Events Calendar

FREE. Registration is closed. To be added to the waitlist, please email staff@lyndensculpturegarden.org

Available sessions:

Thursday, July 17, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm
Thursday, July 17, 2025, 1:30-3:30 pm
Thursday, July 24, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm
Thursday, July 24, 2025, 1:30-3:30 pm
Saturday, August 2, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm
Saturday, August 2, 2025, 1:30-3:30 pm

You are not required to attend the entire session.

Join Arianne King Comer at the dyeing vat as she relates the history of indigo and teaches different resist-dyeing methods, particularly traditional batik, adire (Yoruba), and shibori (Japanese) techniques of designing on cloth.

We began working with artist and indigo advocate King Comer in 2017. Her annual residency, IBILE! Ancestral Call in Cloth, went virtual during the pandemic, but in 2022 she returned and her outdoor, all-ages studio is, once again, under the big tent.

Participants are welcome to use our muslin yardage or to bring garments from home to dye, with a limit of two items (pieces of yardage or garments) per person. T-shirts and other items will be available for purchase if you want to undertake a more advanced project.

Pre-registration is required. Dress for dyeing and consider bringing your own rubber gloves (dishwashing variety).

2025 Winter/Spring Session (January 28-May 27) No class February 4th & 11th: Tuesdays, 10:30 am-11:30 am

Tuesdays in the Garden, designed for children aged 1-3, provides a nurturing environment where children’s curiosity and wonder are extended through play and exploration, and children and their caregivers learn and discover side-by-side. Join art educators Claudia Orjuela and Denice Niebuhr for hands-on art making and all-senses-engaged exploration of the outdoor world at Lynden. We’ll consider different themes, each designed to connect Lynden’s environment with children’s interests. We will encourage experimentation and the manipulation of art and natural materials to tell stories, solve problems, and develop relationships.

Fee: $16/$12 members for one adult and one child.
Registration: Group size is limited; advance registration is required. Register online now. In the event of inclement weather, sessions move indoors.

To view a list of the session themes, click here.

FREE
We will be running a free shuttle bus between the Park & Ride lot to the west of the I-43 Brown Deer Road exit and the sculpture garden beginning at 10 am. Feel free to drop your party off at Lynden before parking at the Park & Ride. The final shuttle of the day will depart Lynden at 4 pm.

The HOME Refugee Steering Committee at the Lynden Sculpture Garden invites you to observe World Refugee Day in a series of outdoor events and programs that celebrate Milwaukee’s refugee communities through art, food, fashion, and performance. Our theme for 2025 is Walking Together, Weaving the World.

We join with the Community Center for Immigrants for a day of celebrating the citizenship and naturalization of new Americans from Milwaukee’s refugee and immigrant communities. The centerpiece of the event is a naturalization ceremony for new Americans. The ceremony will begin at 11:30 am.

Paul Vang of the Hmong community presides over a day that also includes music performances by Wade Fernandez (Menominee), Congo Gospel Music Band (Congolese), and Golden Melody Band U.S.A (Burmese).

A free lunch, prepared by refugee chefs from the Afghan, Karen, and Indonesian communities, will be served at 12:30pm.

Asher Imtiaz/Indus Images will provide individual or family photo portraits to each of the new citizens. Imtiaz’s exhibition, Thank God for Immigrants, is on view in the gallery.

Community Center for Immigrants will host a special community memorial session for their executive director’s late father and CCI Board Member, Mitch Scott Lewis. He was a cherished member of the community that supports refugees in Milwaukee; a dedicated husband, parent, relative, and friend; and was active, and beloved, in various local sports communities. Please join CCI, the Lewis family, and friends from the community as they remember Mitch.

The following refugee-serving organizations and supporters will be onsite, offering information and hands-on services: International Institute of Wisconsin, Hanan Relief Group, Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, Prime Financial Credit Union, League of Women Voters, United Nations Association of Greater Milwaukee, among others.

Program

Program and timing are subject to change.

