Youth-Adult Partnerships Bring Plant Sculptures to New York Communities
Take a tour of the McEvoy Children’s Garden in Cortland, New York, or any one of several sites where Cornell University students have been engaged in an innovative community-based gardening project with young people, and you’ll encounter a place where plant life and art collide—living sculpture.
Living sculpture is art created by live plants. It can be functional and decorative, but in conception, planning, design, and creation it requires the employment of artistic, logistical, and scientific skills. A fort of willow branches, a flower and stone labyrinth, a sod sofa, and a hut made from grapevines and Miscanthus are among the many plant sculptures that have resulted from collaborations between Cornell University students and youth participants from communities in Cortland, Batavia, New York City, and other locations in New York State.
Last fall, Marcia Eames-Sheavly, Senior Extension Associate in the Cornell
University Department of Horticulture, set out to develop a living sculpture curriculum that incorporates research, Extension, and undergraduate teaching. “I wanted to find a way for youth-adult teams to cooperate—a service learning experience for Cornell students and a garden-based learning experience for younger people in New York communities. I also wanted the work to be creative and compelling, and I found all these qualities in living sculpture.”While it has recently been rediscovered by artists, horticulturists, and gardeners, living sculpture has been studied, practiced, and admired for thousands of years. One of the oldest forms of living sculpture is bonsai, the ancient Japanese art of plant cultivation in containers. As communities address issues related to local landscapes, living sculpture and other meaningful public works offer youth and adults an opportunity to contribute to the environment and produce ecological art forms.
The Living Sculpture Project, an initiative of the Cornell Garden-Based Learning Program, housed in the Department of Horticulture, is a two-year federally funded initiative. The service learning component began last fall and targeted Cornell undergraduates. The eight Cornell students who took part learned about participatory design and evaluation, youth-adult collaboration, student facilitation in community-based work, and research and evaluation. Students identified the work sites, planned the initial visit, and met weekly to chart progress.
During the fall, winter, and early spring of 2006-2007, youth-adult teams created and developed a plan for design and maintenance of living sculpture projects in their communities. Cornell students learned to lead site workshops on partnering with youth to create living sculpture and addressed both youth development and potential design considerations.
Community visits were integral to the design and implementation process. On-site, students responded to questions, observed the creative process, documented planning, design, and execution, and participated in the creation of the sculptures.
Undergraduate students and a project assistant in the Cornell Garden-Based Learning Program participated in living sculpture projects in Batavia at the New York State School for the Blind, New York City at The Renaissance University for Community Education (TRUCE) community center, and Cortland at the McEvoy Educational Campus. They also partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension Associations in three counties, Tompkins, Onondaga, and Tioga.
This fall, the Cornell Garden-Based Learning Program will complete the prototype for an on-line resource that will offer activities, images, sound, and video to inspire an interest in creating projects such as sod sofas, willow domes, and other living sculptures in New York communities. CCE educators will have the opportunity to pilot-test activities and provide feedback in exchange for the reimbursement of their supplies.
To learn more about Cornell’s Garden-Based Learning Program, visit http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gbl/about.html.