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.

Pictures from the Dedication

Children's Nest Egg Dedication Tuesday September 23, 2008

You are invited to a dedication and opening for the Children's Nest Egg project at Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis Park On Tuesday, September 23, 5:30 pm -6:30 pm, followed by a Bronze Award Ceremony of the Girlscout Troop who volunteered at the prior Nest-Raising Event.Where: Westwood Hills Nature Center8300 West Franklin Avenue / St. Louis Park, MN 55426(952) 924-2544 (Westwood Hills Main Phone) The Westwood Nature Center is located in the northwest corner of St. Louis Park, just south of I-394 and east of Highway 169. Parking and admission are free. Go to the Westwood Hills Nature Center web page for directions.The Children’s Nest Egg is a public environmental art project, designed by Full Spring Studio, LLC’s with Fabrication by Swainhart Construction Services, LLC and with many contributions and volunteer hours from others including staff of the City of St.Louis Park, Westwood Hills Nature Center staff, Girl Scout Troop 10297, Author: Daniel J. Philippon, U of MN Raptor Center’s Gail Buhl, STS Crew, and many others. Generous funding for this project is by the Arts & Culture Grant Program, a collaborative program between the City of St. Louis Park, the Friends of the Arts, and the St. Louis Park Community Foundation. For more information: You can ask questions or comment and see pictures and watch for updates at http://childrensnestegg.blogspot.com/. Or Email: jonee@fullspringstudio.com or call 651-895-7834. Click here to download the flyer for the event.

Feathering the Wing Bench

--------- Inner Feathers ---------

At the Nest-Raising, participants could view community writings engraved on the the metal plates that line the inner side of the Wing Bench. The engraving in the chrome-plated brass, made the writings show as gold-colored lettering on a silver-colored, reflective background.

After the Nest-Raising, the remaining chrome plates to fill in between the writings were added. Each reflective surface can catch the light, reflecting the surroundings and reflecting light patterns back onto the sculpture.

--------- Outer Feathers ---------

The outer cladding of the Wing Bench is galvanized steel, mounted and folded in a pattern inspired by the arrangement of feathers on a bird's wing.

Video Now Available from Nest Raising

Here's a link to the 45 minute video from the Nest-Raising event and the noon time program. The video debuted Friday, September 5th, 2008 on Civic TV 17 and was produced by Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator. It features Girl Scout Troop 12279 weaving the nest wall, comments by the artist, a raptor demonstration, and readings of some of the community writings engraved in the bench.

Special Raptor and Readings program at the Nest-Raising!

Community Nest-Raising!
The Nest-Raising Event at Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis Park will be Saturday August 23, 10 am -7pm with a special program from 12-1:30pm.Come to the Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis Park to help or watch as the project team builds the nest wall of woven branches on the Children’s Nest Egg project, around the giant “egg.” Take a turn at sewing the nest with a giant needle. Read the community writings engraved in the bench. Drawings and photographs of the whole planning and construction process will be on display. The Nature Center trails will be open, the playground available, and nature treasure hunt materials available also.Bring a picnic lunch for the special program from 12-1:30 featuring a project history from the designer, a live Raptor demonstration from the University of Minnesota Raptor Center’s Gail Buhl, and a reading of community writings, engraved in the bench.Where: Westwood Hills Nature Center8300 West Franklin Avenue / St. Louis Park, MN 55426(952) 924-2544 (Westwood Hills Main Phone) The Westwood Nature Center is located in the northwest corner of St. Louis Park, just south of I-394 and east of Highway 169. Parking and admission are free. Go to the Westwood Hills Nature Center web page for directions.The Children’s Nest Egg is a public environmental art project, designed by Full Spring Studio, LLC’s with Fabrication by Swainhart Construction Services, LLC and with many contributions and volunteer hours from others including staff of the City of St.Louis Park, Westwood Hills Nature Center staff, Girl Scout Troop 10297, Author: Daniel J. Philippon, U of MN Raptor Center’s Gail Buhl, STS Crew, and many others. Generous funding for this project is by the Arts & Culture Grant Program, a collaborative program between the City of St. Louis Park, the Friends of the Arts, and the St. Louis Park Community Foundation.Download Flyer with Directions and Map on second page here.For more information: You can ask questions or comment and see pictures and watch for updates at http://childrensnestegg.blogspot.com/. Or Email: jonee@fullspringstudio.com or call 651-895-7834Thanks for your participation!

