Calendar
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Please note that this class is sold out
Join artist Virginia Hein for a sketch walk through the gardens on Thursday, April 6 from 5–6:30pm. This class is designed as an introduction to quick location sketching and each participant is given a small panorama sketchbook and waterproof pen (included in class price). Bring a spirit of curiosity, play and experimentation.
$40 for members/$45 for non-members, materials are included. Advance registration required.
Image: © Virginia Hein
Come see what happens in the garden during extended hours. Take a tour, dance to music amongst the flowers, learn about nature, enjoy food and drink. Grab some friends and enjoy the gardens in a new way.
Included in the price of admission or Descanso Gardens membership, no reservations required.
Cultivate: Explore SHIKI
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SHIKI exhibit tours with curator Meher McArthur
– Lecture/tour of Sturt Haaga Gallery
– Times: 5–5:45pm | 6–6:45pm
Haiku and tanka poetry reading and performance by Debbie Kolodji and Mariko Kitakubo
– Poetry readings of Kolodji and Kitakubo’s book
– Times: 5–5:30pm | 6–6:30pm
Flashdance DJs
– Times: 4:30–7pm
Activity: Make-your-own haiku poem or woodblock print
– Time: 4:30–7pm
Biographies
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Meher McArthur
Meher McArthur is an Asian art historian specializing in Japanese art. She worked as Curator of East Asian Art at Pacific Asia Museum and Creative Director for the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, both in Pasadena and was Academic Curator for Scripps College in Claremont and Art and Cultural Director for JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles.
Deborah P Kolodji Bio
Deborah P Kolodji is the Moderator of the Southern California Haiku Study Group, the California Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America, and a member of the board of directors for Haiku North America. She has given hundreds of haiku workshops over the past 15 years.
Mariko Kitakubo
Mariko Kitakubo is a tanka poet/tanka reading performer born in Tokyo (4, Oct. 1959) and living in Mitaka-city, Tokyo. Mariko has published six books of tanka including three bilingual ones, “On This Same Star” , “Cicada Forest”and “INDIGO”. She hopes to encourage more poetry lovers worldwide to appreciate and practice tanka. URL: www.en.kitakubo.com
Join artist Virginia Hein for a sketch walk through the gardens on Thursday, May 4 from 5–6:30pm. This class is designed as an introduction to quick location sketching and each participant is given a small panorama sketchbook and waterproof pen (included in class price). Bring a spirit of curiosity, play and experimentation.
$40 for members/$45 for non-members, materials are included. Advance registration required, register here.
Image: © Virginia Hein
Come see what happens in the garden during extended hours. Take a tour, dance to music amongst the flowers, learn about nature, enjoy food and drink. Grab some friends and enjoy the gardens in a new way.
Included in the price of admission or Descanso Gardens membership, no reservations required.
Cultivate: Native Plant Stories
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Storytelling workshop with Tina Orduno Calderon
– Tina will share stories and songs with guests as well as speak about the revival of the Tongva language and the fluidity of culture which is integrally connected to language and place
– Times: 4:30–4:50pm and 5–5:20pm
– Location: Amphitheater
Lessons from wildlife with Horticulturist Diana Nightingale
– Times: 5–5:45pm and 6–6:45pm
– Location: Meets at Center Circle
Theodore Payne Nursery Table
– Learn about fire prevention and native plants with Theodore Payne Nursery
– Time: 4:30–7pm
– Location: El Portal
Flashdance DJs
– Have a drink in the Rose Garden bar and enjoy a mix of classic and contemporary songs by our popular guest DJs
– Time: 4:30–7pm
– Location: Rose Garden
Craft activity: Native seed packet
– Time: 4:30–7pm
– Location: Main Lawn
Biographies
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Tina Orduno Calderon
Tina is a Culture Bearer, traditional singer and dancer, storyteller and poet who strives to honor her ancestors and inspire others to respect the lands, water, sacred elements and environment.
Keep your eyes open on the path leading up to the Boddy House and you may just find eyes staring back at you! These are part of the Wild Sighting installation by artist Leslie K. Gray on display May 30–October 1.
Free with admission, no reservations required.
About Leslie K. Gray
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Leslie K. Gray is a visual artist and theater designer whose work has been seen locally at the Skirball Museum, Highways Performance Space, and others as well as in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Montevideo, Uruguay.
She designed and directed the “Dragons 101” puppet show for Descanso’s Night Garden event of 2020 and the colorful butterflies in Descanso’s Rose Garden in 2021.
