MATTHAEI BOTANICAL GARDENS AND NICHOLS ARBORETUM friends newsletter • winter 2015 wandering through winter Robert E. Grese, Director U-M Regents Karen Sikkenga, Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor Associate Director Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor Laurence B. Deitch, Bloomfield Hills friends newsletter Shauna Ryder Diggs, Grosse Pointe caring for nature, enriching life Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms Joseph Mooney, Editor Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor Matthaei Botanical Gardens Nichols Arboretum [email protected] Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park 1800 N. Dixboro Rd. 1610 Washington Hts. Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor Ann Arbor MI 48105 Ann Arbor MI 48109 For information: Mark S. Schlissel, ex officio 734.647.7600 mbgna.umich.edu Printed on 100% recycled fiber, with 50% post-consumer content. Processed chlorine free, using non-oil-based inks. MATTHAEI BOTANICAL GARDENS AND NICHOLS ARBORETUM friends newsletter winter 2015 - news, updates, & information What Rhymes with “Nature”? Giant Troll Spotted on Property The ancient link between nature and poetry All kinds of creatures live at the botanical is on display in Letters & Leaves, the holiday gardens and arboretum. We can now count exhibit at the Botanical Gardens and Arboretum. a troll among them, thanks to students in Besides great poetry, this exhibit is also about assistant professor Osman Khan’s Contemporary collaborating with U-M faculty, interns, and Sculpture 260 class in the Stamps School of other students. Summer intern Andrew Miller— Art & Design. Last fall they constructed a himself a budding writer—worked with faculty 10-foot-tall replica of the fright-wigged and and Arb and Gardens staff members to put bug-eyed troll doll originally created by Danish together a compelling group of nature-inspired woodcutter Thomas Dam in 1959. poems from around the world. The poems are The project challenged the students on several on display in the conservatory at Matthaei and levels, says Khan. First, it exposed them to in the Arb. We also reached out to community how the object being sculpted changes or members and to U-M students for nature stays relevant for today’s society, he explains, photography and for poetry contributions, both including the shift from “traditional objects of of which are part of the exhibit. Visitors will sculpture such as deities, heroes, and idols to the also enjoy a poetry reading by Keith Taylor and more contemporary objects of concern for the Lorna Goodison on December 10, seasonal everyday.” As for why they picked the troll, Khan flower display, a community of faerie gardens asked the students to bring in something they and houses, a visit with Father Christmas on thought could be scaled up. After reviewing the December 20, and holiday items in the Garden possibilities, “they all agreed on the troll, mainly Store at Matthaei. Through January 4. Free. due to their own shared memories of having one Peony Disaster Preparedness or playing with one when they were young.” Deep inside a sandstone mountain on the Khan also hoped the students would take Norwegian island of Spitsbergen the Svalbard away an important lesson about thrift and Global Seed Vault houses seeds from agricultural simplicity—that making a large object doesn’t crops against loss in other seed banks around the have to be expensive, complicated, or require a world. A project with a similar goal—minus the ton of marble or other challenging material (this mountain romance—is underway at the Nichols troll is mostly made from Styrofoam). “Easily Arboretum Peony Garden. A key objective for available and relatively inexpensive materials the multi-year renovation project at the Peony can be used to work on a large scale,” Khan Garden is a plan says. The students also showed a lot of ingenuity for preservation and inventiveness in using digital and analog of the historic technologies such as a 3D scanner and software plants. That to scale the troll in virtual space and then trace involves sending dimensions accurately on sections of foam. PICTURED, TOP TO BOTTOM: a portion of our peonies off far Experimenting with technologies, materials, The exhibit Letters & Leaves - Nature As and wide for and methods of building was the most interesting Inspiration for Poetry explores the longstanding safekeeping in part of the project for Maya Crosman, a BFA connection between nature and verse. Through other collections. Above: Uncommon in the trade, junior in Stamps. “Each part of the process has January 4 at the Arb and Matthaei. peony Duchess of Portland is one been instructive, as there was no straightforward In the fall of of the peonies sent to peony soci- Matthaei-Nichols curator David Michener, 2014 Matthaei- eties as part of a dispersed survival way to create our sculpture,” she says. No one visiting scholar Nastassia Vlasava, and intern Nichols staff dug plan for the Nichols