Events Calendar

Fee: $30/$25 members
Registration: This session is full. To be added to the waitlist, email emmanuel@lyndensculpturegarden.org

Begin your New Year with artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp and sound facilitator Sevan Arabajian-Ries as they continue their ongoing collaborative events indoors for the winter. This event will take place in the gallery, where participants will be surrounded by Asmaa Walton's Black Art Library.

Inspired by the cyclical nature of the labyrinth, Jenna will begin the evening with a short guided meditation to help us connect with our future selves before Sevan leads the sound bath. After the sound bath, guests are invited to write a letter to their future selves, envisioning what they want to create between January 2025 and January 2026. By collapsing time and inviting the future into the present moment, we can zoom out and witness our desires from a different angle.

Sound baths are an ancient form of healing and deep meditation; they include various ambient sounds and frequencies playing in a space where you can hear and experience their vibrations moving through you. Everyone’s experience will be different; unique as you are, and according to what is needed most at the time. Your sound facilitator for the evening will be Milwaukee’s own Sevan Arabajian-Ries, musician, ritualist, spiritual guide, and relational counselor.

The sound bath will last approximately 30 to 40 minutes. We recommend arriving 15 minutes early to give yourself time to set up and settle in. Please dress comfortably and bring something to lie on, as well as a cover for yourself if you think you might want one during the session. Instead of the labyrinth walk, we will think more metaphorically, going inward with the opportunity to write a letter to our future selves. You are welcome to arrive earlier if you would like to walk the labyrinth before the indoor sound bath begins.

Jenna will provide paper, pens, and envelopes as part of her "Dear Self With Love" project. If you prefer, you are welcome to bring your own materials as well. When you're finished sealing up your letter, you are invited to drop it into the mailbox with the promise that Jenna will mail it back to you in one year, in January 2026.

Fee: Free.
Registration: This discussion takes place via Zoom; advance registration required. Click here to register. Click here to see all individual dates.

The Lynden/HOME Refugee Steering Committee book discussion group, moderated by Lynden’s Kim Khaira, is for those interested in firsthand accounts of displacement. We consider works of non-fiction and fiction, including autobiographical and semi-autobiographical works, by writers who have faced or are facing forced displacement as refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants. Where stories of persecution, historical trauma, and loss of livelihood are effortlessly conveyed by storytellers, journalists, and humanitarians who search out or stumble upon the lives of refugees, we seek out the words of those to whom these stories belong: the narrators who are the closest to their own stories, and the stories of their people, friends, family and, of course, refugees. Newcomers always welcome!

October 2024-January 2025: My American Dream: A Journey from Fascism to Freedom by Barbara Sommer Feigin. Through the posthumous discovery of her father's secret journal, Feigin is able to begin her chronological story with her parents’ escape from Nazi Germany. Only a toddler at the time of their departure, Feigin pieces together her family’s early history. She then shifts to her own story, a tale of growing up in America and her subsequent struggles as she embarked on a corporate career in New York City in the 1960s, rising to become a top executive in the advertising field.

February 2025-April 2025: Aednan: An Epic, by Linnea Axelsson. This novel-in-verse by a Sámi-Swedish writer was originally published in Swedish and Northern Sámi in 2018, with the English translation following in 2024. Axelsson's “stories within stories” discuss the loss of land of Indigenous Sàmi people from northern Scandinavia and the cultural displacement that crosses generations and borders.

May 2025-August 2025: Solito, by Javier Zamora. This new memoir, Solito, narrates the immigration story of Zamora in 1999 when he was a nine-year-old child travelling from La Herradura, El Salvador, through Guatemala, Mexico, and the Sonoran Desert to be reunited with his parents in the US.

From January through March, we will be offering monthly drop-in workshops for families. Stop by for engaging, hands-on activities that bring art and nature to life. Whether you make a quick visit or stay the entire two hours, count on spending some quality creative time with family and friends.

Fee: $15/$10 members per session per family (all materials included). All ages are welcome; children younger than 12 should attend with an adult.
Registration: Click here to register online.

Sunday, January 19, 2025, 12:30-2:30 pm
Polymer Clay Creations: Craft Your Own Charms
Design and sculpt your own colorful charms using polymer clay. Learn simple techniques for shaping, texturing, and blending colors to craft unique pieces that can be used for jewelry, keychains and more.

Sunday, February 9, 2025, 12:30-2:30 pm
Upcycled Wind Chimes
Repurpose and assemble a variety of materials and found objects into a wind chime that will give your outdoor space its own voice. Consider bringing an object from home to add to your piece.

