A Workshop with the Milwaukee Bonsai Society

Ficus

Ages: Entering grades 4-9 in fall 2017.
Fee: $60/$55 members of Lynden or the Milwaukee Bonsai Society. This price includes one tree to take home.
Registration: Advance registration required. Register by phone at 414-446-8794.

At Lynden, we think of bonsai as one of the most intriguing intersections of art and nature. This is why we have joined with the Milwaukee Bonsai Society to host Bonsai at Lynden, as well as hands-on workshops for all-ages.

A bonsai is a living sculpture, changing from day to day, season to season, and year to year. Creating and caring for a bonsai combines the principles of design with the science of horticulture; it develops an appreciation for the world of trees and the world of three-dimensional artmaking.

In this hands-on workshop, you will work one-on-one with an experienced bonsai teacher to learn the basic principles and techniques of bonsai design, creating your own bonsai from tropical material and transplanting it into a ceramic bonsai container to take home.

The Milwaukee Bonsai Society, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals in their efforts to increase their knowledge and skills in the art of bonsai.

A Workshop with the Milwaukee Bonsai Society

Ficus

Fee: $60/$55 members of Lynden or the Milwaukee Bonsai Society. This is the price for an adult/child pair, and includes one tree to take home. Children should be in grades K through 3. Older children may be interested in Bonsai for Young People.
Registration: Registration is closed. Sign up for our e-list for information on future sessions.

At Lynden, we think of bonsai as one of the most intriguing intersections of art and nature. This is why we have joined with the Milwaukee Bonsai Society to host Bonsai at Lynden, as well as hands-on workshops for all-ages.

A bonsai is a living sculpture, changing from day to day, season to season, and year to year. Creating and caring for a bonsai combines the principles of design with the science of horticulture; it develops an appreciation for the world of trees and the world of three-dimensional artmaking. In this hands-on workshop, you and your child will learn the basic principles and techniques of bonsai design, creating your very own bonsai from tropical material and transplanting it into a ceramic bonsai container.

The Milwaukee Bonsai Society, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals in their efforts to increase their knowledge and skills in the art of bonsai.

11 am: Family Workshop
12 pm: Performance
Tickets: $8/$5 students & seniors
Registration: Register via Danceworks, online at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=74493 or by phone at 414-277-8480 ext. 6025.

Young campers share the spotlight with the Danceworks professional and youth companies as they search high and low for animals that fly and glow. The performance is the culmination of a week-long camp at Danceworks and is preceded by a workshop suitable for the entire family. Workshop and performance take place outdoors; bring a picnic and stay for lunch.

Photo credit: Dino Ignani

Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden. Younger children should be accompanied by an adult.

Make art for the birds. Somewhere between 100 million and 1 billion birds in North America are killed by flying into windows each year. Migrating birds are at particular risk. Lynden has more than its fair share of windows, often invisible to birds, and we invite you to take part in this collaborative project to help keep birds safe at the sculpture garden.

A Workshop with Colin Matthes

Fee: $85/ $75 members (all materials included)
Registration: Space is limited; advance registration required. Register by phone at 414-446-8794.

In this workshop we will follow in the steps of J. M. W. Turner, Marlene Dumas, and Peter Doig. Using Lynden's landscape as subject and wet on wet watercolor as medium, we will make paintings that focus on the ephemeral nature of the wet on wet process and a personal interpretation of the landscape. This workshop is open to beginners as well as experienced painters (who are welcome to bring their own watercolors). Basic watercolor supplies will be provided.

Bring a bag lunch and beverages and dress for the outdoors. We’ll be making use of Lynden’s 40 beautiful acres during our breaks, weather permitting.

About the Artist

Colin Matthes makes interdisciplinary work about engineering the absurd, which allows him to address economic and environmental crisis from a funny, critical, and perversely industrious point of view. Matthes has exhibited internationally in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Antwerp, Dublin, Houston, Seville, Ljubljana, Melbourne, and Berlin. He has participated in numerous residencies including Hotel Pupik (Austria), Werkkamp (Belgium), and Cow House Studios (Ireland). He won the Mary L Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists in 2012 (Established) and 2007 (Emerging). Matthes works collectively with Justseeds, and was teaching artist for Lynden's 2016 Innovative Educators Institute.

A Workshop with Bruce Knackert

Sundays, 10-11:30 am (stop in early for coffee)
May 7: Take It Apart
June 11: Put It Back Together
Fee: $10/$5 members each session. (The owner of the work to be reframed in the second session will be responsible for paying for all framing supplies.)
Registration: Registration is closed. For information on future sessions, sign up for our e-list.