For more of her work, visit Haikupenguin.com.
Please note that this class is sold out
Join artist Virginia Hein for a sketch walk through the gardens on Thursday, June 1 from 5–6:30pm. This class is designed as an introduction to quick location sketching and each participant is given a small panorama sketchbook and waterproof pen (included in class price). Bring a spirit of curiosity, play and experimentation.
$40 for members/$45 for non-members, materials are included. Advance registration required.
Image: © Virginia Hein
Join us for a curator-led tour of the new interactive exhibit Living in a Wildlife Corridor. Meets at 11am and 1pm on Saturday, June 3 at the Boddy House.
Included in the price of admission, no reservations required.
Living in a Wildlife Corridor is open June 3–October 1 at the Boddy House.
About Living in a Wildlife Corridor
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Take a journey through the extensive network of wildlife corridors in Northern Los Angeles in Living in a Wildlife Corridor, an interactive exhibit created by the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy being hosted in Descanso Gardens’ Boddy House, June 3–October 1, 2023.
Discover how these corridors connect islands of open space and how you can help protect and enhance them. Through the lens of talented wildlife photographers and camera trappers, via the paintbrushes and canvasses of local artists, and through the stories and wisdom of the Tongva people who have stewarded this land for millennia, you’ll see our wild surroundings from an entirely new perspective.
Image: Mother of Lions © Robert Martinez, courtesy of Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy
Join us for a curator-led tour of the new interactive exhibit Living in a Wildlife Corridor. Meets at 11am and 1pm on Saturday, June 3 at the Boddy House.
Included in the price of admission, no reservations required.
Living in a Wildlife Corridor is open June 3–October 1 at the Boddy House.
About Living in a Wildlife Corridor
.
Take a journey through the extensive network of wildlife corridors in Northern Los Angeles in Living in a Wildlife Corridor, an interactive exhibit created by the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy being hosted in Descanso Gardens’ Boddy House, June 3–October 1, 2023.
Discover how these corridors connect islands of open space and how you can help protect and enhance them. Through the lens of talented wildlife photographers and camera trappers, via the paintbrushes and canvasses of local artists, and through the stories and wisdom of the Tongva people who have stewarded this land for millennia, you’ll see our wild surroundings from an entirely new perspective.
Image: Mother of Lions © Robert Martinez, courtesy of Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy
Come see what happens in the garden during extended hours. Take a tour, dance to music amongst the flowers, learn about nature, enjoy food and drink. Grab some friends and enjoy the gardens in a new way.
Included in the price of admission or Descanso Gardens membership, no reservations required.
Cultivate: The Five Senses
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Flower installation by florist Whit Hazen
- Watch before your eyes as a flower installation is built throughout the evening, using fragrant plants and flowers gathered from the garden to create a full sensory experience
- Time: 4:30–7pm
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Soundbaths by Marna Currie
- Enjoy sound baths under the oaks on the Main Lawn
- Times: 5–5:30pm and 6–6:30pm
- Location: Main Lawn
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Flashdance DJ
- Have a drink in the Rose Garden bar and enjoy a mix of classic and contemporary songs by our popular guest DJs
- Time: 4:30–7pm
- Location: Rose Garden
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Activity: Make your own herbal tea bag to take home
- Time: 4:30–7pm
Join us for a curator-led tour of the new gallery exhibit 0 Horizon: Art of the Forest Floor. Meets at the Sturt Haaga Gallery on June 17 at 11am and 2pm.
No registration required, free with admission.
About 0 Horizon: Art of the Forest Floor
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0 Horizon: Art of the Forest Floor examines a wealth of subject matter that exists in the parasitological ecosystem of the forest floor. The coexistence of the parasite and the host helps to complete life cycles in some species and the coevolution of both. The exhibition will be installed to create an immersive environment containing works of all media that serves as a metaphor for the mutualism needed to contribute to the earth’s sustainability.
The works in the exhibition will depict nature’s underworld; a wondrous display of decay, slime, parasites, worms, beetles, mushrooms, roots, and the detritus of animals and humans.
0 Horizon: Art of the Forest Floor is open at the Sturt Haaga Gallery from June 17 through August 27, 10am–4pm daily. Entry to the Sturt Haaga Gallery is included with admission to Descanso Gardens, no reservations required.
0 Horizon: Art of the Forest Floor is funded in part by Heather and Paul Haaga.
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