is surrounded by utilities and subway infrastructure. The trees’ Visitor Information roots also push up and crack the sidewalks that people walk along. Rain falls into the cracks and is diverted into watersheds, which 100 trees give voice to 100 perspectives. Open: June 21–October 12, 2009 eventually reach kitchen and bathroom taps along the Concourse. Irish artist Katie Holten created this project to Admission: Free JM: Immersing yourself in a place is key to your working process and in fact over the last Directions: Getting to the tree museum celebrate the communities and ecosystems along year your studio has been based here, first at the Bronx Museum and then at the Andrew is easy! Walk, bike or take public transportation. Freedman Home. In developing the tree museum, you’ve met hundreds of people, local Subway: 2 4 5 B D the 100-year-old Grand Concourse. Listen to the residents and workers, and nature enthusiasts. What has been surprising about peoples’ Bus: Bx1 / Bx2 run along the Grand Concourse. audio guide to hear the boulevard’s stories and impressions of trees and of the Grand Concourse? KH: The main thing that’s blown me away has been the excitement and Right: Northern Red Oak, tree 53 at E. Tremont Avenue the intimate lives of trees as told by current and positive energy. Almost every single person that I’ve reached out Left: Katie Holten, Excavated Tree, 2007, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, mixed media. Photo: Mike Schuh to has been very happy to talk about the Concourse. People are very Right: Katie Holten, Grand Concourse street trees (149th - 150th Street), 2008, ink on paper, 30” x 22”. Photo: Martin Seck former residents; from beekeepers to rappers, proud of the street, of their building, of their block. Public Programs On opening day, Sunday, June 21, at 5pm, the historians to gardeners, school kids to politicians. Conversation with Katie Holten JM: You’ve become a bit of an expert on the trees of the Grand Concourse. What do you want percussion group BombaYo leads a parade from people to take away from the experience? Jennifer McGregor (Senior Curator, Wave Hill): Trees have featured prominently in your The Bronx Museum of the Arts at 165th Street to the Lorelei Fountain in Joyce Kilmer Park at 161st work. One of the trees that you (re)created is Excavated Tree, a life-sized Flowering Dog- KH: If nothing else, I hope that people will realize that trees are Street for the opening ceremony. wood made from cardboard, newspaper, PVC, wire, and duct tape, at the Contemporary alive, they grow and they have names: like people. They aren’t “I think that I shall never see just sticks coming out of the ground. I also want visitors to the Public Programs include Haiku Hikes led by E.J. Art Museum St. Louis. This sculpture clearly describes the relationship between the tree’s A poem lovely as a tree” tree museum to see the Grand Concourse from another perspective, McAdams, Grand Concourse Tree Scrawl with visible branches and its invisible roots. When you were selected as a finalist for this project to —Trees, Joyce Kilmer, 1913 24 even if only for a minute. If one person slows down, listens to the Amanda Matles, Tree Walks and more! celebrate the ecology of the Grand Concourse, one approach would have been to re-establish audio guide, and hears something that moves him or her to look at Visit www.treemuseum.org for more info. a sculptural tree, how did you come upon the idea of a “museum” as the format to engage the street, the community, in a different way—that’s all I want. Tree Museum Walk, 2009. L-R: Katie Holten, Uli Lorimer, And I would like for people to think about the notion of a museum in “You don’t have to leave your neighborhood the public? E.J. McAdams, Joyce Hogi. Photographer: unknown to live in a better one, and trees are an a new way, not only without walls but without boundaries. Another important part of making that happen!” Katie Holten: The sculptural trees that I’ve made have all been for very simple element of the tree museum is getting people outdoors to tree museum Katie Holten would like to thank everyone who interior spaces. My outdoor works tend to be more “invisible” as I’m walk. One hundred years ago the Concourse was built for people to The is a collaborative project —Majora Carter, 2009 6 supported the tree museum, with particular interested in the fabric of public space. From day one I’ve looked at stroll along, under the shade of the trees, and in 2009 it takes organized by The Bronx Museum of the Arts and thanks to the Bronx