Bruce Knackert manages Lynden's indoor collection of paintings, small sculpture and works on paper. In previous sessions of this series, he has unframed work from the Lynden collection that showed signs of deterioration due to poor framing practices. In this session, he invites you to bring in a framed work from your own collection to take apart and analyze under his direction (May 7). The group will then choose one of these works to be reframed in the second session (June 11). Knackert will reframe the work step-by-step, discussing and demonstrating options for proper glazing, matting, and mounting along the way. Participants will have an opportunity to practice some of the framing techniques, including cutting mat board and glass.

About Bruce Knackert

For the past 30 years, Bruce Knackert has worked at a number of university art galleries, art museums, a natural history museum and a private art gallery. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a Master of Arts degree in painting and drawing from Ball State University, where he held an assistantship in the registration and preparation departments.

A Craft Talk and Workshop with Amanda Ngoho Reavey

Fee: $40/$35 members. Includes a signed copy of Marilyn
Registration: Space is limited; advance registration required. Register online or by phone 414-446-8794.

Amanda Ngoho Reavey will give a craft talk on how plant spirit communication influenced her writing process and produced her book, Marilyn, the winner of the 2017 Best Book Award in Poetry from the Association for Asian American Studies.

Then, drawing from her exploration and reconnection with Indigenous Filipino practices, she will facilitate an experiential writing workshop in which participants embody malinao na isip (clear thoughts) and reconnect with anitos (ancestors and nature spirits) in the garden. Come ready to ask questions and write poetry or prose through the simplicity of presence, breath, and touch.

Participants should bring a notebook (please no laptops), a pen, and a small, personally meaningful object. No previous writing experience necessary.

About Amanda Ngoho Reavey

Amanda Ngoho Reavey is a Philippine-born, Wisconsin-raised poet interested in ancestral stories and plant spirit communication. Her work has been published in Anthropoid, Construction Literary Magazine, TRUCK, and Evening Will Come, among others. She is the author of Marilyn (The Operating System), and is the Founder of Tea & Tattered Pages, a small press publisher and apothecary envisioned as a conversation between poets, artists, scientists and philosophers. She holds an MFA in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University. For more information: www.amandangohoreavey.com

A Workshop with Sharon Morrisey, Consumer Horticulture Agent, Milwaukee County University of Wisconsin-Extension

Photo: Viburnum Leaf Beetle Damage

Fee: $15/$10 members
Registration: Space is limited; advance registration required. Register by phone at 414-446-8794.

This workshop is part of Lynden's Garden Series, a series of workshops throughout the spring and summer of 2017 that take a broad view of what it means to garden. For more information, click here.

Along with sun and rain, you can count on pests, both insects and diseases, eventually turning up in your lawn and garden. Knowing which pests to expect and how to identify when they arrive is the key to preventing a minor infestation from becoming a major setback. This session will help you become familiar with many of Southeast Wisconsin’s most common nuisance insect and disease pests, and provide an early look at some up and coming unwanted organisms that every homeowner will want to know about. You will learn several resources for identifying our most common pests and a variety of techniques for managing them.

About Sharon Morrisey

Sharon Morrisey has been lending her horticulture knowledge and expertise to Wisconsin’s residents since 1992. As the Consumer Horticulture Agent for Milwaukee County University of Wisconsin-Extension she serves both individual and groups across a broad range of yard and garden related topics. Sharon is frequently featured on local media—you may know her from her regular guest spot on the Fox6 Wake-Up News show's Green Thumb Garden. Sharon is a good friend of the Lynden Sculpture Garden and occasionally leads tree walks on the grounds.

A Talk with Michelle Zimmer

Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden.

This workshop is part of Lynden's Garden Series, a series of workshops throughout the spring and summer of 2017 that take a broad view of what it means to garden. For more information, click here.

Garden design is at least a craft and in some cultures rises to an art form. Using living plants as the medium the designer must take into account the added elements of location, the laws and whims of nature, and the inevitable changes that come with the passage of time. Designing a garden to complement the newly installed Bonsai exhibit, planted this May, was a happy but surprisingly complex process. Join me for an informal presentation/discussion of the design process for these new perennial gardens. Bring your imagination and be prepared to walk and talk as we look at the garden from many points of view.

About Michelle Zimmer

Michelle Zimmer is a bonsai hobbyist, amateur naturalist, and garden lover.