by Cecilia Marrero

On March 18, 2009 Ecoaddendum launched the Artscapes after school program designated on Wednesdays from March through May of 2009. Co-facilitated by our partners at the Atlanta Outdoor Activity Center (OAC), Artscapes is an environmental education program that highlights students’ experience in nature by using different art mediums and techniques, encouraging students to observe the various eco zones and apply their personal interpretation through creative projects. Georgia Educator, Sarah Collman, and Pandra Williams (local Atlanta artist), have developed an after school curriculum for youngsters who commute from several recreation centers in the SW Atlanta area.

Artscapes provides environmental, hands-on, creative activities, each week presenting students with a different project.  During Wednesday’s project, students began with an interpretive hike around the OAC, investigating the endless interactions between underground and above ground plants and creatures. Back in the classroom setting, students were encouraged to creatively record their observations onto a large rectangle of muslin that their efforts would transform into an artwork inspired by traditional African mud cloth. Traditional African mud cloth is an ancient natural art making process using organic materials (mud-based paint and cotton) not only used to signify the wearer’s status, but to tell stories using symbols as language in several African cultures.

To begin applying their thoughts to mud cloth, the class discussed what we had learned from the interpretive hike. As the lines of their images began to connect, the kids unraveled their imaginations onto the cloth and compiled microenvironments expressing their version of their natural surroundings. After everyone was finished, we hung the final product for the last process, to hang dry.

This introduction to Artscapes sets the tone for the creativity and positive connection with our environment for young people as we continue to incorporate similar activities throughout the spring. We  would like to thank the OAC for providing us with such an inviting space for both indoor and outdoor learning. Special thanks goes out to Sarah Collman, who took a large part in the creation and formatting of the after school curriculum. We could not have put this together with out her 7 years of educational experience. Thanks to Sarah and our friends at OAC!

A tree-planting ceremony in honor of John Stowe (1952-2009) will be
held in the Native Garden in Hurt Park on April 3, 2009, starting at
1:00 p.m. (rain or shine).

John Stowe, beloved friend, colleague and teacher, was a Lecturer in
the Department of Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language
at Georgia State University and also a GSU graduate. John died
unexpectedly on February 3rd, 2009. John’s life was devoted to his work with
international students and his passion for nature and healing. His last writing assignment for his students, titled A Sense of Place, was designed to help students learn more about their Atlanta community.  John keenly wanted his students to connect to and care for the local environment.

The ceremony will open and close with a Calling in the Directions by
David Michael of Gay Spirit Vision, a group John helped found. Monty
Schuth, John’s partner, will speak on John’s love of nature and his
environmental activism in Atlanta.  Five trees will be planted,
including dogwoods and fringe trees.

The drought-resistant native garden, created by environmental artist
Pandra Williams, was designed to exemplify sustainable green space for
the 2008 project, Urban Intervention. The project was curated by Cathy
Byrd, who is the Director of the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design
Galleries at Georgia State University.

The Native Garden is located in Hurt Park between Gilmer Street,
Edgewood Avenue and Courtland Avenue, across from Alumni Hall.

John Stowe’s obituary in the AJC is available at

John Stowe’s obituary in the AJC is available at
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/obits/stories/2009/02/08/stowe_obit.html.

Information about the garden can be found at:
http://www.ecoaddendum.org/projects/hurt-park-native-garden/

Environmental artist Pandra Williams’s website:
http://www.pandrawilliams.com/

Photo taken by Lauren Sandoval

By Cecilia Marrero

Winter is receding and top dressing has been checked off the list for spring preparations. For you astronomers, the vernal equinox, the true beginning of spring, is just around the corner. And, fair warning!, there is still the unpredictable last freeze of the season, which many people believe date at the end of tax season, so don’t put your protection blankets away yet! Here at Ecoaddendum, spring preparations are underway and will be completed as we draw closer to the last phase at the Hurt Park Garden.

“Spring cleaning” tasks vary from year to year so our approach in our second year with the Hurt Park Garden was to sustain our beds to stand against the harsh elements. We began by pulling the weeds from around the established plants when we realized that what we were pulling up was the only thing stabilizing the upper portions of the garden that had already begun to create a mudslide. Hurt Park is central to the GSU campus and stomping-grounds for locals visiting for a daily sun bathe or occasional frisbee throwing. Essentially, heavy foot traffic cutting across the slope over the course of many years killed the original ground cover and resulted in an eroded hillside. As we needed to top-dress the perennial beds anyway, we first laid out a fresh layer of compost. Next, to stabilize the bank, we rolled out jute cloth, otherwise known as “soil saver”, and embedded it along the slope of the garden. This is a biodegradable woven mesh blanket used specifically for erosion control. To help reinforce the jute cloth erosion control, the GSU maintenance crew provided us with 60 two cubic feet bags of coarse pine bark mulch that we spread with an army of two covering roughly 2500 square feet. After several days of weathering, the beds have held up their end of the bargain by holding the soil in place despite several inches of rain over the past two weeks. On a small scale, this low impact method not only reduces soil erosion but implements earth-friendly practices to rejuvenate our natural environment under harsh conditions!

We at Ecoaddendum will continue our efforts to maintain the local native species out at the Hurt Park Native Plant Garden. Beyond the garden, we plan to eventually stabilize the entire surrounding sections of  exposed soil, which GSU maintenance is in full support of. Thanks guys! And to complete the work for this seasons upkeep, we will fill in the gaps caused by the foot traffic with native shrubs and forbs (starting process viewed in photo to the right). We will keep you updated with our ongoing small-scale restoration project with photos of the year-round maintenance.

In the top photo, myself and our organization Director, Pandra Williams, are stabilizing the soil in the perennial beds with the jute erosion control cloth.