August 8th-10th: Boardwalk

Swainhart Construction Services, LLC completed

fabrication of the boardwalk portion of the project.

August 6th. Egg Drop

The city brought their forklift to lower the 742-pound concrete "Earth Egg" onto its post. It came down centered on the second try so that the 2 inch wide sleeve inside the sphere slipped over the metal post. The post doesn't support the weight of the egg. It is just to keep it from rolling away...

Children's Nest Egg at Parktacular

Children's Nest Egg had a booth at the "Promote Yourself" section of Parktacular at Wolfe Park on June 14. The designer talked to many passers-by on the beautiful Saturday afternoon and almost 80 writing forms were handed out. A clay model of the bench was created during the event, and several kids took a turn at shaping and smoothing the model. Here are some images of what was on display:

Also on June 13, 5-10 p.m., the St. Louis Park Community Foundation included materials for the project at their table at the Parktacular Street Dance with Tim Mahoney Band at Excelsior and Grand Town Green.

New Videos of Legacy Leaving Event and Reading

Reg Dunlap of SLP Cable/ParkTV generously took and produced these videos to be available online. Technical note from Reg: The good news is that most computers can play thefile; the bad news is you must have "high speed" bandwidth to watch thevideo, not dial up. Select the URL below and then "high speed" from the title page.

1) Video tour of Children's Nest Egg location at Westwood Hills Nature Center and Invitation for writing collection. link to video

2) Jonee Kulman Brigham briefly describes the Children's Nest Egg, and Dan Philippon reads from selected works about the themes, "gifts" and "the wild." link to video

Legacy Leaving Event Update

For the Legacy Leaving event, we are fortunate to have a guest speaker: Daniel J. Philippon, Environmental Author of Conserving Words; How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement. Also at the event you can hear about the project process, see drawings of the design and the location where it will be installed, and -- most importantly -- express your appreciation of nature in prose or poetry and become part of the art. Instructions and rules for submitting writing will be given at the event, and posted online afterwards. The due date for writing submissions will be June 30th, 2008. The Westwood Hills Nature Center is full of sources of inspiration both outdoors and from the interpretive materials available in the building. Community writings will be incorporated into the installation and unveiled at the “Nest Raising" event later this summer.

Download flyer for May 17 Legacy Leaving Event

The Poem

This is what I wrote last year about what inspired the design and the poem.

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“I am drawn to the arboretum’s small, enveloping clearings in the trees and feel nurtured by them. Many of the individual trees, themselves, seem delicate and vulnerable. These feelings recall my recent entry into motherhood, my work for global sustainability and my increasing awareness of global warming and I see parallels in my instinct to nurture at various scales. I appreciate the trees - how each fragile one, in its ‘breathing,’ continually works to maintain our atmosphere. I see the mutual nurturing as a circle - where we are both a ‘child of’ as well as a ‘parent of’ the earth.”

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I'd also been singing a lot of lullaby songs, which I think affected the rhythm of it. I sometimes sang this poem to my boys to try it out to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," or "All the Pretty Little Horses."

Background

This art installation was first designed and built as a winning entry in the juried exhibition for a seasonal show at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Art-To-Amaze Walk on display from June 16, 2007 to September 30, 2007.

(Image: Board submitted for the Arboretum Competition)

The idea to rebuild and adapt it for St. Louis Park came from a St. Louis Park resident that was visiting the sculpture and was sad to see that it was only going to be available until September. She suggested that it be rebuilt in St. Louis Park under the public art grant program there. The public art program’s focus on community engagement sparked new ideas for the adaptation, and the community environmental education and appreciation mission of the Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis Park made it the obvious choice for a new home.