Art in the Garden was founded four years ago by Scilla Wahrhaftig, the head of the Pittsburgh branch of the American Friends Service Committee. Art in the Garden aims to fill a void in our neighborhood for activities for youth by engaging them in Borland Garden in an active, structured, and supportive way. For the past four years, Art in the Garden has been a thriving summer program in Borland Garden, occurring once a week for two hours, serving as many as twenty youth. Every year, youth and their families ask us to expand the program, and this year we hope to make that wish come true by expanding it to three days a week, with longer hours. We have a long-term vision of expanding this program beyond Borland Garden and continuing to develop the curriculum by responding to community needs.  

Community outreach is an essential part of Art in the Garden. The first step, once we have funding secured, is for the Lead Teacher and Assistant Teacher to get to know the families of the youth who will be attending Art in the Garden.

A bit more about the curriculum: Each week, in our exploration of the relationships between elements in the garden, we will focus on a different theme. These themes are: rainwater, the sun, the cistern, compost, worms, chickens, the pollinator garden, bees, vegetables, and native fruit trees. Each day will include snack, opening circle with community building or mindfulness activity, a read-aloud related to the learning objective, a structured activity, supervised free-play, a second structured activity, and a closing circle. At the end of summer, youth will also have the opportunity to present (read or perform) a small book of their writing, drawings, and experiments, as the community comes together to celebrate the power of their voices.

Sample activity: How are seeds spread? After discussing this question to gain an understanding of what we know, and what we wonder, we will read Planting the Wild Garden to understand how wind, pollinators, the sun, rain, and animals work together to grow plants and sow seeds. To further explore this topic, youth will be led on an in-depth exploration of the pollinator garden to further explore the essential question. Finally, youth will have the opportunity to engage in ability-specific projects that allow them to simulate various processes of seed-spreading including: collecting and disseminating seeds (and designing their own seed packets), designing seed “parachutes” to understand how some seeds (like dandelions) are caught and carried by the wind, and growing shoots from fruits (with their choice of avocado, lemon, orange, passion fruit, or mango) to understand how a fruit is like a tiny seed packet. After sharing out their observations, youth will have a chance to write or dictate a persona poem (we will have read persona poems the book Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems by Kristine George when begining our exploration of native trees in the days prior to this lesson) from the point of view of a seed, narrating the story of how it spreads.