About the Artists

Wade Fernandez / Wicīwen Apīs-Mahwaew (Walks With The Black Wolf) is a “deeply authentic” multi-award-winning international touring artist and educator from the Menominee Nation. Soaring around the world with Menominee Indian Reservation roots, and winning numerous awards in multiple musical genres, Fernandez's musical and educational style know no bounds. Beginning his solo music career joining Jackson Browne & the Indigo Girls onstage has led to a long career with over 70 international tours rocking and soothing stages from Woodstock 94 to the Kennedy Center. His music and his message are firmly grounded in his Menominee Reservation roots and love for the land, animals, and people. A passion to educate, share music, serve community, share culture and honor Grandmother Earth is reflected in Wade's global presentations, speaking events, work with schools (K-college), and workshops, serving the elderly, the mentally disabled, the incarcerated, and the youth.

Congo Gospel Music Band is led and organized by drummer and frontliner Bodack Mondembe. Based at their local church in Milwaukee, Congo Gospel Music Band also performs at street and neighborhood events, churches and weddings, and community-led events. They have performed at Beet Street, the annual Fall Harvest Festival at Cactus Club, Friends of Zion worship concert at Benediction Lutheran Church, as well as at HOME World Refugee Day celebrations at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. Their sound, described as rhythmical, upbeat, and infectious, is in high demand.

Golden Melody Music Band U.S.A. is led by Burmese Muslim Mohammad Hasan, alongside volunteer singers, and is managed by Burmese grassroots community worker Moe Aung. Hasan captures his audience with a nostalgic style and persona, both poised and enigmatic, and with sounds of yesteryear. He plays international music, oldies, and classic rock songs from Myanmar, Bollywood, and the English-speaking world. Hasan and his rotating band members perform at farmers’ markets, community fundraisers, and practically anywhere that they are called for. At the Lynden Sculpture Garden, Golden Melody has performed at HOME celebrations since 2019. In 2021, inspired by the Spring Revolution in Myanmar, and community activism here and in his homeland, Hasan advised and arranged music for the Spring Star Music Band consisting of musicians from the Karen, Kachin, Chin, and Burmese communities.

Saung Hnin (singer) was born in Burma. At the age of eleven, she came to the United States for her education--a country which has given Saung the opportunity to keep pursuing her dreams. Saung is pursuing her ambition to become a nurse while working as a medical assistant. Saung is a member of C&K Band and she enjoys volunteering at fundraising events. She utilizes music as a means of raising awareness and inspiring people, to bring awareness to the struggles of her people, and as a personal release when things get tough. In 2023, she became an American citizen, which she considers one of the best moments in her life.

Asher Imtiaz (Pakistan) of Indus Images (photo portraits of new citizens) believes that everyone deserves to have their story told and their dignity honored through the power of photography. Indus Images partners with others to tell these stories. They also provide professional portrait services to individuals and families who cannot afford them, ensuring that cherished memories are captured and celebrated.

Paul Vang (emcee) has spent the better part of a decade working to empower immigrant, refugee and BIPOC communities in Milwaukee. He taught high school chemistry in the Milwaukee Public Schools, where he focused on issues of educational equity among marginalized students within STEM. Afterwards, he served as a Democracy Organizer for the Hmong American Women’s Association, where he and his team worked to address the barriers that Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees face when in the process of naturalizing and securing their right to vote. He is currently pursuing an MBA in Supply Chain Management with a certificate in Energy Analysis and Sustainability at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

About HOME
HOME is the theme of our work with refugee community leaders, community members, Call & Response artists, and allies. The HOME Refugee Steering Committee is building a space of leading, coming together, and celebrating refugees. For all HOME 2025 programming, click here.

About Community Center for Immigrants
CCI’s mission is to facilitate integration and foster self-sufficiency in the immigrant community by providing English and Citizenship education programs and immigration legal services. Our goal is to develop the literacy and civic knowledge required to obtain U.S. citizenship and actively participate in American society.

Additional support for this program is provided by Bader Philanthropies and the Brico Fund. For a full list of Lynden’s 2025 HOME World Refugee Day sponsors and partners, visit: www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/home-2025

Fee: $10/$5 members. Advance registration available but not required. Click here to register.

