A Workshop with Joel Hitchcock Tilton

Fee: $15/$10 members
Registration: Walk-ins welcome, or 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.

Controlling pests is part of every gardener’s life, and Joel Hitchcock Tilton encourages us to consider methods of pest control that are not inherently harmful to the earth and those that occupy it. Companion planting--encouraging plants to thrive by planting them in combinations that provide essential nutrients, deter pests, attract pollinators, or offer structural support—is one such technique; there are several others. The workshop will include a brief overview of the theory, possibilities, and benefits of companion planting, as well as an introduction to the most widely used organic pest control methods and their proper implementation. Hitchcock Tilton will finish by demonstrating how to make your own organic pesticide for garden use.

About Joel Hitchcock Tilton

Wisconsin native Joel Hitchcock Tilton has been living and growing in New Orleans for the past twelve years. He runs a network of urban gardens, grows produce, manages greenhouses, and raises sheep, goats, chickens, pigeons, and bees.

A Workshop with Kyle Denton

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.

Herbalist Kyle Denton leads a walk through Lynden’s acres to search out local plants that can be used in herbal teas. He will talk about the energetic properties of these plants, how they have been used as medicine in the past, what conditions they have been used to treat, and the proper ways to harvest, dry, and store them. Following the walk we will go inside to make tea from the plants we have collected, exploring flavor and investigating our visceral reactions to these wild, foraged herbs.

About Kyle Denton

Kyle Denton is an herbalist and owner of Tippecanoe Herbs and Apothecary, a Milwaukee clinical herbal practice and medicine-making company. Denton applies his knowledge of Ayurveda and traditional Western herbalism by creating herbal medicine preparations from locally wildcrafted plants; teaching courses; and offering clinical consultations.

This series of workshops takes a broad view of what it means to garden. Whether you consider yourself a backyard gardener, a forager, a farmer, or a steward of the land, the Garden Series will have something for you. From formal garden design to identifying and learning to use wild growing plants, we span a range of techniques and philosophies. Because of the range of subjects covered, these classes can be enjoyed by new and experienced gardeners alike.

Upcoming Workshops:

A Workshop with BeeVangelist Charlie Koehnen

Fee: $85/$75 members (instruction manual included)
Registration: Registration is closed. Sign up for our email newsletter for info on future sessions.

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.

Join beekeeper Charlie “CharBee” Koenen for a day-long, hands-on workshop designed for those who want to learn how to keep bees. We will begin by meeting the bees and learning who’s who in the hive, then we’ll delve into the history of bees and beekeeping. We’ll look closely at what’s involved in starting up--equipment, installing bees—and will cover important topics like troubleshooting, harvesting, and overwintering. Finally, weather permitting, we'll end up back with the bees, looking inside a nucleus colony for a real hands-on meetup. You will walk away with enough knowledge to start your own hive, an instruction manual, and several handouts.

Pack a lunch and dress in light colored slacks and long sleeved shirts. Koenen will supply additional protection as needed. If you have need for an epipen, please bring it. While we don't anticipate a risk of stings, they are not under our control. Koenen will teach polite bee-havior and let you get as close as feels comfortable. 

About Charlie Koenen

Artist, activist, serial entrepreneur and inventor, and now beekeeper Charlie “CharBee” Koenen has quite a career of cross-pollination. Not satisfied with conventional beekeeping products, the once “Think Different” Apple Authorized businessman started thinking different about bees. Teaming up with another beekeeper, they updated an ancient beehive design and created Beepods, an innovative vented top bar hive. Koenen is the founder of BeeVangelists, a new nonprofit organization with a mission to save the bees by offering programs designed to educate people about bees and how to keep them.

A Workshop with Colin Matthes

Fee: $85/$75 members
Registration: Space is limited. Register by phone 414-446-8794 or day-of.

This workshop is part of Developing the Artist's Book: Techniques and Procedures, a series of workshops at Lynden throughout the spring of 2017. For more information, click here.

Do you want to share your work with a wider audience? To make things that you and your friends can afford or that you can give away? How about making tangible objects that can be widely disseminated? Publications you can share and use without wearing gloves?

This workshop will introduce the world of self-publishing and zine-making from a contemporary art perspective. We will cover all the steps of production including content generation, mock-ups, layout, reproduction tricks and techniques, and binding. Each student will leave the workshop with a copy of the zine we have made collaboratively over the course of the day.

There are no prerequisites for this workshop. We are all experts in our own experience, and this knowledge will be used to generate the content of our zine. Publishing, drawing, and writing experience is not necessary.

About Colin Matthes

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 Leslie Perrino

Fee: $85/ $75 members (all materials included)
Registration: Registration is closed. For info on future sessions, sign up for our email newsletter.

Grab your mother and bring her along for this daylong workshop that will explore easy and artful ways to apply dye to pre-hemmed silk scarves. From simple techniques such as tie-dyeing, resist and salt, to interesting ways to make marks, we’ll let ourselves be inspired by the wonderful art and nature surrounding us at Lynden.

Each student will create three wearable and uniquely painted scarves using this centuries-old painting form. No experience (or mother) required, and all materials supplied. Remember: using dyes can be messy. We'll supply you with an apron, but please wear clothes that you don't mind getting stained.

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 Leslie Perrino

Leslie Perrino is an artist and "art evangelist" who loves to share the power of art and creativity with people, particularly in her beloved areas of metals and enameling. Her artwork is a quirky mix of traditional and found objects, most recently combining computer/electrical components with enamels. She is a charismatic and effective teacher who encourages skill building and exploration of the medium.

