Wonderarium awarded funding to connect Cathedral's Plaza to Arts District through Business Corridor for Oakland's Art Murmur!! 

A festive Procession through 3 locations!

October 7th, First Friday

5-9:30pm                                            

First Stop-LOCATION 1: Cathedral of Christ the Light 

5-6:30  Everyone is welcome to start out your First Friday Art Murumer at our plant tinker station to build your very own terrarium with the Succulent Girls!  Join us in announcing the future home of the Wonderarium on the Cathedral's award winning public plaza! To kick off this announcement we are rolling the MPA out on the town. 

Thirsty?-LOCATION 2: Era Art Bar & Lounge

6:30-8:00pm  We mobilize to Era Art Bar & Lounge located a 19 Grand Ave. in Oakland to quench our thirst, see great art, hear great music and continue spreading the plant love. 

Art Murmur-LOCATION 3: Krowswork 

8-9:30pm  Our final stop is in the heart of Oakland's Arts District at Art Murmur.  Krowswork Gallery is a video and photography gallery/project space located at 480 23rd Street directed by Jasmine Moorhead.  Join us by the side entrance for more terrarium building while checking out great art and grab a bite to eat from the many food vendors.

Wonderarium recently was awarded a $3,000 grant from the Downtown Oakland Association, Community Benefits District (CBD) and the Lake Merritt/Uptown Oakland, Community Benefits District (CBD).  Both "meet and function jointly to improve the quality of life in their respective communities and advocate on behalf of the area property owners, business owners, and residents." We appreciate their generous support and look forward to connecting Lake Merritt to the Oakland Arts District!

Description:

The MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR was developed to take plants “on the road.” A visual mash-up of ice cream carts, nostalgic vending stands, and Barnum and Bailey type attractions, MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR promotes spontaneous interaction with the novel experience of building a terrarium directly from the cart. Making a terrarium is a creative and interactive way to connect to the natural world and sharing this with others builds community.  All supplies (glass containers, pumice, soil, and a variety of plant cuttings are arranged by drawer in the order needed for anyone to make their very own terrarium in four easy steps. 

The direct experience of this project allows for personal engagement with individuals and celebrates our beautiful, struggling city, reflecting our hopes and visions for the future. We need to all dig in and get our hands “dirty” while having good clean fun to build on citizen led action and involvement! 

We are inspired by the bombastic civic gestures of the first Worlds Fair as well as the City Beautiful Movement responsible for creating Lake Merritt as a public park.  In this period of economic decline and dramatic cuts in arts funding Wonderarium met these challenges by tapping into the tremendous diversity and talent of the Bay Area, as a source of strength, inspiration, and collaboration. It is this collaboration that is integral to the spirit of Wonderarium.  By inviting our "audience" members to directly participate in a free event like the MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR we are celebrating the grand gesture of this project, the many artists, tech geeks, gardeners, architects, engineers, and small businesses that have contributed their skills and enthusiasm, and Oakland as a whole.

Please visit our website for more information, to join our news letter, or make a tax deductible  donation towards the giant terrarium project here: www.thewonderarium.com

Contact us at our email address here:  wonder@thewonderarium.com 

Yvette Molina and Sarah Filley at the California Academy of Sciences Nightlife in 2010.  Photo Credit: Lydia Gonzales

Yvette Molina and Sarah Filley at the California Academy of Sciences Nightlife in 2010.  Photo Credit: Lydia Gonzales

Yvette Molina and Sarah Filley at the SF Conservatory of FLowers in 2010.  Photo Credit: Dan Nelson

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mobile-plant-ambassador-out-on-the-town-tdHkozpFhranfkkAcHik.zip (1.05 MB)

Participants at OUTLANDISH Exhibit at Bedford Gallery.  Photo Credit: Sarah Filley

OUTLANDISH Exhibit at Bedford Gallery.  Photo Credit: Sarah Filley

Participant at UC Berkeley's Worth Ryder Galery Exhibit entitled KNOWLEDGE HACKING in 2010.  Photo Credit: Sarah Filley

