Learn How To Make A Junker Garden at Santa Monica Museum of Art
Saturdy, April 5, 2008 @ 2pm

Join Farmlab team members as they explain, "How To Make A Junker Garden," on Saturday, April 5, 2008 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, located in Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., in Santa Monica, Calif.

The Museum is home to one of Farmlab's four once-were automobiles. What once was a Mercedes sedan, now brims with Australian ferns.

The April 5 Q&A is a part of SMMOA's "Cause for Creativity: Arbor Ardor" workshop. TreePeople and the City of Santa Monica Envrionmental Programs Division will make presentations at 1pm, and 3pm, respectively.

For more information on the day, please contact SMMOA.

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Farmlab Public Salon
Youth Environmental Stewards
(Northeast Trees)
Friday, February 29, 2008 @ Noon
Free Admission


What is a Youth Environmental Steward?


About the Salon

North East Trees, Youth Environmental Stewards will discuss what they learn when they join the YES program. How this connection of skills training relates to environmental justice,urban forestry and global climate changes.

While giving them exposure to issues dealing with urban forestry the vocational track enables the youth to build their resume and take on proactive roles in their community beyond the training both both locally and globally.

About the Salon Participants

Franchezska Zamora is Northeast Tree's Youth Organizer, Activist and Educator. She holds a BA in the Role of Social Constructs Impacted in Race,Class, and Gender. Marcos Trinidad is the Youth Crew Supervisor, and a geology and anthropology student. Josue Ocampo is the Youth Crew Supervisor, and a former Youth Steward (2005). Kristi Lopez is the Community Outreach Coordinator. She holds a BA in Urban Studies and Planning. Jose Rodriguez is the Community Steward Former, and a former Youth Steward (2006).

Participating Youth Environmental Stewards: Danny, Tyrone, Calvin, Victor, Josue, and Gorge.

Photo Courtesy Northeast Trees

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Farmlab Public Salon Series Resumes This Friday


The Farmlab Public Salon series resumes this week, Friday, February 29 @ noon.

For an updated list of upcoming (and past) Farmlab Public Salons, please click here.

We apologize for the late cancellation of last week's program, and look forward to seeing you all this Friday and beyond...

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Plant a F.L.A.G. (Farmlab Agbin Garden)
Sunday, April 13 @ 8am-Noon
Part of 'Earth, Seeds, Water, Process' Opening Weekend
Free Admission

More information coming soon...

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No Farmlab Public Salon This Week (2/22/08)

There will be no Farmlab Public Salon this week.

We look forward to seeing everyone next Friday, February 29 @ noon as the regular schedule resumes.

For an updated list of upcoming (and past) Farmlab Public Salons, please click here.

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Farmlab Tours City of L.A.'s Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant


Farmlab team members accompanied Annenberg Foundation staffers yesterday on a tour of the city of Los Angeles' Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant.

Pictures from the tour will be posted here in the coming days**. In the meanwhile, here's what Farmlab's old pals at the Center for Land Use Interpretation have to say about this facility, which was named one of the top ten most outstanding public works projects of the 20th century by The American Public Works Association.

(Other named projects include the Panama Canal and the Hoover Dam -- to give an idea of the scale of the massive and complex Hyperion plant.)





**UPDATED with Farmlab Photos by Kate Balug.

From top: Touring the facility, taking note of its massive scale; separating solid objects from the sludge; from the in-house laboratory, samples indicating water gets cleaner as it's processed

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Farmlab Public Salon
Bob Sipchen
Friday, February 15, 2008 @ Noon
Free Admission


"Is It Possible to Cover the Environment Without Annoying, Scaring, Befuddling, or Depressing People?"


About the Salon

Join Bob Sipchen for this timely, no-holds-barred discussion.

