Creative Ecologies and Collaborations

bird SEED

Join us for a series of events through the late summer and autumn as we explore relationships between birds, seeds and ourselves.

August 14th: Tea with the Blue Hill Garden Club
2 to 4p SEED Barn, 53 Falls Bridge Road, South Blue Hill
As an introduction to the series, bird SEED, Peter Leonard, president of the Blue Hill Garden Club is hosting a ‘presidents tea’ at the SEED barn. Join us for tours of the garden, with special focus on growing out native seeds and reclaiming ground from invasive species. Demonstrating how long it takes for native seeds to become established we will examine different stages of meadow plants over three years of garden restoration. We will also learn how to mimic bird digestion to sow seeds from native fruiting plants.

August 22: Conservation Kids

2 to 4p SEED Barn, 53 Falls Bridge Road, South Blue Hill
 In thinking about augmenting habitat for birds, we will draw inspiration from the traditional creative practices of weaving in this region to build a sculpture immersed in the landscape. Using material found on site, we intend to weave branches into sculpture that would serve the dual purpose of providing winter shelter for wildlife. in the process, we will open ground in the meadow into which we may start reintroducing native meadow plants
 
This project is fifth in a series of five “Conservation Kids” projects by the library that are intended to engage youth volunteers to positively impact the environment and community on the Blue Hill Peninsula. The projects are designed to teach kids proactive steps they can take to make a difference in helping to preserve the natural world around them. These programs are made possible by a grant from the Davis Conservation Foundation
 
 
September 22nd: Great Maine Outdoors Weekend 
Blue Hill Heritage Trust: Kingdom Woods Blueberry Field
Bringing sculptural considerations from the above workshop out into the field on a larger scale, the Blue Hill Heritage Trust is inviting the public to participate in a “community weaving” in the Kingdom woods as part of the Great Maine Outdoor weekend. We are restoring a blueberry field by clearing trees and scrub brush. This in turn will provide material to create sculpture woven through the landscape while also providing shelter for overwintering birds.

October 3: Invasive Plants Day
With the Blue Hill Heritage Trust at the Blue Hill Consolidated School
(The previous weekend we will be walking the campus to identify and flag plants to be removed, date and time TBA)
Invasive species like bittersweet and barberry can also be spread by birds! This community workshop with the Blue Hill Consolidated School will tackle the removal of bittersweet and other invasive species. In the process, we will explore how birds may help – or hinder – restoration. We will also restore their gardens with native plants grown out at the SEED Barn. A series of signs will be installed that describe the relationship of plants in the larger ecology, utilizing the material we learned over the course of the SEED project

Summer at the SEED Barn

The growing season has come forth in earnest as we dig in to our third year restoring the land around the 1835 Cheever built farmhouse on Conary Cove. With five distinct ecology zones, we are cultivating plant communities that demonstrate the native ecological systems in this region, which is one of the most ecologically diverse on the planet.

Visitors to the SEED Barn may tour the restoration work under way in the gardens, take some time with the garden book library and peruse the SEED Sensorium. Artwork on display is by local artisans, the original SEED :: disperse artists as well as by members of the Atis Rezistans who maintain a parallel SEED project in Central Port Au Prince, Haiti.

Hours are by chance or appointment: 207.374.2947

About SEED :: Maine

Following the ecological rhythm of the seasons, SEED programs engage a network of schools and land stewards at the intersection of art and ecology to promote long term restoration. Building habitat for birds and pollinators through providing accessible platforms for community participation develops a sense of our relationships with the natural world, which we feel is essential to the effectiveness of conservation work. Bridging art, science and community engagement, local artist Lee Lee founded the SEED Barn in South Blue Hill as an incubator for creative dissemination methods to preserve heirloom seeds and restore habitats in both Haiti and Maine.

Recent SEED Events

HugelCULTURE: Sculpted Pollinator Homes
May 30th workshop with the Blue Hill Heritage Trust and students from the George Stevens Academy for their Arts Week

SEED Sensorium at the MOFGA Seed Swap
March 25th, Unity Maine www.mofga.org

SEED: The Untold Story at the Halcyon Grange

SOW dry SEED at the SEED Barn

SEED :: disperse

SEED is an interdisciplinary arts project exploring and celebrating the miracle of the seed. The SEED Mission is to encourage cross-pollination between the arts and sciences through fine art exhibitions and creative dissemination methods in combination with multi-sensory and educational SEED Sensorium. Visitors to SEED are invited to look through the lens of the seed to explore connections between art and science and their personal relationship to the natural world.

MaineBar

The SEED Barn
Located in Blue Hill, Maine, the SEED Barn houses a SEED Library, Demonstration Gardens, Art-Science collaborations & a SEED Sensorium

SEED :: Haiti
Initiated during the 4th Ghetto Biennial, the Gardens of the Grand Rue project responds to food justice issues through heirloom seed preservation, cultivation and education.

SEED :: disperse
Exhibition at The Dairy Arts Center

 

Cosmobilities-install_1

The DEBRIS Project

Debris is an interactive, collaborative installation which is being created as a response to problems presented by marine debris, with a focus on single use plastic. The work reflects the literal problem of plastic in marine environments while offering a symbolic representation of the chemical body burdens carried by wildlife and humans alike. In presenting these issues, we are asked to consider misplaced cultural notions of “disposability”, calling in to question consumer driven waste which has devalued what is in fact a very important material.