Arlington Natural Connections Project

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Goals of the Natural Connections Project

1. Develop and sponsor artistic and natural science projects to promote a greater sense of our connection to the natural world.

2. Promote greater awareness of the beauty and genius of nature and the connections between all living things and the earth.

3. Promote awareness of the effects of our human creations and actions on the world.

4. Foster access to the restorative and healing aspects of connection with the nature.

5. Maintain a website, newsletter and other means of communication to realize the above goals.

The Arlington Natural Connections projects is also seeking collaborators with skills in the following areas, and/or an interest in the project. Please email Joe at jtshome AT gmail.com if interested.

Web Site Design and Implementation (urgent need)

Photography, Video Production (amatuer or advanced)

Public Relations, communications, special projects

Natural science: Plant and tree identification, botany, knowledge of fungus/lichens.

Geology

Sunday, March 9, 2008

More Natural Collections

Below are additional examples of recent collections. Click on photos to view larger.

Basket from "10,000 Villages" coop in Central Square, Cambridge MA. Note Oak Gall in center, collected at Noanet Woodlands.

Items collected near Harwichport, Cape Cod, MA March 2007. Learned from an Arlington neighbor that long white item in center is an egg case from a whelk.

More items collected from the Cape, winter 2007. Long brown curled leaves are from a rhododendron. Basket below is a sweetgrass basket, from North Carolina USA.

Small branch ends, found in the Killian quad, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), February 2008. Buds had formed, but for some reason branch ends had fallen off - found on the sidewalk. Bowl is pressed bamboo, made in Vietnam, bought at "10,000 Villages" artists coop, Central Square, Cambridge MA.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Examples of Natural Collections

You may click on pictures to view larger.

From October 2006 - Pine needles, flowering parts from a volunteer plant (some might call it a weed) in my yard, pine needles, acorns. The white pieces are leftover from garlic planting (basal root plates)

From November 2006 - Oak leaves, Beautyberry, Pine Branch, fungi.

December 2006 - last rose of summer, moss, birch bark, holly, other volunteer plants.

About the Arlington Natural Connections Project

The mission of the Arlington Natural Connections Project is to promote a sense of connection to the natural world at the local level by combining an artistic and natural science approach.

The Arlington Natural Connections Project started as a personal "hobby". Each month I collected a few elements from the natural world - leaves, flower petals, small branches, bark, rocks - and then put them together in a collection for display in my home. I was amazed at the beauty and variety of natural objects that I found, at all times of year. This was a lot of fun, and provided a sense of connection, calm, center and abundance within an ever-changing world.

I wanted to expand this, and share it. In Fall 2007 I saw that the Arlington (MA) Cultural Council was accepting grant applications for Arlington-based projects in the Arts, Humanities and Interpretive Sciences. My idea was to encourage individuals and families to create displays for their own homes, and to take the project to a community level by creating seasonal displays with contributions from many, and exhibiting them in a public place.

The proposal was funded by the Arlington Cultural Council for 2008. A display and information session was held at the Robbins Library in February 2008. A Nature Walk through the Winfield Robbins Memorial Garden and the area surrounding the Whittemore-Robbins house was created for Town Day in September 2008. Participants in each of these events contributed natural materials that were assembled into a collection that went on display in the Robbins Library in October 2008 (see October 20 post in this weblog). As the project evolved, its goals expanded to a wider range of artistic and natural science projects to promote an enhanced sense of connection to the natural world (see September 9 post in this weblog). The project was funded by the Arlington Cultural Council in 2009, which allowed the creation of the full project website at NaturalConnectionsProject.com

-- Joe Snodgrass

This program was funded in part by a grant from the Arlington Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.