Hemlock Hospice Opening Event (Archived)

Art/Science Installation & Exhibition by David Buckley Borden

Download Press Release
Download brochure to self-guide through the exhibit 

 HEMLOCK HOSPICE

OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY OCTOBER 7, 2017, 12 -4 PM
Harvard Forest, 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA 01366

Presented by David Buckley Borden (Artist-in-residence), Aaron Ellison (Senior Ecologist),
and Salua Rivero (2017 summer undergraduate intern)

Exhibition on view from October 7, 2017 to November 18, 2018.

HEMLOCK HOSPICE TOURS (tour time is approximately 1.5 hours)
12 – 4:00PM – Self guided tours (check in at Fisher museum for map and brochure)
12:30PM – Guided tour with Salua Rivero (please RSVP; 15 people max.)
1:00PM – Guided tour with David Buckley Borden (please RSVP; 15 people max.)
2:30PM – Discussion with the creative team (Fisher Museum)
3:00PM – Guided tour with Aaron Ellison (full)

SCIENCE COMMUNCATION EXHIBITION (12 – 4:00PM  Fisher Museum)
Fisher Museum exhibition features a variety of collaborative art and design work from David Buckley Borden’s Bullard Fellowship. Curated by Penelope Taylor, the exhibition serves as an inspiring example of interdisciplinary science-communication ranging from traditional landscape renderings to experimental education props.

Light refreshments will be served in the Fisher Museum as part of opening reception. Limited-edition silkscreened artist prints will be available for purchase at Fisher Museum. Exhibition and self-guided Hemlock Hospice tour are free and open to the public from October 7, 2017 to November 18, 2018.
RSVP for the opening reception event at the Hemlock Hopsice event page.
RSVP for guided tour by emailing manishapatel@fas.harvard.edu

Dowload opening reception flyer

David Buckley Borden is an interdisciplinary artist and designer in residence at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA, collaborating with world-class ecologists on interdisciplinary art-science-communication projects involving landscape installations and arts-based interpretive trail design.

Hemlock Hospice is an art-science collaboration with Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison that features innovative art installed along a new interpretative trail. Eastern hemlock, the foundation tree in our eastern forests, is slowly vanishing from North America as it is weakened and killed by a small insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid. Hemlock Hospice blends science, art, and design in respecting hemlock and its ecological role as a foundation forest species; promoting an understanding of the adelgid; and encouraging empathetic conversations among all the sustainers of and caregivers for our forests—ecologists and artists, foresters and journalists, naturalists and citizens—while fostering social cohesion around ecological issues.

Hemlock Hospice is more than an art-science collaboration; it is also an educational initiative. Associated public workshops and print and social media are available to promote reflection, critical thinking, and creativity among scientists, artists, educators, humanists, and the general public. A diverse group of media partners will bring the concepts to a broad range of people in and outside the arts and sciences.

“As scientists, we envision welcoming artists into the lab and field so that they can help us communicate our scientific findings and their importance to broader audiences of non-scientists. But collaborations between artists and scientists really go both ways. Working with David on Hemlock Hospice is pushing me and the other scientists who work at Harvard Forest to revisit and re-frame the questions we ask and the hypotheses we test about how forests work.” - Aaron Ellison, Senior Ecologist Harvard Forest, Harvard University

Media Coverage 

• Worcester Telegram, October 2017 - Harvard Forest Presents an Homage to the Hemlock
• Range Magazine, Summer 2017 - Warning Signs
• Harvard Gazette, March 2017 - Creative Path through Harvard Forest
• Art & Design: Profile of David Buckley Borden
• Tell New England, June 2017 - Art in the Forest
• Neue Gulid Interview, April 2017 - Q & A Interview with David Buckley Borden

Examples of David Buckley Borden's Hemlock Hospice work at Harvard Forest

Click on images for a larger view

About Harvard Forest: 

The Harvard Forest is a department of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) of Harvard University, located in Petersham, Massachusetts. From a center comprised of 4,000 acres of land, research facilities, and the Fisher Museum, the scientists, students, and collaborators at the Forest explore the interacting physical, biological, and human systems that drive change in the New England landscape.