Arboretum in the class, Crosman explains, had ever made Peony Garden. Johann Moonsammy sort bags of peony roots up hundreds of something as large as the troll doll. In fact, the excavated from the peony garden last fall. After peony plants with the intent of distributing class is the first of its kind. “We problem-solved careful inspection, the roots were distributed to them to gardens and peony societies in North as a team throughout the whole process, finding peony societies throughout North America. America in the event of an unforeseen calamity ways to scale-up the small rubber troll doll into a Students in Osman Khan’s Contemporary in our garden. Some of the peony varieties sculpture over ten feet.” Sculpture 260 class pose in front of the troll in are no longer available in the trade or simply Editor’s note: We’re sad to report that just before the fairy and troll hollow in Nichols Arboretum. not offered by commercial growers, making a Thanksgiving the troll was vandalized. Staff The troll is made of stacked Styrofoam slices dispersed survival plan paramount. Another goal coated with a thin cement skin. The hair is members found her toppled over and missing for the garden restoration: create a genetic family carved and painted Styrofoam. If the troll can a foot and an arm. We’re hopeful that whoever tree as a benchmark for identification. Working be restored to its original condition after being did this will return the pieces so the troll can collaboratively on that project are Matthei- vandalized (see story, right), plans include bring- be restored. In the meantime, a discussion is Nichols curator David Michener, student intern ing it to Matthaei and other parts of campus. underway about what will happen next. Stay Richard Bryant, and Belarusian visiting scholar ON THE COVER: Fleming Creek, Matthaei Botanical tuned as the story of the troll continues! Nastassia Vlasava and her colleagues. Gardens, winter 2014. Photo by Jeff Plakke. more news next page friends newsletter winter 2015 - news, updates, & information winter 2015 Roads, Buildings Upgraded provost’s office and a collaboration with the Matthaei-Nichols New gardens and display spaces naturally draw Ronald McDonald House next door the fiber attention to themselves, but we’ve also been optic connection was finished last August. news & updates, continued quietly undergoing some significant behind- Outdated infrastructure meant slower speeds the-scenes infrastructure improvements in and glacial download times. Now, according to recent years. In the Arb, the final installment Arb & Gardens IT manager Adam Ferris-Smith, of a multi-year road improvement project was “the fiber connection is very fast—just as fast as underway in early November. This involved the connections at Matthaei or anywhere else on repairs to Nichols Drive and the area below campus.” Next up: Full wireless at the Gardens, the Heathdale. At the Gardens, workers toiled scheduled for installation no later than June. much of the summer to repair and repoint the cinder block walls of the greenhouses. By the Spring Burn Season Begins time September rolled around the walls were Fire in a populous area is a bad thing. But done and it was on to the installation of new fires in forests and grasslands occur naturally electrical service to the building at Matthaei and help in their rejuvenation. Prescribed, (pictured at left). We also got a nice aluminum or controlled, burns in one sense mimic the accessible ramp off the west entrance doorway natural fire cycle. While controlled burning and an accessible bathroom off the west lobby. might sound like a modern invention, indige- nous peoples in pre-settlement North America Shakespeare’s Garden used fire as a land-management tool. Today the A born nature geek himself, Shakespeare took prescribed burn is a key component of our on- much inspiration metaphorically and literally going land-management and stewardship efforts from things that grow (“that which we call a to encourage native ecosystems and minimize rose, by any other name would smell as sweet” the impact of invasive species. If you’d like to —Romeo and Juliet). In celebration of the participate as a volunteer, contact our volun- fifteenth anniversary of Shakespeare in the Arb teer coordinator at 734.647.8528. For general in 2015 we’re mounting a special conservatory information, contact our natural areas manager exhibit called Shakespeare’s Garden, featuring at 734.274.1809. Or simply visit on a prescribed plants and flowers that appear in works by burn day to watch and see how it works. the bard. Along with the plants and their Prescribed burn season begins March 23. relevant quotes we’ll have photographs from past Shakespeare in the Arb productions, artist Matthaei Open 1/1/2015 David Zinn’s playful Shakespeare in the Arb Call it a New Year’s resolution or simply a nice posters, and a selection of costumes from Kate tropical getaway on a day a lot of other places Mendeloff’s Residential College productions.