CALEDONIA— Terradise Nature Cen ter at 1536 Whetstone River Road North, Caledonia,announces the culminating public event from their April Terradise Environmental Arts Residency — their Annual Open Garden & Environmental Art Event, to be held Sunday, May 1, from 2-4 p.m., rain or shine, at Terradise Nature Center outside of Caledonia. The free two-hour environmental arts event reprises Terradise Nature Center’s longstanding spring Annual Open Garden Event – a tradition launched by Terradise founder Trella Romine, in which visitors are invited to stroll the Terradise grounds to see the flowers & riverbottom ecosystem in bloom.
It will also feature workshops with Terradise Nature Center’s two April 2022 artists-in-residence: musician, creative writer, ambient sound recordist, & painter Chris Gherman, of Marion & Delaware Counties, and creative writer, memoirst, & children’s book author Deborah Jessie, of Marion County.
Writer Deborah Jessie will lead the event with “Wild Hope,” an open community workshop from 2-3 p.m. for children & their families about identifying native North-Central Ohio flowers – a part of the childrens’ book project on Marion County wildflowers she has been working on as a part of her residency.
Musician & Artist Chris Gherman will follow from 3-4 p.m. with “Songs of Remembrance”: a performance & sharing of songs, music, & poetry Chris has gathered, composed, & produced in-residence, which will culminate in a participatory sound walk/sound-gathering event.
The community is invited to stroll the grounds before & after the workshops to take in the striking range of native & cultivated plants that will be in bloom! Both Jessie & Gherman served as April Artist-in-Residence with the new Terradise Environmental Arts Residency: a six-month series of fully-funded, month-long non-residential residencies for Marion & Morrow County artists across genres whose work intersects with or could make use of Terradise’s unparalleled Whetstone (Olentangy) River bottomlands, Terradise’s mission, or the long history of founders Trella & Ray Romine in local prairie & river conservation.
The events will be held simultaneously with an ambient Open Garden Event – a Terradise tradition, & a chance for the public to stroll the grounds, & take in the spring blooms. Native North-Central Ohio plants & prairie botanicals will be available for sale by Marengo-based Natives in Harmony, with 30% of proceeds going to support Terradise Nature Center.
The entire event is free of charge, open to the public, and suitable for families and community members of all ages & abilities.
ABOUT TERRADISE NATURE CENTER: Terradise Nature Center is a not-for-profit nature center spanning the southern bank of the historic Whetstone (Olentangy) River downstream from downtown Caledonia: across the river from the historically affiliated Terradise Nature Preserve, which, today, is managed separately, by the Marion County Parks District. The larger 18-acre property — historically known, together, as “Terradise”: poet Ray Romine’s neologism for “heaven on earth” — was the home of pioneering Marion County naturalist, conservationist, & local historian Trella Romine, who, along with friends like Kensel Clutter, helped kickstart what became a powerful regional movement to research, document, preserve, & re-seed Marion, Wyandot, & Crawford counties unique Sandusky Plains prairie ecology.
ABOUT THE TERRADISE ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS RESIDENCY: Terradise is one of the only nature centers in our region with this dual focus on natural and cultural heritage; & the new Terradise Environmental Arts Residency — made possible by a $15,000 Arts Resilience Initiative Community Project Grant from the Ohio Arts Council — offers the only paid arts residency in the bi-county (Marion & Morrow) county region, open to Ohio artists living in, working in, or with an ancestral connection to Marion or Morrow Counties. OAC’s Arts Resiliency Initiative was funded by ARP dollars to Ohio’s statewide arts grantmaking agency, & was designed — like the beloved Works Progress Administration (WPA) community arts & culture projects of the 1930s — to spark COVID-19 economic recovery 1536 Whetstone River Road North, Caledonia, Ohio 43314. The residency was conceived by Terradise Nature Center Board Secretary & Cultural Heritage Programs Coordinator Jess Lamar Reece Holler who was inspired by similar environmental arts residencies at nature centers & sanctuaries in other parts of Ohio — such as the Deep Ecology Artists’ Residency at United Plant Savers’ Goldenseal Sanctuary in Meigs County — but wanted to include generous artists’ stipends & materials stipends, & to design the residency to be non-residential, to help make the residency experience accessible to artists who need to work for a living. Jess now serves as Terradise Environmental Arts Residency Coordinator. TERRADISE NATURE CENTER 1536 Whetstone River Road North CALEDONIA, OHIO 43314 terradise.org/arts-residency [email protected] ###
