Art and Design Commons^™

Sam Van Aken: New Edens, Shannon Egan

Schmucker Art Catalogs

Hybridized fruit trees, grafted orchids on shiny, reflective aluminum pedestals, fluorescent lights placed vertically on stands, and sheets of silver Mylar create a lush and somewhat disorienting space in contemporary artist Sam Van Aken’s most recent body of work New Edens. Van Aken makes Gettysburg College’s Schmucker Art Gallery into a kind of fantastical and futuristic winter garden. Without daylight and despite the cool fall weather of the Northeast, the dozen trees in the gallery are leafy and green, some even bearing fruit. Peach, plum, cherry, nectarine and apricot branches emerge from a single trunk and grow productively alongside their …

Designing A School Garden Space That Emphasizes Children's Wants And Uses Permaculture Design Methods, Mikhaela Mullins

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at Saratoga Elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraska to obtain data on what children desire in a garden space. To collect this data a school garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented. Students who participated in the after school garden club partook in the study by drawing their ideal garden. Elements that the subjects drew were identified and categorized into ‘highly desired’ and ‘somewhat desired’.

These elements were then incorporated into a proposed garden design plan for Saratoga. The proposal plan uses Permaculture design methods to emphasize sustainability.