Meet the Center of Wonder's new Nature Ambassador!
The Night the Stars Fell:
EARTHWORK! art talk with Thea Alvin
Matthieu Ricard's visit to Jackson Hole a huge Success!
Go Hammocking is an experiential public art project encouraging participants to explore nature in a new way.
Felted Flower Garden to Bloom on the Town Square
Knitted flowers will decorate antler arches, one day only – August 8
Jackson, Wyo. – Center of Wonder and Knit on Pearl are pleased to present “The Felted Flower Garden” public art project on Saturday, August 8, 8-11 AM on the Town Square. Ninety felted flowers will adorn the southeast elk antler arch during the Farmer’s Market that day.
A collaboration between Center of Wonder and Knit on Pearl, “The Felted Flower Garden” includes the work of 20 local knitters. Felting is a process in which an item knitted with animal fiber is made solid by immersing and agitating it in hot soapy water. The eighty felted flowers include several “species,” including daffodils, calla lilies, tiger lilies, iris, tulips, gerber daisies and sunflowers. Patterns for the flowers were donated by Oakland, California, knitter Maggie Pace, author of Felt Forward.
“The Felted Garden” is the brainchild of Knit on Pearl employee Cindy Daly. “My vision was to bring members of my community together for the common goal of creating public art that is surprising and beautiful, and to put it somewhere that really identifies Jackson Hole,” she said.
The project was inspired in part by the worldwide phenomenon of knitting graffiti, or “yarn bombing,” which is the use of knitted or crocheted cloth to modify or beautify one's surroundings. Knit on Pearl hosted free classes on knitting flower patterns. The store also donated skeins of yarn to the project.
“When Cindy approached us about doing a public art project featuring felted flowers, we knew it was a great fit for Center of Wonder,” said Bland Hoke. “It’s been an amazing collaboration between business, community, town, and nonprofit!”
Flowers will be available to sponsor ($20 each) on August 8, sending a flower to an individual or organization doing outstanding work in the community. All of the proceeds support Center of Wonder’s ArtSpot program, which provides local artists stipends to create public art projects (such as the Felted Flower Garden!). Unsold flowers will be collected in a “traveling bouquet” that will appear at various local businesses and nonprofits in six-month intervals.
Nalini Nadkarni 
Teton Pass ecology workshops with National Geographic sponsored scientist
Please join us for an evening of song, film, storytelling and pictures with Stanford Addison a Northern Arapaho traditional healer and horse gentler.
Addison lost the use of his legs nearly 30 years ago when the truck he was traveling in hit a herd of wild horses. Since his accident, Addison has developed an intuitive approach to horse training that respects the spirit of the horse, he preserves traditional Arapaho ways and helps youth find positive ways to deal with hardships.
The evening begins in the Theater Gallery with "Unbroken Spirit" a photography exhibit of Stanford's life on the reservation by Sarah Kariko.
Theater program will include a screening of Angelique Midthunder’s PBS documentary “Silent Thunder," followed by questions and answers with Stanford.
Lisa Jones author of, “BROKEN: A Love Story,” and Stanford will sign books following the presentation.See and hear Lisa on YouTube...
Sponsored by: the Art Association of Jackson Hole, Center of Wonder, The Giving Voice Project, the Wind River Development Fund, the Wyoming Humanities Council and the Wyoming Arts Council.
Compassion Amidst Conflict:Revered teacher Khen Rinpoche Lobzang Tsetan, an incarnate lama from Ladakh, India, and Professor David Gardiner, Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Colorado College will discuss; Compassion Amidst Conflict: Finding Wonder in a Complex World.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Rinpoche’s and Gardiner’s easy rapport and depth of knowledge from different perspectives makes for an engaging dialogue. When presenting together, they use their knowledge of ancient traditions and apply that knowledge to the contemporary challenges of today’s world, expanding the reach and impact of Rinpoche's teachings. The result is a thoughtful interpretation of Buddhism that has relevant application in today’s complex world. This cheerful yet insightful conversation will highlight the value of discussing powerful methods for reevaluating our basic orientations toward living. One need not be a practicing Buddhist to enjoy the program.
“Khen Rinpoche is remarkable for being one of the elder Lamas, educated in Tibet, for being dedicated wholly to the spiritual path, and for his appointment by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the Abbot at one of the most prestigious monasteries in Tibet's history,” commented David Gardiner. “He is also a highly trained scholar (a Geshe, or Doctor, from Drepung Monastery), who has spent decades in the U.S., resulting in great familiarity with our culture. He is a most wise, gentle and sincere teacher, with a great sense of humor.”
Khen Rinpoche and Gardiner’s visit kicks off a season of prominent Buddhist teachers.
Art After Hours: Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, Forest Ecologist
7:30pm in the Cook Auditorium
June 23: Lecture with Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, forest ecologist
Presented by the Dragicevich Foundation
Program is collaboration of Center of Wonder, The Nature Conservancy, and National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Known as “The Queen of the Forest Canopy,” Dr. Nalini Nadkarni has been both a pioneer in forest canopy studies and in fostering the communication of canopy research among scientists and to the public around the world. She is on the faculty at The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Washington and the adjunct faculty at the University of Washington. Her research concerns the ecology of tropical and temperate forest canopies, particularly the roles that canopy-dwelling plants play in forests. She carries out field research in Monteverde, Costa Rica and in Washington State, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. In collaboration with computer scientists and informatics experts, she is creating software and data management tools for canopy researchers. Dr. Nadkarni has published over 80 scientific articles and two scholarly books. Her recent awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship for excellence in scholarship and creativity, the J. Stirling Morton Award of The National Arbor Day Foundation, an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship, and the Presidency of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.
In 1994, she co-founded the International Canopy Network, a non-profit organization to foster communication among researchers, educators, and conservationists concerned with forest canopies. Her work has been featured in popular magazines such as Natural History, Glamour, Discover, and Ranger Rick. She has also appeared in numerous television documentaries, including Bill Nye the Science Guy, Good Morning, America, and the Emmy-Award winning National Geographic Heroes of the High Frontier. Dr. Nadkarni’s recent efforts are to integrate aspects of artistic expression with scientific documentation of the natural world, and she has brought artists, musicians, and Inuits to the canopy. Her most recent project, funded by the Washington State Department of Corrections, is to bring scientists to prisons to collaborate with prisoners to carry out projects in environmental science and sustainability. She has expanded her outreach work by establishing the NSF-funded “Research Ambassador Program,” in which she trains other scientists to do outreach to non-traditional public audiences in non-traditional venues, such as legislative halls, churches, and rap music clubs.
Nadkarni lives in Olympia with her husband, an entomologist, and two teenage children.
DISCOVER MARS