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outlandish-exhibition-bedford-gallery-hzHkbtisjybekoIfxCDi.zip (218 KB)

After a year of "taking plants on the road" we now look forward to bringing the MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR to Walnut Creek. This marks the fifth city to host Wonderarium!  Our long overdue thanks and gratitude goes to the fabulous Jason Phares. He gerously donated his time and shop to fabricate the MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR in addition to providing advice and precision craftmanship. His website says "no job too small" but what sets him apart is his penchant for building custom hot rod motorcycles. Here's his shop link:  Harold's Iron Works.

We have been invited to participate in an upcoming show so you can see the us in action at the Bedford Gallery's upcoming exibition:

Outlandish: Contemporary Depictions of Nature

Opening Reception
July 7, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Admission: $5

Show description from the Bedford Gallery website:

"A two part exhibition that features both a juried section and an invitational. Carrie Lederer, Bedford Gallery Curator of Exhibitions and Programs, invited twenty-eight contemporary artists that explore themes of nature — from micro to the macro — ranging from a tiny speck of a garden to a global view of the world. This intriguing exhibition looks at over-the-top depictions of landscape from a variety of vantage points and in a range of media."

 If you are not familiar with our project: The MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR unit was developed to take plants “on the road.”  This roving “plant cart” features a lush 24” terrarium to test plants for the larger 8’ Wonderarium. At 1/4 scale this test prototype inspires curiosity, connects participants to the larger Wonderarium project, and provides a dirt hacking lab to experiment in the extreme environment of an outdoor terrarium.

A visual mash-up of ice-cream carts, nostalgic vending stands, and Barnum and Bailey type attractions, MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR promotes spontaneous interaction with the audience to build a terrarium directly from the cart.  All supplies (glass containers, pumice, soil, and a variety of plant cuttings) are arranged by drawer in the order needed for anyone to make their very own terrarium in four easy steps. As participants express their personal creativity through plants, they are also learning about propagation and investigating themes of micro-systems and climates—a mini ecology class!

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untitled-durzhbihBnrCDiyAylCs.zip (2 MB)

Our friends at Garden Hortica recently donated a full flat of Sempervivum arachnoidium, better know by their common name as Spider Web Hens and Chicks.  This succulent grows rosettes of fleshy leaves. The tip of each leaf is connected by a network of silvery filaments that resemble a spider web. In the summer, this plant blooms with a short spike of pink starry shaped flowers. Which will look very cute in a modified terrarium as they require a bit of fresh air.

Thank you David (co-owner of Garden Hortica)!!! You can discover the bounty of plants and ideas by visiting them Saturdays and Sundays. Located on 7th St. in Oakland they are a great addition to the design and garden communities in the Bay Area.

We will use this donation for our MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR a project included in the upcoming exhibition Outlandish at the Bedford Gallery Opening in July.  From the BG website; "This national juried exhibition looks at landscape from all vantage points and all media, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, and mixed media. From the micro to the macro, entries can explore a tiny spec of garden to a global view." We are excited to be included in this awesome show, be sure to check our fb page for updates about the opening as well as other news!

David is there most weekends and he also was kind enough to recommend the Calendrinia as a plant to include in the full-scale Wonderarium.  As you can see it is thriving atop their roof and producing lovely purple blossoms stretching over 18" towards the Oakland sky.  We share his assumption that if the plants can survive the extreme exposure of a roof to heat and moisture provided by Oakland's climate, then it is an excellent candidate for the contained yet open environment of the Wonderarium.  Researching and testing plants used in living rooftops was first presented to us by Chris Carmichael at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley.  It is marvelous the Garden Hortica has a test site for us to observe and learn from.

Look for our next post as we share several more plants we have planted in the MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR's 27" sphere and will continue to monitor as they grow and thrive this summer!