Sunday, March 9, 2025, 12:30-2:30 pm
Celebrate Spring: Seed Paper Workshop
In this eco-friendly workshop, participants will make seed paper using recycled materials and native flower seeds. Learn how to shape and press paper pulp into beautiful, plantable creations that will bloom when placed in soil.

Sunday, April 6, 2025, 12:30-2:30 pm
Stamp Carving
Turn your designs into functional stamps using carving tools and soft rubber blocks. During this session you will design your own stamp, learn stamp-carving and safety tips, carve and print with your stamp—and take your stamp home with you for future use. Younger children will be able to create stamps without using sharp tools.

Fee: Free.
Registration: Advance registration encouraged. Click here to register online. Work days are weather dependent. If you have registered in advance, we will contact you if we are cancelling due to inclement weather.

The Lynden land team is kicking off 2025 by launching a new series of Wednesday Work Days, a weekly volunteer opportunity on the grounds. Whether you are looking for a few hours of volunteer work or want a weekly activity that keeps you outside, you are welcome to join us on Wednesday mornings from 10 am to 12 noon. Projects vary from season to season; for the next few months, you will work alongside land staff to pull herbaceous invasive species in our natural areas, as well as help accomplish other projects around the grounds to enhance biodiversity and take care of the native flora and fauna. No experience is necessary, though you are encouraged to bring your favorite gardening gloves and digging tools if you have them. Water, snacks, and additional tools will be provided.

Land Stewardship at Lynden
The Lynden Sculpture Garden is transforming its natural habitats and formal landscapes into sustainable and diverse ecosystems that highlight their natural beauty. Our goal is to steward healthy habitats for an array of native plants and wildlife while adding a vibrant mosaic of color and texture to this sculptural landscape through every season. With over 40 acres and more than half a dozen specialized garden spaces, the Lynden provides many volunteer and learning opportunities, from removing invasive species to planting new trees and plugs, weeding, pruning, collecting, and spreading seeds. With a small land staff, volunteer help is essential to the evolution and restoration of the Lynden grounds.

You may also like:
The Ecology and Management of Invasive Species
Garden Work Days 2025

Lynden welcomes winter with a day of outdoor art-making, scavenger hunts, tree-walks, workshops, and whatever other winter activities–ice skating, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing–the weather permits. Orchestrated by our Teachers-in-Residence, Katie Hobday, Hattie Grimm, and Ali Berry— our highly participatory, artist-driven carnival offers something for everybody. Pedro's South American Food Truck will be onsite selling an array of Latin American snacks, lunch items, and hot drinks. The Winter Carnival is sponsored by Davey Tree Expert.

Pedro's South American Food Truck will be onsite selling an array of Latin American snacks, lunch items, and hot drinks.

Schedule

10 am – 4 pm: S’mores Stories with Milwaukee Kitchen
Milwaukee Kitchen will oversee interactive making of s’mores along with fireside storytelling. The day will include two friendly competitions for Traditional, Most Imaginative, and Best of Day S'mores. (Categories subject to change.) MK Team: Paul Druecke, Anika Wilson, Flora Coker, Malachi Baer, Kristaleen Hernandez, Ariana Vaeth

10 am – 4 pm: Grape Eater Journal by Brad Fiore
Grape Eater Journal is a literary journal that brings short stories into physical space to consider the material conditions of reading. This winter, it will be featuring stories by Brian Evenson, Jac Jemc, Sony Ton-Amie, and Marcus Spiegel. Explore the different sites for each short story around the Lynden grounds.

10 am – 4 pm: Tree Identification and Trivia Table with Davey Tree
Happy to be joining in the fun again this year, our friends from Davey Tree are offering some joy for your minds and your bellies. Swing by their table to enjoy a Tree ID activity with samples of different trees and examples of live vs dead twigs (can you guess which is which?); tree climbing gear, such as saddles, to learn what Davey teams use to climb your favorite trees; a chance to “Ask the Arborist” (a.k.a certified Tree Expert) your tree questions; and toasty cups of hot cider. The Davey Tree Expert Company is your local tree, shrub, and lawn care company. Their tree care experts, or arborists, are focused on providing reliable, quality services to improve our urban and residential landscapes.

10 am – 4 pm: Reindeer Scavenger Hunt with Claudia Orjuela
Claudia Orujela directs a scavenger hunt for wooden reindeer located across the grounds. Stop by the front desk for bells to hang around the reindeer and a clipboard to draw your discoveries.

10 am – 11:45 am: Snow People Paper Dolls with Kierston Ghaznavi
Work alongside artist Kierston Ghaznavi as she shares her unique paper doll-making techniques. You will make your own paper doll starting with a blank template and using markers, pens, colored paper, glitter, and a variety of other supplies – and your imagination. This activity is designed as a drop-in and is open to all ages (young children may need parental assistance).