residents who were so the whole Concourse as a community, a living system. Over the months quite an effort to get people out for a walk—but hopefully we’ll Wave Hill, with the NYC Department of Parks and welcoming and supportive, and the Andrew I learned more and more about the neighborhoods, I met more and more get them strolling! Recreation, cooperation from the NYC Department “On a hot, sunny day those trees that lined Freedman Home and Mid Bronx Council for people, and I realized that what I was dealing with was on the scale of Transportation and support from The Greenwall 162nd Street formed a canopy and you hosting the tree museum office. of a “museum” with historical facts, artifacts and personal stories— Foundation’s Oscar M. Ruebhausen Commission. could go in and cool off— a lot of stories. it was just beautiful!” Katie Holten, who represented Ireland at the 50th Artist: Katie Holten; Design: Inger-Lise McMillan; Venice Biennale in 2003, grew up in the Irish Map: George Colbert; Photographs: all photographs —Joyce Hogi, 2009 31 JM: You began this project photographing trees and then creating elegant tree drawings countryside and studied at the National College of are by Katie Holten except where stated otherwise; A public art project by Katie Holten as an entry pathway that connects to your ongoing work. When did you get hooked on the Art and Design in Dublin and the Hochschule der Studio Assistants: Jamie Davis, Rachel Steinberg; Technical assistants: Patrick Farrelly, David Concourse, and what about the environs made the project click for you? Kunste in Berlin. Through drawing, installation, Leaves in the sky and sculpture she focuses on the relationship Grandison, Shaun Krupa; Advisors: Sergio Bessa, Roots in the earth KH: In November 2007, I was walking the Concourse almost every day, between the individual and the environment. She Dillon Cohen, Meg Duguid, Jennifer McGregor, Trunk in between Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY trying to get a feel for the street and understand how to engage with has exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide Clare Weiss.; © Katie Holten, 2009 —Concourse Haiku, E.J. McAdams, 2008 64 the place. At 174th Street, where the Concourse crosses over the including solo shows at the Nevada Museum of Art June 21–October 12, 2009 Cross Bronx Expressway, I suddenly pictured the place as it might (2008-2009), Villa Merkel, Esslingen (2008) and have been 100 years ago. So different: no buildings, no sidewalks, no the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2007). Wave Hill “As a teenager the Grand Concourse FPO asphalt, and no cars. But there were trees originally—it was built as June 21–October 12, 2009 was my iconic street, a street of extraordinary a tree-lined boulevard for promenading. I saw the trees as a starting From top: Northern Red Oaks, trees 80 81 at Poe cottage, trees—a boulevard that I could only point for examining the entire ecosystem. Maybe it’s because I grew Poe Park; Tree Museum Haiku Hike, with Mr. Brunelle Grif- dream of.” up in the countryside, but I’ve always seen nature interconnected The Bronx Museum of the Arts fith’s freshman honors class, All Hallows High School, Joyce Above left: Tree Museum Conversation, 2008. Photo: Jaclyn Tobia; Above right: Katie Holten, Grand Concourse street tree Kilmer Park, 2009 —Daniel Libeskind, 2009 97 with the man-made: trees’ roots grow down into the soil, which (Bronx general post office), 2008, ink on paper, 30” x 22”. Photo: Martin Seck August 2–October 25, 2009 Mosholu Pkwy North Bainbridge Williamsbridge Wave Oval Risse St Hill Valentine- Varian House 100 E Ave Tracey Towers Risse St e v A NORWOOD rtland Bronx 99 Van Co Rochambeau Science 98 97 Mosholu Paul Ave R e s e r v o i r 96 Jerome Ave E 206th St P a r k 95 Ave W 205th St St M J e r o m e o Pkwy E 205th sh E 204th St olu P kw E 203rd St y Harris S Van Cortlandt BEDFORD 94 ou Park Field 93 th sidewalk Wave PARK 92 marker Hill Bronx E 202nd St Park Bedford 91 E 201st St Botanical Garden 90 tree museum is a public art project by Katie Bronx Zoo Park Holten. The ‘museum-without-walls’ runs the H 89 a Goulden Ave r length of the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, l e e m 88 s E 199th St from 138th Street to Mosholu Parkway. r R THE i u Blvd v e BRONX o r c Visitors can start their visit to the tree museum Lehman n THE GRAND CONCOURSE o at any point on the Grand Concourse. Look for the College Valentine Ave E 198th St East 87 C sidewalk markers that identify trees with stories.