A Workshop with Jeremy Stepien

Fee: $25/$22 members (all materials included)
Registration: Registration is closed. Sign up for our email newsletter for information on future sessions.

Jeremy Stepien first spotted these natural bentwood baskets at Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, and now you can weave one for your own backyard using willow and other trees and shrubs from Lynden's grounds. These wicker obelisks add height to your garden, and can be used to train sweet peas, French beans or other climbing plants. No experience required.

Chuck Stebelton, left, with fellow poet and birdwatcher Nathaniel Tarn

April 23 with Chuck Stebelton & Cecelia Condit, 8:30 am-10 am
May 21 with Chuck Stebelton & Renato Umali, 8:30 am-10 am

Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden.

Watch for spring migrants and resident bird species at the sculpture garden. Please wear appropriate footwear and bring your binoculars if you have them; no previous birding experience required.

Chuck Stebelton is author of two full-length collections of poetry, most recently The Platformist (Cultural Society, 2012). His first book, Circulation Flowers (Tougher Disguises, 2005), was winner of the inaugural Jack Spicer Award. As a birder and Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteer he has offered interpretive hikes for organizations including Lynden Sculpture Garden, Friends of Lorine Niedecker, and Woodland Pattern Book Center. He was Literary Program Director at Woodland Pattern from 2005 to 2017. He currently serves as Program Coordinator for Interfaith Older Adult Programs in Milwaukee and is a participant in Lynden's residency program.

On April 23, Stebelton is joined by Cecelia Condit, whose exhibition Tales of a Future Past is on view in the gallery. As Sally Berger notes in her catalogue essay, " Condit’s videos are most often set in the natural landscape, and increasingly their central subject is human kind’s relationship to nature...." An earlier video, Why Not A Sparrow (2003), "grieves the potential hazards of bird and wildlife extinction."

On May 21, Stebelton's guest is Renato Umali, an artist, musician and educator. Umali composed the score for Condit's two-channel video installation, Tales of a Future Past.

A Workshop with the Milwaukee Bonsai Society

Fee: $35/$30 members of Lynden or the Milwaukee Bonsai Society. This price is for participants bringing their own containers (see note on containers below). Participants may purchase containers for $10, payable day-of.

Registration: Space is limited; advance registration required. Register online or by phone at 414-446-8794.

In honor of the opening of the Bonsai Pavilion at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, the Milwaukee Bonsai Society is pleased to offer a workshop on the art of kusamono (or k'samono).

Originally, beautiful mountain grasses were dug and put into small containers and placed next to larger trees growing in pots (bonsai) to complement them. They completed the picture, telling the story of the season, location, ecology and history of the tree. Then, elements such as flowering plants and mosses and lichens were added to the pots to create a vignette, a small window of nature captured in time that changed and held the viewer’s interest through the seasons and through the years. Simplicity, tranquility and naturalness are the hallmarks of the best non-woody tray plantings called K’samono and they can stand alone to tell their own story as the seasons pass and bring pleasure to the viewer.

In this hands-on workshop, you will work one-on-one with an experienced teacher to learn the basic principles and techniques of kusamono. Following the principles of design, we will plant grasses, miniaturized non-woody plants such as ferns, forbs, and hosta as well as mosses and lichens in ‘found’ objects. Consonant with the bonsai exhibit’s goal of reusing and recycling, we will use found objects such as tiles, trivets, ceramic, porcelain, opaque glass or metal containers, natural objects such as driftwood, shells, volcanic lava rocks or smooth dolomite slabs repurposed as containers to frame these miniature plantings.

Note on containers:
Participants are encouraged to bring their own found objects. Look for size (4-10 inch diameter), color, shape, profile, stability and relative water resistance.
The best containers have drainage holes and feet to raise the container off the table. Be creative! A limited number of choices will be available at class for purchase.

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.

Sessions: Saturday, September 23. Sessions are standalone; sign up for any one. If you'd like to develop more skills/projects, sign up for multiple sessions.
Fee: $85/$75 members (all materials included)
Registration: Registration is closed. Sign up for our e-list for information on upcoming workshops.

In the past, Native Americans probably made clay vessels on what are now the grounds of Lynden. In these pre-glaze days, pots were sealed by rubbing river mud into the surfaces, keeping the goodness in the container. We will spend a day at Lynden with artist-in-residence Katheryn Corbin forming vessels using traditional techniques: pinching, coiling, and smoothing. Instead of river mud, we will use sigillata, a form of deflocculated clay to seal our pots. The pieces will sun dry and will be sawdust fired, replicating early wood firing.The blackened surfaces result from the smoke and the clay absorbing carbon. This 'reduction' atmosphere is popular today in raku reduction firing.

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

Attendance at sawdust firing voluntary, but you will need to return at a later date to pick up your pots.

About Katheryn Corbin

Katheryn Corbin is a painter, potter, figure sculptor and artist-in-residence at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. As part of her residency, she will be offering a series of workshops based on Native American ceramic practices. Pots and figures have both been a part of Corbin's studio practice and teaching. Drawing and painting are important elements in each discipline, and her clay pieces are informed by the complementary processes of working with clay as vessel and as figure. Corbin is interested in historical developments in clay and variations across cultures, and she often explores different firing techniques and glaze surfaces. She has taught at all levels from elementary school through adult at the Evanston Arts Center in Evanston, IL; the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI; the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design; and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.