March 5, 2012, 4:30-6 pm,
at the Conway School, Conway, MA. RSVP

Jesse worked with the Odyssey Institute helping plan a special residential facility in West Bali National Park. You can see Jesse’s blog and photos from her trip here.

Please let us know if you are coming. We look forward to seeing you.

“We are extremely pleased with this announcement,” said Conway School Director Paul Cawood Hellmund, “we are very anxious to keep attendance at our school as affordable as possible.”

The deadline for applying for Conway’s Class of 2013 is March 31, 2012. See Admissions.

Conway alum Brian McGowan ’07 will deliver the opening lecture, Living with a Mature Garden, at Smith College’s annual Bulb Show.

Before attending Conway, Brian (with his wife Alice) operated Blue Meadow Farm in Montague, MA for twenty years. Over that period of time, their nursery became well known throughout the region for its wide selection of unusual annual, perennial, and tender perennial plants. The pair co-wrote Bulbs in the Basement, Geraniums on the Windowsill: How to Grow & Overwinter 165 Tender Plants in 2008, published by Storey Publishing.

Brian McGowan '07 spoke with the Class of 2010 at Wave Hill in the Bronx, where he is Assistant Director of Horticulture.

After graduating, Brian worked with alum and trustee Seth Wilkinson ’99 at Wilkinson Ecological Design, a land management and restoration company with a special focus on wetlands protection and invasive species. Brian is currently Assistant Director of Horticulture at Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx, New York.

The lecture will be followed by a reception and preview of the Spring Bulb Show in the illuminated Lyman Conservatory. For more information, visit Smith College’s Botanic Garden website.

The critics will be regional planner Anne Capra ’00, local food systems planner Lisa DePiano, and ecologist Judy Preston. Contributing to discussion of the two food projects will be Brandeis University Prof. Brian Donahue, author of Reclaiming the Commons (1999) and The Great Meadow (2005).

Preliminary presentation schedule:
9:00-9:15 – Welcome
9:15-10:00 – Franklin County Farmland Study
10:10-10:55 – Concord Food System Plan
11:05 – 11:50 – Management Plan for Campo San Francisco (Chile)
11:50-12:50 – Lunch
12:50-12:55 – Welcome back
12:55-1:40 – Waterboro (Maine) Village Centers Plan
1:50-2:35 – Swift Factory Site and NE Hartford Neighborhood
2:45-3:30 – Landscape Management Plan for Kripalu Yoga Center
3:30-4:00 – Wrap-up Discussion
4:00 – Refreshments

Please come see the school in action. Let us know if you are coming by rsvp-ing here.

Conway Trustees will set 2012-13 tuition and conduct other business at their February 17 board meeting.

The Board of Trustees of the Conway School will convene on February 17, 2012, in Conway, Mass., to approve a preliminary budget for the next academic year. This will set tuition for the 2012-13 school year.

At the meeting trustees will review plans for the celebration of the school’s fortieth anniversary, including a major public event planned for fall 2012.

The board convenes formally three times a year to offer advice and set policy for the school. Board members hail from around Massachusetts and also Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

Jonathan Fogelson

Michael Singer

Artists/designers Michael Singer and Jonathan Fogelson, both of Michael Singer Studios are special visitors at Conway during the 2011-2012 school year.

“Michael and Jonathan are such innovative thinkers and great teachers,” notes Conway Director Paul Cawood Hellmund. “What they do transcends labels. They think and work across scales. They work in interdisciplinary ways. Perfect for Conway.”

Michael Singer has received many awards. He was a fellow with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His works are part of public collections in the United States and elsewhere. He has had several one-person shows, including at the Guggenheim Museum, New York City. The New York Times selected Singer’s design of a massive waste recycling and transfer station in Phoenix as one of the top eight design events of the year.

Singer’s two studios are located near the Conway School, in southern Vermont, and also in Florida, where Michael teaches at Florida Atlantic University. 