Sipchen is the editor in chief of Sierra -- the Sierra Club's magazine -- and is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former editor, columnist and staff writer for the Los Angeles Times

Farmlab Photo by Jaime Lopez Wolters

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Special Evening Salon
Mel Chin
Thursday, February 11, 2010, 7.00-9.00pm
Free

There is no (a) solution, because there is no (a) problem

Or: Making a 300 Million Dollar Difference with Conceptual

Art in the Age of Disaster and other Repetitive Negativities

Artist Mel Chin will present an abbreviated exposition of his works of art as political critique, chasing after disasters with options and solutions and the making a "Fundredmental" difference. Q & A welcome. Participation encouraged. Requirements: Bring pen, pencils or crayons.

Mel Chin is known for the broad range of approaches in his art, including works that require multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork and works that conjoin cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas. He developed Revival Field (1989-ongoing), a project that has been a pioneer in the field of "green remediation": the use of plants to remove toxic, heavy metals from the soil. These projects are consistent with a conceptual philosophy that emphasizes the practice of art to include sculpting and bridging the natural and social ecology.

Well known for his iconic sculptures, which often address the importance of memory and collective identity, the artist often insinuates art into unlikely places, including destroyed homes, toxic landfills, and popular television. Investigating the ways in which art can provoke greater social awareness and responsibility, Chin’s socially engaged projects also challenge the idea of the artist as the exclusive creative force behind an artwork. “Sometimes, the survival of my own idea may not be as important as a condition I might create for others’ ideas to be realized,” says Chin.

From 1995-1998 Chin formed the collective ‘the GALA Committee’, which produced In the Name of the Place, a conceptual public art project conducted on American prime-time television. Chin also promotes “works of art” that have the ultimate effect of benefiting science, as in Revival Field, and the recent Fundred Dollar Bill/Operation Paydirt Project, an attempt to make New Orleans a lead-safe city.

Further information: The Fundred Dollar Bill Project

Above: Mel Chin: SAFEHOUSE, 2008-10

Materials: existing house, stainless steel, steel, wood, plywood, gatorboard, lead encapsulation paint, automotive body and paint finishes, 12,000 brass thumbtacks, 6000 unique handrawn "Fundred Dollar Bills", St. Roch Neighborhood, 8th Ward, New Orleans, LA.

Size: 22' W x 40' L x 18' H. Note: interior walls are 10.5' in height

Image courtesy of the artist.

 



 

Farmlab Public Salon
Melani Smith
+Sumire Gant
Friday, February 8, 2008 @ Noon
Free Admission


"All Roads Lead Home:
A Community Livability Plan for I-710 Corridor Neighborhoods in Long Beach, CA"


About the Salon

Goods movement and its associated quality of life impacts are a gritty reality in our region, often considered a glamour capitol. Explore the process one local City has initiated in an effort to shift its focus from just moving vehicles, to providing mobility options and livability improvements for people living in its I-710 corridor--and also LA River corridor--neighborhoods.

About the Salon Presenters

Melani V. Smith brings to her work at Meléndrez communication, management, leadership, and facilitation skills born out of a diverse background in urban planning, marketing and public relations. As Principal and Director of Melendrez’s planning practice, she works at regional, community, neighborhood, and site-specific scales. Her work on projects ranges from identifying and engaging project stakeholders, to visioning and goal setting, and continues through planning, developing design guidelines and standards, and developing implementation strategies. She is a 19-year resident of Long Beach, and in 2007 was appointed a Planning Commissioner in the city. Smith is on the Board of Directors of the USC Architectural Guild, is an associate member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). She has a Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California at Irvine and a Bachelor of Arts in History from UCLA.

Sumire Gant has enjoyed twenty-eight years of public service at the local and regional level, including her present position as Transportation Programs Officer with the City of Long Beach. She is responsible for updating the Mobility Element of the General Plan and Bicycle Master Plan. She works on transportation planning projects of all sizes from small streetscapes to the 710 Corridor improvements in Long Beach, and secures funding to implement those projects. As a resident of Long Beach, she enjoys finding new ways of working with the community on projects that make a difference in their lives. Prior to joining the City of Long Beach, Sumire worked for ten years at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority as Transportation Planning Manager and as Manager of Government and Public Affairs. She has an MBA from UCLA and a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from USC.

Photo illustration courtesy Meléndrez

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