Painting of the Arboretum in Fall by Sophia Angele-Kuehn.
If one had walked into 33 Gallows Lane on the morning of Dec. 2, under a weakly shining winter sun, they would have been greeted by the invigorating aromas of Balsam and Dunkin’ Donuts. They would have seen coats piled high on top of one another on hooks near the door and circular wire frames and floral wire neatly placed on tables. Meanwhile, a separate table had its entire surface filled with carefully classified evergreen clippings. Bags of various natural materials collected from the surrounding Arboretum were waiting outside the building. It was time to learn the art of wreath-making.
“The wreath-making class filled up two months ago,” said Assistant Director of the Arboretum Maggie Redfern, pleased, in a private interview before the event. The wreath-making class is one of the Arboretum’s most popular programs and pulls participants from all across Connecticut. Most participants have to pay a $40 entrance fee, but all Arboretum events are free for Connecticut College students.
Indeed, the 87-year-old Arboretum appears to be the perfect place to merge nature with art and creativity. For example, besides wreaths, a Holiday Craft Ornament event was held last winter in the Olin lounge. Participants had to get creative with a diversity of plant materials in order to construct all-natural, biodegradable decorations. At first geared toward kids in the community, the event was recently refocused to attract more of the college community as a fun break before finals.
“Painting the Landscape” is also a popular Arbo event for both Conn students and members of the surrounding community. On one weekday in the fall, one in the spring, Julie Riggs of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme comes to the Arboretum to teach the technique of “plein-air” painting, according to the American impressionists who used to board at the Florence Griswold mansion. After the demonstration, participants go off and attempt to capture the sereneness of the Arboretum Pond with broad brushstrokes and shades of light.
“[Painting the Landscape] was a program that I started soon after I got here, just wanting to make connections with other organizations. The Florence Griswold Museum has such neat programming, you can see I really like this class,” laughed Redfern, gesturing to her small collection of impressionistic paintings propped in a corner of her office in Olin. “I like to plan programs that I enjoy doing… Hopefully classes are a way for people to get more involved and learn more about the Arboretum and the natural world.”
Another event that the Arboretum puts on proves just that: with over 60 photograph submissions from the college and local community, the Arboretum’s annual photo contest has displayed just how influenced people are by nature for the last twenty years. Last April the contest’s theme was “Capturing the Beauty of the Arboretum,” and submissions included a snow-laden Buck lodge, an October sun peeking out from behind trees, and a frog sitting in the still waters of the Pond. The awards ceremony had been held in Unity House on Arbor Day, and in conjunction the College’s Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives displayed old photographs and maps of the Arbo from times past.
However, art, like nature, isn’t only two-dimensional. The Arboretum hosts two conferences in Cummings a year: one in November for home gardeners, and another in January for professional landscape architects. About 150 people come to this particular two-day conference in Evans Hall.
And there are, of course, multiple sculptures located across Conn’s grounds, which are considered part of the Arboretum. “Barbara Zabel, who is a retired Art History professor, curated an exhibit at the Lyman Allyn, so I asked her if she’d be interested in doing a tour on campus of the sculptures. So you know, it’s just trying to find those types of partnerships where we can make connections within the community,” said Redfern.
Music is also an art form as a means of creative expression. In the fall and spring, Arbofest lets Conn students relax in front of the Pond, throw a Frisbee around with friends, and listen to music from student bands.
“The Arboretum is always open to students doing projects in the landscape, whether it’s like a theater—they want to do a play, or a performance—or some sort of art project or research project,” explained Redfern. “Not just natural sciences, you know, it could really be anything. I think that’s one of the tricky things—people just assume the Arboretum, oh, you have to be a Botany major to be involved, but that’s not true at all…” Redfern even mentioned that while at a rock-climbing class, she talked with a student from the theater department, and he told her he wished there were more plays in the Arboretum. “Well, you should talk to your professors about it, and let’s try to make it happen!” If students want to see more events at the Arbo, or get more involved, it seems they need to think outside the box and speak their mind.
Unfortunately, one problem that the Arboretum faces is that students are too busy to come to their events. “What are college students interested in, and when are they available?” asked Redfern, exasperated. “There are so many opportunities on campus for activities, it’s hard to compete with a lot of those programs and for us to get the word out.” But when word does get out and goes around, people flock to the Arboretum for everything including gaining knowledge on the trees in downtown New London on a tour, sitting in a gazebo with friends and family, and getting their hands a little dirty with a hands-on art project.
“It seems like art classes are a good way to get people looking more closely at nature, and just being observant of their surroundings. Art and nature seem to be a nice, compatible, complementary thing. Just pictures of landscapes, paintings of landscapes, drawings, you know, it seems like something that almost anyone can do,” commented Redfern. Art and nature seem to go hand-in-hand, and art isn’t a field of study strictly reserved for a group of professionals. Everyone can get involved.
So whenever one returns from the Arboretum and crosses Williams Street toward the stone walls of Connecticut College, one may do so carrying a heavy yet unique holiday wreath, or a memory of a play or song, that will forever capture and preserve the magic that the Arboretum holds. And whenever one lays down a blanket and sits under one of the twin Japanese Larch trees in front of Blaustein on an early spring day, looking for a creative solution to their problems, they’ll find it in front of them, next to them, and above them, in nature.
