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ExhibitionsOPEN HOURSThe admission to the Schuylkill Center's art gallery at the Visitor Center and our trails is free and open to the public.
The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
Gallery hours are Monday - Saturday, 9 am - 5 pm Our trails are in part wheelchair accessible. Please consult the Schuylkill Center's trail map for more information. The main Parking lot is open Monday - Saturday, 9 am - 5 pm. *Note* ART ON VIEWVisit our Environmental Art Website for more information about our current exhibitions and event programs. www.schuylkillcenter.org/art/ CURRENT EXHIBITIONThere are no ongoing exhibits at this time. UPCOMING PROJECTSRob Carter: Cultured Lands In partnership with the West Collection, the Schuylkill Center presents Richmond-based environmental artist Rob Carter. The exhibition features works from Carter’s recent experimental soybean project, “Plant Writing,” in conjunction with his video animation “Metropolis” on urban development. Set in the historical context of colonization, land exploitation and controlled cultivation of plants, the multimedia installation challenges humanity’s hubris and asks what a sustainable future of our land may look like. More Information about the exhibition HERE ![]()
Al-Mudhif – A Confluence with Sarah Kavage & Yaroub Al-Obaidi This summer Seattle-based environmental artist and urban planner Sarah Kavage and Philadelphia-based designer Yaroub Al-Obaidi will construct Iraqi guesthouse, a mudhif. Entirely made out of the invasive wetland grass phragmites, the mudhif will become a welcoming space for intercultural encounters and hospitality at the Schuylkill Center, offering a critical perspective on water ecology, restoration, and global migration. More Information about the exhibition HERE ![]() PAST EXHIBITIONSCitizen's Eye - A Kaleidoscope of Nature ![]()
Ecotactical: Earth Day at 50 Originally scheduled for April, this exhibition is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and features works that respond to the question of what Earth Day means, or should mean, fifty years after it was first celebrated. The exhibition features Ants on a Log, Nicole Donnelly, Julia Way Rix, Kristen Neville Taylor, Tools for Action, Sophy Tuttle, Water Ways, and Pili X. These artists bring to light aspects of conservation activism, urban farming, invasive and endangered species, environmental and racial justice, community organizing, and more.
![]() Explore the full history of the Schuylkill Center's past art programs HERE and on our Environmental Art Website, www.schuylkillcenter.org/art PERMANENT COLLECTIONThe Schuylkill Center presents a collection of permanent installations on its trails and in the building. The art projects are the results of the Center's ongoing Environmental Art Program. An overview of our permanent installations is available for download HERE. More details about our permanent artwork onsite, please visit the Environmental Art Website www.schuylkillcenter.org/art The Tempestry Project is a global climate data visualization project through fiber arts. Tempestries (also temperature tapestries) use colored yarn and temperature data for creating a recognizable and globally comparable mosaic. With the help of 38 volunteer knitters and crocheters, in 2019 a collection of Tempestries for Philadelphia was created for the period from 1875 to 2018. Each Tempestry shows the daily high temperatures for a given year, representing the shifting temperatures over time. More Information about the project HERE. ![]() Buprestid Insulae by Anthony Heinz May (2019)
In conjunction with the exhibition "We All Fall Down: Artists Respond to the Emerald Ash Borer" Anthony Heinz May sculpted Buprestid Insulae. The artwork grows out of the trunk out of a dying ash tree and appears to become pixelated, even eventually to dissolve into the air.
![]() Future Non-Object #1: Sol's Reprise by Jake Beckman (2014)
As part of the Schuylkill Center’s first LandLab residents, Jake Beckman explored the soil cycle. Unpacking the various components of soil - including stone, wood, leaves, and soil organisms - Future Non-Object #1 is a testimony to natural formation and decay.
![]() Rain Yard by Stacy Levy (2013)
Rain Yard is an interactive artwork in the Schuylkill Center's Sensory Garden since 2013. The installation serves both a practical function-mitigating stormwater runoff from our building-and an interpretive function-highlighting the critical role that soil and plants play in the water cycle. The renown environmental artist, Stacy Levy, created the artwork in collaboration with ecologists, engineers, designers, educators and horticulturists.
![]() Welcome Home by Vaughn Bell (2013)
Installed by the artist with the support of staff and volunteers, Welcome Home is Schuylkill Center’s first explorations in the intersection of art and land restoration. The installation creates a literal home for native plants while serving as a visual education tool by demarcating the differences between protected native plant communities and unprotected, highly invaded landscapes.
![]() An ecological art project on the Schuylkill Center's Widener Trail
Bell and a team of Schuylkill Center staff and volunteers, cleared the area inside the home of all invasive plant species, prepared the ground, re-planted with native plants, and created an enclosure to protect them while they grow. Welcome home! Your hosts, Prunus serotina (black cherry), Cercis canadensis (eastern redbud), Lindera bezoin (spicebush), and their friends welcome you to their home. The plants within this house are all species native to the area, evolving here for centuries, providing food and habitat for countless bird and animal species. But human activities like logging, farming, and urbanization have transformed this landscape over time. We have introduced new species that have become invasive, crowding out natives while diminishing the forest's diversity. Deer overbrowse young seedlings, not allowing the forest to regenerate. Even the climate is changing. Now, the plants that live in this house require our care and protection to keep them safe while they become established. Visitors are welcome to come in and meet the native plants inside. Over time, you can see how the garden grows! For more about this project and Vaughn's work: http://vaughnbellblog.wordpress.com/ About the Artist Vaughn Bell creates interactive projects and immersive environments that deal with how we relate to our environment. She has exhibited her sculpture, installation, performance, video and public projects internationally. Most recently, Vaughn created a commission for Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and another for the Edith Russ Site for New Media Art in Oldenburg, Germany. Her work has been featured in Artnews, Afterimage, and Arcade Journal, among others. Vaughn received her MFA from the Studio for Inter-related Media at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA and her undergraduate degree from Brown University. She currently is based in Seattle. About the Schuylkill Center for Environment EducationFounded in 1965, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education (SCEE) is one of the first urban environmental education centers in the country. It encompasses over 340 acres of privately held land in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia. SCEE's mission is to promote the preservation and improvement of our natural environment through education, outreach and the conservation of its land. It provides a wide variety of award-winning educational programming for schools and the public, and is home to the Schuylkill Center Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. The environmental art department at the Schuylkill Center incites curiosity and sparks awareness of the natural environment through art, and works collaboratively to create exhibitions of the highest quality that attract, educate and inspire the public. ( https://www.schuylkillcenter.org/). For more information, contact us at artprogram@schuylkillcenter.org, or call 215 482 7300 x113
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