Michael and Jonathan joined Conway staff in planning and conducting a one-day workshop at our school, exploring future options for a former gold leaf factory in Hartford, part of a winter project for Conway students. The two will visit at other times during the year.

How much forest, free from development, does New England need, and how should it be managed? How much of our food could we, or should we grow in the region? What does the history of our land have to tell us about how best we might use it, and care for it today?

Join us for a broad-ranging lecture and discussion about the future of the New England landscape.

FREE! Advance registration required.

WHEN:                 Saturday, March 10, 2012  12:00 pm – 3:00 pm
WHERE:               Great Falls Discovery Center, 2 Ave A, Turners Falls, MA
TO REGISTER:     Contact Linda Alvord, Franklin Land Trust Member Services at
lalvord@verizon.net or (413) 625-9151.

Presented Franklin Land Trust as part of a series of events celebrating 25 years of land protection in western Massachusetts. For a full listing of events, visit the Franklin Land Trust events page.

This lecture co-sponsored by the Conway School of Landscape Design.

Image courtesy Brandeis University

Brian Donahue is an associate professor of American Environmental Studies on the Jack Meyerhoff Fund and among the core faculty in the Brandeis University Environmental Studies program.

Donahue teaches courses on environmental issues, environmental history and sustainable farming and forestry. He holds a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from the Brandeis program in the History of American Civilization. He co-founded and for 12 years directed Land’s Sake, a nonprofit community farm in Weston, Massachusetts, and was director of education at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas.

Donahue is the author of “Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town” (1999), which won the 2000 Book Prize from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. His book “The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord” (2004) won the 2004 Marsh Prize from the American Society for Environmental History, the 2005 Saloutos Prize from the Agricultural History Society and the 2004 Best Book Prize from the New England Historical Association.

His primary interest is the history and prospect of human engagement with the land.

Join us on Friday, January 13, 2012, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Conway School for a  design charrette that will explore urban design concepts for the village center of Ajo, Arizona, a former mining town in the Sonoran Desert. This is a fascinating town where we have been working over the last year. and where we will have a project this spring.

We’ll also be reviewing the work Conway students, alums, faculty, and friends have completed in Ajo for the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA).

From 2011 Ajo Plaza Master Plan by Melissa Carl '11 + Heloise Chandless '11

ISDA’s Maria Gmuca will be at Conway and Tracy Taft and other ISDA personnel will be joining us by Skype. Also adding his expertise through the internet will be Gary Bachman ’84. Coordinators for the charrette at Conway will be Ken Byrne and Paul Hellmund.

Open to Conway alums, students, and friends of the school. 

Contact us by January 10 if you are would like to participate. RSVP by January 10

Review some of Conway’s previous work in Ajo:

• Plan for the Revitalization of the Ajo Town Plaza
• A Sonoran Oasis: Developing a Local Food System for Ajo, Arizona
• 2011 Conway Alum Trip to Ajo – Blog

As stated in their notice, “Invasive plants can cause catastrophic habitat loss and pose an imminent threat to the rare plants and botanical heritage of our  Commonwealth. Managing these species can be costly, complicated and overwhelming. The most effective strategies are always the result of a clear and organized plan, whether you are responsible for
400 square feet or 40 acres. Join us for an interactive presentation that explores why and how to tackle this challenge, including invasive plant protocols and treatment strategies. Seth Wilkinson is a widely respected expert in ecological restoration.”

Wilkinson Ecological Design’s mission is to protect and restore the integrity and biodiversity of the unique natural ecosystems of Cape Cod, the Islands, and Eastern Massachusetts through the use of safe and effective invasive plant management techniques and the restoration and establishment of native plant communities.

The workshop is part of a series on Carbon Farming: Workshops in Regenerative Agriculture. Other  workshops in the series will be led by Joel Salatin, author and 3rd generation farmer featured in  Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma; Elaine Ingham, founder of Soil Foodweb; and Eric Toensmeier, co-author with Dave Jacke of Edible Forest Gardens.