Join poet and Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteer Chuck Stebelton on the second Sunday of each month to bird by eye and ear with a focus on the life histories of wild birds. We’ll watch for seasonal migrants and resident bird species and seek out the best bird habitats to identify as many species as we can. Please dress for the weather and plan to walk in varied terrain. Bring your binoculars and field guides if you have them; no previous birding experience required.

Click here to listen to Chuck Stebelton discuss his 'spark bird,' the Northern Flicker, on WUWM.

About Chuck Stebelton

Chuck Stebelton is author most recently of One Hundred Patterns & Three Heuristics (Green Gallery Press, 2023). His previous poetry collections include An Apostle Island (Oxeye Press, 2021), The Platformist (Cultural Society, 2012), and Circulation Flowers (Tougher Disguises, 2005). He currently serves as Project Manager at Woodland Pattern Book Center, a nonprofit literary arts organization in Milwaukee. As a Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteer, he has led workshops and field trips for nonprofit organizations and conservancy groups including Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters; Milwaukee Public Library; Woodland Pattern Book Center; Friends of Lorine Niedecker; and Lynden Sculpture Garden. He recently completed an ARTservancy artist residency with River Revitalization Foundation and has held residencies at Lynden Sculpture Garden in 2011, 2014, and from 2018 to 2024.

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

2025 Winter/Spring Session (January 28-May 27) No class February 4th & 11th: Tuesdays, 10:30 am-11:30 am

Tuesdays in the Garden, designed for children aged 1-3, provides a nurturing environment where children’s curiosity and wonder are extended through play and exploration, and children and their caregivers learn and discover side-by-side. Join art educators Claudia Orjuela and Denice Niebuhr for hands-on art making and all-senses-engaged exploration of the outdoor world at Lynden. We’ll consider different themes, each designed to connect Lynden’s environment with children’s interests. We will encourage experimentation and the manipulation of art and natural materials to tell stories, solve problems, and develop relationships.

Fee: $16/$12 members for one adult and one child.
Registration: Group size is limited; advance registration is required. Register online now. In the event of inclement weather, sessions move indoors.

To view a list of the session themes, click here.

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.

Lynden’s monthly Garden Work Days resume in April with the annual spring cleaning of the formal garden. Whether you are looking for a few hours of volunteer work or want a regular activity that keeps your hands in the soil, you are welcome to join us once a month on Thursday mornings from 10 am to 12 noon. Projects vary from month to month as you get to know Lynden’s specialized garden spaces: see the full list below. No experience necessary. Volunteers are encouraged to bring their favorite gardening gloves and digging tools (if you have them)! Water, snacks, and additional tools will be provided.

Looking for more outdoor volunteer opportunities at Lynden? Join us for our weekly Wednesday Work Days

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 [link to volunteer page] and learning [link to workshops page] 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.

Schedule

April 24
Join us for the first formal gardens work day of 2025. Aside from the cheerfully blooming bulbs and budding trees, there is not yet much color in the gardens. However, this is a critical time of year for gardening. On this work day, we will enjoy some fresh spring air while clearing away last year's stems and fallen leaves that served as shelter and protection for sleeping insects, critters, and soil microorganisms over the winter. We will prep the gardens for fresh plantings and give re-emerging plants the sunlight and space they need to grow.

May 22
In May, we will assist artist-in-residence Kim Khaira with seeding and spring cleanup in her tinctorial garden (a garden of plants that can be used in natural dyeing). Work alongside Khaira and the land team to continue with the removal of any remaining invasive species, as well as spreading seed for new dye plants to grow. Khaira will introduce the native plants she has chosen for the garden, including the significance of the seeds chosen, and talk about their many uses beyond their role in natural dyes.

June 26, 10 am-12 pm
Now that the fragrant lilac bloom has ended, it's time to prune all the dried-up buds. Pruning spent lilac buds helps promote the growth of more flowers next year. Spend a couple of hours in the formal gardens with us sprucing up the lilacs and learning about blending native and non-native plants to enhance the beauty and pollinator value of the aesthetic gardens here at the Lynden.

