher's Solo for Harmonica.
Here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mfagardenclub/

Fritz Haeg coming to UCSB

ARTIST TALK: Fritz Haeg: Welcoming the Wild
Tuesday April 14 / 5:00 PM
UCSB Broida Hall 1610

Architect, designer and artist Fritz Haeg will discuss his Edible Estates and Animal Estates projects. Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, a book chronicling Haeg's commissioned conversions of standard sod lawns into productive gardens, was published by Metropolis Books and distributed by D.A.P. in spring 2008. Animal Estates, featured in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, includes sculptural installations and performances which engage and temporarily restore the current and historical habitats of wild creatures. In addition to these projects, Fritz Haeg has since 2001 hosted the Sundown Salon, a forum for “events, happenings, gatherings, meetings, pageantry, performances, shows, stunts & spectacles”; and since 2006, the Sundown Schoolhouse, a “self-organized educational environment.”
Presented by the Department of Art and a part of the Interdisciplinary Humanity Center's Food Matters series.


RECEPTION: Fritz Haeg
Tuesday April 14 / 6:30 PM
UCSB Community Garden Greenhouse

Directly following his lecture Welcoming the Wild, please join Fritz Haeg for informal conversation in a nearby community garden outdoor classroom. The event will also feature a performance of experimental composer James Orsher's “Solo for Harmonica.” The reception will take place at the UCSB Community Garden Greenhouse, located in between Stadium Road and Los Carneros behind the new graduate housing.
Sponsored by the MFA Garden Club.

For more information about the IHC Food Matters series & Fritz Haeg, see:

http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/foodmatters.html
http://www.fritzhaeg.com

Fritz Haeg flyer

click to make it bigger :)

In your immediate future:

ARTIST TALK: Amy Franceschini: Futurefarmers
Wednesday, April 8 / 4:00 PM
UCSB McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

Amy Franceschini is an artist working with notions of community, sustainable environments and a perceived conflict between humans and nature. In 1995, she founded Futurefarmers, a design studio that works across traditional and new media, and that supports art and research projects. One of Futurefarmers' recent public art projects is Victory Gardens 2009+ (VG2009+), which is being developed with the City of San Francisco. The program began as a utopian proposal and has now become a pilot project that supports the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into food production areas. VG2009+ has the mission to create and support a citywide network of urban farmers by (1) growing, distributing and supporting home gardens, (2) educating through lessons, exhibitions and web sites and (3) planting demonstration gardens in highly visible public lands, such as City Hall, schools and Golden Gate Park. Franceschini teaches new media classes at Stanford University and the San Francisco Art Institute. Her art practice questions and challenges social, cultural and environmental systems through interdisciplinary and collaborative practices manifested "on" and "offline" in the form of dynamic websites, installations, open-access laboratories, and educational platforms that encourage new formats for engagement and production. The talk will be followed by a reception.

For more information about Amy Franceschini:
http://www.futurefarmers.com

Spring Sprang Sprung

Today at the garden...I saw two golden eagles mating...awesome! There's a lot of weeding to be done and other soil prep but I'm very much looking forward to the next round of garden goodies. Found a few volunteer daikon too and more random chard, it's everywhere!

Thursday I'm planting a few leafy things. The moon is waning, but biodynamics says this is an excellent time for leaf plantings, so, we shall see how the experiment grows...

AVANT-GARDEN Interview

Matt from KCSB stopped by and asked some questions in the midst of the Avant-Garden reception. Press play below & check it out!

Avant-Garden Pix

...up on Flickr now: http://www.flickr.com/groups/905518@N25/pool/

finally...

click to make the flyer bigger :)

Participating artists (In alphabetic order):
Calico Brown
Anna Burke
Julie Ericksen
Elizabeth Folk
Joey Gaines
Nathan Hayden
Amy Katz & Lauren Nagel
Rachel Lindt

directions to the garden

Driving from Santa Barbara: take Hwy 101 to Hwy 217 which leads to UCSB. After entering the campus (through the new 5million dollar gateway), turn right onto Mesa Road and continue straight through three lights. Turn left onto Stadium Road (at the police/fire station). Turn right just past the stadium (before reaching El Colegio Road). Drive past the rugby field (on left) and stadium (on right) until you see a dirt road with sign that says "service personel only". Park in Lot 38 here and walk down the dirt road about 1/4 mile to the greenhouse which is on the right just past the trashpile/woodchip mountain.