10 am – 12:00 pm: Planting New Beginnings - Bird Puppet Parade with Hattie Grimm
Birds help create new life in the ecosystem. They disperse seeds and pollinate plants. What new beginnings do you want to create? Participants will write their intention on a fabric strip and attach it to a giant bird puppet’s back. Twice during the course of the day (12 pm and 3:30 pm), we will parade the giant bird around the Lynden grounds to send our wishes into the sky, playing drums, chimes, and shakers to celebrate. Things always become more clear from a bird’s eye view!

10 am – 1 pm: Mending What’s Broken Mobile Making with Emma Marie Mock
Things break. Fingernails, coffee makers, cars, bones, teacups, relationships. It’s impossible to go through life without experiencing some breakage. Mending What’s Broken uses sticks, twigs, and embroidery thread to create mobiles that represent healing for the small and large breakages of life – anything from mirrors to marriages. Participants can engage with their own narratives of loss and healing while they make and adorn a mobile to take home. Through workshops like this, Emma promotes the idea that creative and collective spaces are healing spaces.

11 am – 12 pm: Winter Tree Walk with Robert Kaleta
Robert Kaleta of Lynden’s land team will introduce you to Lynden’s trees in winter.

11 am – 1 pm: Fishing for Words with Kirsten Meier
Pull a string and fish out the words you are seeking to find. Kirsten Meier will craft an ice-cold poem on their winter-blue typewriter until their fingers freeze over. Release the fish back into the pond but take your freshly-chilled poem home with you.

11 am – 3 pm: Splash! In The Cold
Artist Mikal Floyd-Pruitt invites community members of all ages to participate in SPLASH!, the interactive, art-making gameshow. Line-up for a chance to answer some trivia… If you get it right you’ll be awarded a Super Soaker filled with paint to add a SPLASH! of color to an oversized abstract painting. Yay!

12 pm – 1:45 pm: Miniature Winter Tree Sculpture Workshop with Heather Eiden
Make a miniature winter tree with artist Heather Eiden by wrapping and braiding wires around a lake rock, then threading them with beads to create the effect of snow and ice. The tiny tree can be used as a paper weight.

12 pm – 2 pm: Inhabit Radiance (after Hilma af Klint) with The Everyday Feminist
“The more we discover the wonders of nature, the more we become aware of ourselves.”
– Hilma af Klint

The Everyday Feminist invites the community to help create a work of ephemeral art, a spiral abstraction in a variety of seeds. These seeds will feed the wildlife in the sculpture garden and highlight the connections between all things. Those who participate will receive a takeaway of a small bag of seeds to nourish wildlife in the spaces they inhabit.

12 pm – 2 pm: Bloom the Wishing Tree with Sindie Ho
Wish upon a star? Perhaps not that far - as the Lunar New Year is coming around the bend, send your wishes, hopes, dreams, or determinations up into the branches of the wishing tree. Together we will bloom a special member of our plant relatives who actually finds its fullest foliage in the winter time.

1 pm – 2:45 pm: Magick Wand Creation Workshop with Anika Kowalik
In this workshop, Kowalik invites you to a narrative-building exercise they use in their art practice. You will be participating in creating your own magick wand that is both unique and personal to you.

1 pm – 3 pm: Edible Bird Ornament Workshop with Claudia Orjuela
Show our feathered neighbors some love this season with the help of Claudia Orjuela, Lynden’s Bilingual Art and Nature Educator. Create your own unique edible (to birds) ornament using found objects, seeds, and other bird-friendly treats. This activity is designed as a drop-in and is open to all ages (young children may need parental assistance).

2 pm – 3:45 pm: Dip Candle Making with Jeremy Stepien
Make candles the old-fashioned way, by dipping a string in wax. This activity is designed as a drop-in and is open to all ages (young children may need parental assistance).

2 pm – 4 pm: Planting New Beginnings - Bird Puppet Parade with Hattie Grimm
Birds help create new life in the ecosystem. They disperse seeds and pollinate plants. What new beginnings do you want to create? Participants will write their intention on a fabric strip and attach it to a giant bird puppet’s back. Twice during the course of the day (12 pm and 3:30 pm), we will parade the giant bird around the Lynden grounds to send our wishes into the sky, playing drums, chimes, and shakers to celebrate. Things always become more clear from a bird’s eye view!

2 pm – 4 pm: Prairie Burn - Drawing the Landscape with Sarah Luther
Gather around the fire pit to make your own charcoal and use it to create large-scale landscape drawings.

About the Artists

Hattie Grimm is an artist and educator who likes to draw birds. She finds that drawing a bird often opens a portal to something more curious, more true, and more alive. She recommends anyone to try this.

