Creative Ecologies and Collaborations

March 2019

The season is shifting from the depths of winter to the first stirrings of spring. Now is the time to finish planting wildflowers that need only a month of stratification & start planting native grasses. Food and homes for pollinators broaden their habitat and invites them into our spheres. Join us on March 6th at the Blue Hill Public Library to pick up free seed, learn about the restoration of Pierce Pond and make work for the community art installation which will be installed at the new fish ladder and outdoor classroom as part of the creative restoration process.

Participate in the Community Restoration of Pierce Pond through March by sowing native seeds specific to the river and lakeshore plant communities observed around Pierce Pond and gathered from the research in the Natural Landscapes of Maine guide published by the Maine Heritage Fund. Seeds are best sown at home, and we invite community members to establish some in their home gardens and sow some to share with the restoration project.

Recent Events:

Past events:

bird SEED

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

 
 
 
 

September 22nd:
Great Maine Outdoors Weekend

Blue Hill Heritage Trust: Kingdom Woods Blueberry Field
Workshop: 10a to noon
 
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.
 
 
 
 
 
 

September 29: Invasive Plants Day

With the Blue Hill Heritage Trust
at the Blue Hill Consolidated School
 
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

 

October 12th: SEED the Untold Story

7p Blue Hill Public Library, sponsored by the Blue Hill Co Op
 
 

October 13th: Harvest Festival at Mainescape, Blue Hill

SEED Harvest demonstration & Community SEED Swap
 
 

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

August 22: Conservation Kids

10:00a – 12 noon
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
 

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.

Partial support provided by the Maine Arts Commission

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.