July 24, 10 am-12 pm
Upon your arrival at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, you are greeted by a picturesque waterfall and formally landscaped hill, home to an array of unique shade-loving perennial species, evergreens, and shrubs. Waterfall Hill has undergone many changes as we work to incorporate this small ecology into the larger Lynden landscape and to create a design that serves as an introduction to the tranquillity and the excitement that unfolds across the grounds. One month into summer, we are knee-deep in peak growing season and could use your help keeping Waterfall Hill tidy.

August 21, 10 am-12 pm
On the western edge of Lynden’s formal gardens, leading up to and embracing The Bremen Town Musicians, is our annual display garden. This traditionally styled garden plays with symmetry, structure, and color using annually grown plant species—species that don’t survive the Wisconsin winter--and it changes each year. Annuals play an important role in feeding pollinating insects because they bloom throughout the growing season. This is also a garden that accentuates a sculptural focal point, making an impact on visitors. In addition to acknowledging that flowers play an important role in pollination and visual engagement, we also like to understand and encourage the many functional uses of the plant communities we engage with. As we weed, prune, and deadhead the annual garden, we will be collecting the plant detritus to create floral teas or bath soaks to take home.

September 25
The stone path leading up to the patio is nestled between an evolving native shade garden and a sprawling beech tree that is more than 100 years old. In the spring we introduced 10 new species to this garden to expand plant diversity for the other living species we host at the Lynden and multi season visual appeal for a healthier and more beautiful environment for all. Now in September, we will be removing thistles and dandelions and sprucing up this welcoming walkway. We will also let you in on our continued plans for this area.

October 23, 10 am-12 pm
In October, we prepare the formal gardens for winter: a final round of pulling thistles and dandelions, pruning trees and shrubs, and responding to the ways plants have evolved, spread, or struggled in their current locations. The majority of the dormant plants will stay in place throughout the season, or as long as possible. The hollow stems benefit overwintering insects, seed heads provide food for birds, the plant skeletons house garden critters, and we are able to enjoy some extra color in winter’s palette. We will also sow the annual bed with a cover crop of rye, oats, peas, and radish to reintroduce nutrients, protect the soil from harsh winter winds, and avoid compaction by encouraging root growth. Join us on what is sure to be a beautiful day in the gardens.

November 13, 10 am-12 pm
In November, we shield the soil from the harsh winter conditions by spreading fallen leaves and tucking in all the bare spots within the gardens. This leaf mulch—which we will till into the ground next spring before planting--will protect the top layers of soil, reintroduce nutrients, and boost fertility for next season’s barrage of flowers. Join us for one last garden work day as we say goodnight to the gardens until spring, jump in crisp piles of leaves, and enjoy the musty scents of autumn.

We celebrate Chris Salas’s exhibition, Forms of Remembrance, with an afternoon of conversations. Arrive at 1 pm for a tasting featuring OK, Mmmm! (Open Kitchen, Milwaukee masa mole mill!). Using ingredients harvested from Lynden Cultural Garden, which they steward, and their urban garden in Riverwest, Rudy Medina and Alyx Christensen produce a “Midsummer Mole.” The mole will be accompanied by fresh masa tortillas milled from a Meadowlark Wisconsin Red Corn.

Open Kitchen will be joined by the artist at 2 pm to inaugurate a cross draft earth kiln + cooking station, and to discuss adobe brick-making and the science behind firing rudimentary earth kilns.

At 3 pm, we return to the gallery where Salas will be joined by Korina Victoria Hernandez, a curatorial assistant at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, for a conversation about the exhibition.

About Open Kitchen, Milwaukee masa mole mill!

OK, Mmmm! Is a project that uses hyperlocal, seasonal ingredients and aims to challenge homogenous food norms. The program features a traveling corn mill that processes culturally significant ingredients, recipes, and narratives to produce varieties of masa formations (tortillas, atole, tlacoyos, tamales, etc.) alongside mole sauces –resulting in a conversation on environmental diversification by the expansion of the public palate.

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