Sindie Ho lives in Milwaukee, WI - making clay, friends, tasty food, and messes. He makes home in Riverwest and the Milwaukee Makerspace, and enjoys floating between clay, wood, word, textiles, and drawing. Sindie chases new shiny toys and the exhilaration of play.

Kirsten Meier is a multidisciplinary artist focusing in textiles, performance, and the exploration of material culture. They currently live and create in Milwaukee, WI.

The Everyday Feminist, a collaboration between Kate E. Schaffer and Melissa Dorn, grew out of studio conversations around their individual practices and a mutual frustration with marginalization expressed while enjoying a cold beer on a summer day. The Everyday Feminist labors to ensure the political, social, and economic equality of all genders by questioning the status quo, promoting generosity, and cultivating community.

Brad Fiore is a writer and artist who runs the weekly newsletter Grape Eater.

Milwaukee Kitchen Artists: Paul Druecke is an artist and writer. Flora Coker received Outstanding Artist Award from Renaissance Theater in 2022. Anika Wilson’s teaching and research interests include: rumor, gossip and urban legends; and vernacular health beliefs (Africa). Marcie Hoffman is an actor and former member of Theatre X. Ariana Vaeth is an autobiographical painter from Baltimore based in Milwaukee. Kristaleen Hernandez is a born and raised Milwaukeean who loves eatin' good, cookin' good, and feelin' goooood.

Heather Eiden is a mixed media artist who specializes in ceramics. Her greatest inspiration comes from traveling and forest bathing with trees. Currently, she is working on a series of House Tiles called Trees and their Houses.

Multimedia artist and digital illustrator Kierston Ghaznavi’s vibrantly colored articulated paper and large-scale wooden dolls depict the beauty and unique personalities of Black women today as well as Black pop culture, Afro-centric themes, natural hair, affirmations of self-love, and plus size body appreciation.

Anika Kowalik is a multidisciplinary artist based in Milwaukee, WI. Their work touches on the themes of ancestry, mysticism, and healing through drawing, fibers, sculpture, and writing.

Emma Marie Mock (she/her) is a Sheboygan-based artist who employs textiles and found objects to delve into themes of living, dying, and grieving. With a master’s degree in Thanatology—the study of death, dying, and grief—Emma draws on her expertise to explore the healing process, the magic of being alive and what we can do to "mend" our souls. Her artistic practice is rooted in the belief that creative and collective spaces are healing and that they celebrate our shared human experience. Emma's fascination with the interplay of objects, sentimentality, and memory informs the design of her artwork and workshops. Through her creations, she invites viewers to engage with their own narratives of loss and healing, fostering a sense of connection and transformation.

Mikal Floyd-Pruitt is a multi-disciplinary artist and cultural producer whose work includes visual art, music, performance and community engagement. After receiving a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University, he returned to Milwaukee, to produce artwork and experiences calibrated for significant cultural impact. Circumventing strata, Mikal creates throughout the entire city, while also exhibiting/performing nationally. In 2023, he won the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship, exhibited and spoke at Charlotte Street Gallery, attended The Last Resort Artist Retreat - an invitation only residency founded by artist Derrick Adams, was selected for the Mitchell Street Arts artist residency, as well as the gener8tor x Sherman Phoenix Artist Accelerator.

Fee: Free.
Registration: Advance registration encouraged. Click here to register online. Work days are weather dependent. If you have registered in advance, we will contact you if we are cancelling due to inclement weather.

The Lynden land team is kicking off 2025 by launching a new series of Wednesday Work Days, a weekly volunteer opportunity on the grounds. Whether you are looking for a few hours of volunteer work or want a weekly activity that keeps you outside, you are welcome to join us on Wednesday mornings from 10 am to 12 noon. Projects vary from season to season; for the next few months, you will work alongside land staff to pull herbaceous invasive species in our natural areas, as well as help accomplish other projects around the grounds to enhance biodiversity and take care of the native flora and fauna. No experience is necessary, though you are encouraged to bring your favorite gardening gloves and digging tools if you have them. Water, snacks, and additional tools will be provided.

Land Stewardship at Lynden
The Lynden Sculpture Garden is transforming its natural habitats and formal landscapes into sustainable and diverse ecosystems that highlight their natural beauty. Our goal is to steward healthy habitats for an array of native plants and wildlife while adding a vibrant mosaic of color and texture to this sculptural landscape through every season. With over 40 acres and more than half a dozen specialized garden spaces, the Lynden provides many volunteer and learning opportunities, from removing invasive species to planting new trees and plugs, weeding, pruning, collecting, and spreading seeds. With a small land staff, volunteer help is essential to the evolution and restoration of the Lynden grounds.

You may also like:
The Ecology and Management of Invasive Species
Garden Work Days 2025