Enjoy all that Spring has to offer,

Sarah Filey + Yvette Molina

When: Tuesday, February 15                                                                                                Time: Happy Hour 5 - 8 pm                                                                                                  Where: Radio (bar) 435 13th Street 

We wanted to say thank you to Regina for a smashing event at Zza's with wonderful wine, new friends and a few neighbors who stopped in to talk to us about the project.  We sold 11 mini-Wonderariums and several more contributions added up to a successful event!

http://www.morezzas.com/contact.php

We are looking forward to our next event Feb 15th...more on that in the next post!

  We have been all warm and fuzzy since the holidays and all the support provided by Modern: Coffee, a small biz near the Lake (we love you!!!).  We were encouraged to reach out to other small business around the lake to connect folks who support our project with each other and enjoy Okaland.  Zza's has generously agreed to given us feature wines from the Portovino Italiano collection. So come have a glass of wine with Wonderarium by the Lake!   

 WONDERARIUM meetup! Jan. 27th 5-8:30 @ Zza's Wine Bar--social fundraising event.

Upcoming...check Events or read below!

These are images of the gallery exhibition curated by Anu Vikram, Director of the Worth Ryder Gallery Art Practice Department at UC Berkeley.  

More photos of the night's fun can be seen here.

On Friday September 24 at 2 pm we were guest panelists on the  Art/Science Panel with moderator Ken Goldberg.

A summary of the parralell program form Anu's post: "We also participated in the 01SJ Biennial. on Sunday, September 18. Build Your Own World, the theme of the 2010 01SJ Biennial in San Jose.  During the biennial, Silicon Valley will turn into a playground of contemporary art, technology, and digital culture for public consumption. Featuring everything from experimental projects, premiere prototypes and whimsical installations, to living architecture activated by human input, retro-technologies and digital spectacles never before experienced, the 2010 ‘Build Your Own World’ 01SJ Biennial casts clues on the future faces of our cities, as inspired by some of the world’s foremost contemporary artists."

More info about the exhibition can be found here:

http://worthrydergallery.posterous.com/knowledge-hacking-exhibition-images

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knowledge-hacking-exhibition-september-15-october-9-2010-yFipxlwAvJkDCnkJDCrc.zip (2.48 MB)

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We have had a tremendous past 2 months.  It has been a pleasure to meet folks who share our enthusiasm and challenge us.  We brought the MOBILE PLANT AMBASSADOR to 3 evening events (Exploratorium, California Academy of Sciences, and the SF conservatory of Flowers), 2 workshops (University of California Botanical Gardens at Berkeley), an Exhibition (visit the Worth Ryder Gallery to see it through the 9th of October) with an Art/SCience Panel, a Green Prix parade at the Build Your Own World festival during the zer01 in San Jose, and conducted four interviews. 

As we approach October we are  taking a moment to express our gratitude to those who have supported us--thank you! We look forward to getting our first issue of our newsletter out, our first Oakland event on the 24th, and launching our fundraising campaign in the months ahead. 

You will notice a few changes to the blog layout so take a peek at our updated narrative and media information. Lots of photos and video soon!

We wanted to share with you the press that has come out in the past two weeks! 

sfgate

Oakbook

Oakland North

sfmoma blog

Knowledge Hacking: opening

RichmondSF blog

Recently we did two great events at the Exploratorium and the California Academy of Sciences. To find out about upcoming events and workshops and to sign up for our monthly newsletter:  www.thewonderarium.com

If you got a succulent from our Succulent Circus!..

Visit our webpage and click on “Succulent Circus!” to participate in the project.   Did you make a terrarium with us? We would love to  see pics and hear your feedback.  We will be posting our images from these fantastic events soon so check back!

Special thanks to Anthony Laurino for his graphic design chops on our fab new WONDERARIUM logo and Louis Rawlins our most excellent digital media engineer for the webpage.  Big thumbs-up to Lydia Gonzalez, our ace photographer!