Post on Transitions of Children's Nest Egg

Over on the Full Spring Studio website, there's a post about Children's Nest Egg, and its recent transitions. 

"Spring is a time of transitions. Blood Root peek up from the damp, grey-brown earth with their fragile stems and delicate petals. Buds thicken the ends of tree twigs with green potential. Robins, with mouthfuls of dried grass, weave their nests anticipating a new generation within small blue eggs. In each of these cases, something had to disintegrate to provide the circumstances for something new. Soil nutrients are based on the investment of last year’s life.
I’ve been thinking about transitions. March 21 marked the 11^th birthday of Full Spring Studio. And today, April 22^nd, Earth Day, is the ground breaking ceremony for the new interpretive building at Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis Park. While I don’t live in St. Louis Park anymore, I have an attachment to it, particularly to Westwood Hills Nature Center, since it was here in 2008 that I started work with a great team and community on Children’s Nest Egg (In the Park), a participatory public art project. And it was this project that inspired me to start Full Spring Studio, LLC."

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Invitation to Children's Nest Egg Closing/Transition Ceremony and Program

You are Invited to the Children's Nest Egg
Closing/Transition Ceremony and Program
Saturday, September 29th, 2018

1:30 - 3:00 pm (presentation at 2pm)
Location:
Picnic Shelter and Children's Nest Egg
Westwood Hills Nature Center
8300 W Franklin Ave,
St Louis Park, MN 55426

At the Event:

• Artifacts from Planning on Display
• Presentation of Project Stories
• Reading of Community Poetry 
• Transition Reflections and Ideas
• Closing Ceremony 
• Take-home Memento (limited number)

Ten years ago this fall (September 2008) the Children’s Nest Egg public art project was dedicated at Westwood Hills Nature Center.  Since then, countless children and visitors have entered the room-sized nest to explore, sit on the earth-egg, and read the poetry from the community engraved on the bench that expresses the “gifts of wild” that community members appreciate and want to leave as a legacy for the next generation. 

As you may know if you live in St. Louis Park, starting next year, a very tangible legacy is being planned for construction on the same site. A new nature center building for Westwood Hills will be a state-of-the-art green building  that improves public access to the natural environment and programming at Westwood Hills Nature Center, and models environmental leadership to future generations. This project necessitates the removal of Children’s Nest Egg, and there are no plans to relocate it at the Nature Center, due to limitations of space.  

In light of this transition,  and to honor and appreciate the contributions of the funding organizations, as well as provide space for a community farewell to the art work, I have been working with Mark Oestriech, Manager of Westwood Hills Nature Center, to plan a closing ceremony in September near the 10 year anniversary of the Children’s Nest Egg dedication.  This is a way of thanking those who invested in this project and to properly close a project in which so many expressed their heartfelt feelings for community and the environment. The closing program is scheduled for Saturday, September 29th, 2018 from 1:30-3 pm at Westwood Hills Nature Center.

I hope to be able to talk with you about your own Children's Nest Egg memories and stories, as well as ideas underway for the transition of Children’s Nest Egg - physically as well as its story. However the documentation and next steps for the sculpture unfold, the replacement of Children’s Nest Egg with a building that is a testament to the community’s environmental commitment is a meaningful turning point in the history of this special place. 

Hope to see you at the event!
-Jonee 

Children's Nest Egg Featured in St. Louis Park Magazine

St. Louis Park Magazine, June 2014 Issue, includes an article, "The Art of Community" by Maggie Soucheray Sonnek about public art in St. Louis Park. The article is a nice tour illustrating the city's commitment to the arts and giving a little background about each featured project and its artist/designer.

Children's Nest Egg is one of the projects featured and I enjoyed talking with Maggie about the community engagement that was involved in both creating and renewing the nest.

I've always been so impressed with the St. Louis Park Arts and Culture program, and was honored to be part of it.

Another Nest Renewal!

A big thank you to the youth volunteers and their group leaders from Faith Point Lutheran Church, who volunteered to renew the nest of Children's Nest Egg on Wednesday June 5th.

Rebuilding the nest wall is an opportunity for volunteer groups to express values of care and renewal of nature and the earth. The nest wall is made of branches and naturally bio-degrades over time, shrinking as the bottom layers disintegrate into the soil. Volunteers learn to rebuild new layers of the nest wall on top of the old. 

This year's nest renewal had a new twist. Mark Zembryki, of Westwood Hills Nature Center gave an introduction about the harmful influence of the invasive Buckthorn plant and provided snippers for volunteers to gather the invasive plant from the nature center. (Gathering of plant material from the Nature Center, is only allowed under guidance from the Nature Center Staff.) Volunteers then gathered Buckthorn and used it to build new layers on the nest wall. I then showed them how to weave the layers together using basket weaving techniques, manilla rope as thread, and a giant wooden needle. 

This new twist of using Buckthorn solved two problems at once (removal of invasive plants, and raw material for the nest) but it was also the first time fresh-cut branches were used in building the nest, with green leaves still attached. Although this fresh-cut appearance of the nest was fleeting (the leaves dried and fell over several weeks) it was also delightful.

Nest Renewal - October 22, 2010

Girl Scout troop #12279's Corrine, Kota, Juliana, and Elena renew the nest wall, sewing the new branches in with giant wooden needles and manilla rope.

View from Entry

Capping the Wing Bench

Metal strips were wrapped around wood blocks and mounted over the top ridge of the bench to "thicken" the top, just as a wing is thicker at the top where there is more bone and muscle.