BCA Family Art Saturday – May 23, 2020

Curating Nature Libraries

Artists will go on a “forgotten nature walk” to discover, explore and collect nature in their neighborhood. With the newly gathered natural materials, artists will curate a mini nature library that celebrates nature in their community.

Activity Age Range: The Whole Family!

Materials Needed: Container for gathering, your neighborhood, natural objects that you will collect on a nature walk, assorted supplies of your choice for constructing the library, and playful curiosity!

STEP 1. CONNECT This activity is inspired by Ellie Irons’ and Anne Percoco’s Next Epoch Seed Library, part of the BCA Center Winter/Spring 2020 exhibition Apocalypse Diet.

Have you ever come across a dandelion blooming in the crack of a sidewalk? It can be such a hopeful sight! Artists Ellie Irons and Anne Percoco find lots of hope in weedy plants. They look to weeds thriving in harsh conditions, such as abandoned lots and cracking asphalt, to re-imagine what plant cultivation in an uncertain future may look like. Irons and Percoco have harvested resilient weedy plants and archived them in the Next Epoch Seed Library (NESL). Inside the library are packages of seeds for visitors to “check-out” and plant in their own communities. Found natural objects are curated on shelves in the library to offer an up-close study of nature that has been collected from often overlooked landscapes.

You can explore the NESL in BCA’s virtual tour.

Image of Next Epoch Seed Library, from BCA Virtual Tour, Winter/Spring 2020

STEP 2. CREATE Curate your own Nature Library.

What does curate mean? Curating is selecting, organizing and presenting.

1. Find a gathering basket, bag or container. Or, make one using a recycled cereal box and string! Cut the box to the size you like, punch 2 holes, and add a string for carrying.

2. Head outside for a nature walk! There is no need to go to a park, or a hiking trail. Let’s look for nature in unexpected places around your neighborhood. Make sure to be careful and respectful during your explorations.

Nature on the boulevard!

Nature in water drains!

Nature in the sidewalk!

3. On your walk, fill your gathering basket with nature that you find interesting. Take only a little from each plant. Be mindful of poisonous or prickly plants and insects. Observe closely before you decide to harvest something. Look for interesting, rocks, sticks, leaves, seeds, flowers, mosses, and fungus.

4. Bring your collection home. Examine and study it.

5. Curate your collection and build a library. You can use one of these ideas to build your library or invent your own way to curate a library. Decide what objects you want to include in your library and have fun arranging them in interesting ways.

Arrange found nature objects on a piece of bark to create a natural shelf for your library

Use a recycled small box to create a “dollhouse� nature library.

Add windows, shelves, and nature accents. *This library was created with a recycled tea box.

Use a piece of nature as a platform for your library.

Create a nature library in a glass jar.

Happy Curating!