ATTENTION: Organic Vegetable Gardening Glasses This Winter! GAL member, Deb Cinamon Whalen, A NOFA (New England Organic Farm Association) trained organic land care specialist, will be offering a two-hour Introduction to Organic Vegetable Gardening class for New Eden Collaborative participants. The class is also open to anyone else interested in organic gardening. It will be offered twice at First Parish Church of Newbury, 20 High Road, Newbury, MA, on Friday, February 20th from 6:30-8:30 P.M. and Saturday, March 7th from 5:00-7:00 P.M. $5 at the door.
The Green Artists League is involved in various green educational outreach efforts with children and adults. One of our members, Jeannie Dunnigan, has done considerable work with the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Merrimack Valley in Massachusetts. Children make sketch books from recycled paper and utilizing cereal box sections as covers. These are often sold to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club. Jeannie also shows students a variety of other methods to make art from recycled materials.
Erin Stack, who has taught art, art theory and art history at the undergraduate and graduate level at Granite State College and the University of Iowa is the GAL internship supervisor. GAL is dedicated to mentoring young artists creatively, professionally, and philosophically and offers a dynamic internship. Interns have an opportunity to work with a variety of accomplished, interdisciplinary artists in the many aspects of environmental and activist art.
have the opportunity to receive feedback on your art and
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creative process
Deb Cinamon Whalen, who lives in New Hampshire, works with all age groups to create “healing blankets” consisting of natural materials, such as wool and other materials, and incorporating seeds, that she sends to people in West Virginia whose land has been devastated by mountain-top coal removal. These blankets are symbolic and practical, as they can help to connect children and adults from far away with those suffering the loss of their land as well as helping to reseed after deforestation in their community. Deb is also involved in other projects that raise awareness about important social and environmental issues.
Below are descriptions of some of Deb Cinamon Whalen’s educational workshops and projects.
Healing Blankets for the Earth Workshop
What is a healing blanket? It is created with wool fleece, and gathered organic materials, seeds from flowers, weeds, acorns, grasses, shells, etc., and felted into a blanket. The idea is to connect students to their environment, and teach them about the Appalachian Mountains and Mountain Top Removal (MTR) coal mining as well.
People are shocked when they realize that over half of their electricity is generated by MTR. Talking about environmental issues becomes much more meaningful when people are engaged in a process that takes them into the woods and fields or offers them the opportunity to study and work with natural materials. The wool fleece used in the healing blankets comes in many colors, offering creative opportunities. The wool is transformed into the pallet for the blanket.
When creating the larger, twin bed size blankets, students can combine their various ideas and images as they work on them. Some groups opt for individual mini blankets. Completed blankets are sent to people whose stories have touched us. They are installed by the recipient(s) into their landscape to help regenerate and heal the ecosystem that has been damaged by MTR. These eco-art installations act as a bridge between our communities and offer support to our brothers and sisters in coal country.
Islands of Habitat
In this workshop students plant a garden to create a habitat for animals. The garden can become an open classroom for school children to observe nature for science, art, and writing classes.
I have also worked with the town of Exeter, New Hampshire, to create public gardens for the Wood Thrush, an endangered bird in our area.
Observing the changes in my community over the years, has caused me to redefine the functions of gardens and public parks. Not so long ago, my town had many farms. Now it has many streets with lots of houses. The field next to my house used to be lit up on warm summer nights by hundreds of fire flies. Now there is a built in pool. Where did the fire flies go? What has happened to them?
Sprawl and development is eating up our open spaces and because of this I believe we need to look for new opportunities to recreate habitats for wildlife in our communities. These spaces can be in municipal parks, in school yards, landfills, deserted city lots, and in your own backyard. These islands are also places where people can connect with nature and their surroundings.