2021 has been a rich year of knowledge transfer in the gardens for EartHand!

We have been so thrilled to have with us this past year three interns from two universities: Sarah Holloway- Rhode Island School of Design and Rebecca Wang and Melanie Camman from Emily Carr University of Art and Design joined us for nearly 500 hours of combined time in the gardens and online doing research and administrative support- understanding how we build programs around the plants that we tend.

Each person was on their own learning journey, but each has involved mapping one of the gardens in some way that takes us forward as a community in better understanding the plants in our stewardship. Also, how we share information with the larger community and our stewardship groups have been enriched by the work each of these individuals has done.

Creating a Digital Means of Production Garden (MOP)-

by Sarah Holloway is ready for you to visit here!

Completed over two summers, this project by Sarah worked to digitize the experience of arriving at the garden and seeing something new every time. Divided into types plants based on use, you can explore the digital garden and get a taste for the plantings at MOP.

Intentionally easy to get lost in, like the wilds of MOP itself, plant locations are not revealed in part to aid in opportunities for self discovery on site and reduce possible plant theft or inappropriate harvests from oversharing information online.

Sarah is back at RISD for another year but has their sites set on settling in Vancouver after graduation so we look forward to having Sarah in the gardens with us in summers to come.

Melanie is currently at Emily Carr pursuing her master’s degree. Weaving is a core part of her practice as is her own ancestral cloth research and she has joined us this summer to help with general stewardship at Trillium Park while working on mapping our seasonal work- giving the stewardship team a better sense of the annual work to be done as well as harvesting and seasonal use opportunities from the plantings on site. The final map is looking beautiful and will be very helpful for garden planning and we are thrilled to have Melanie active in our programs and participating in stewardship, using materials from the gardens in her work whenever school and teaching on the ski slopes gives her space to join us.

Rebecca Wang graduated from Emily Carr in the Spring of 2021, shortly after beginning her internship with us as a part of the Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship Artists Apprenticeship Network program.

Rebecca’s time has been a blend of online administrative zoom time with Sharon on program creation and support, in the gardens learning about the plantings- recording and transcribing to spreadsheet the seasonal work rhythm of the many plants, and helping out at events with the community.

This Autumn wrapped up the official hours of the program with time spent learning how to develop a community project and writing grants with Sharon. Together they got 2 grants out the door, and if successful it will allow Rebecca to continue working with EartHand in 2022, in a paid capacity as a research artist and program lead in figuring out how we can take our Ancestral Cloth program to a larger and more diverse community. We are looking forward to having Rebecca stay on with us as a garden steward and joining our small dedicated team!