May 2021

May 28, 2021OSGF

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Emerging Activity

"May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel most alive." - Fennel Hudson

Late May is a particularly lush and verdant time of year at Oak Spring. Our trees, fields, and garden beds are bushy and overflowing, rustling with nesting birds, playful fox cubs, and recently, an influx of 17-year Brood X cicadas.

We've also been seeing more human life on the property - a welcome respite after the isolation of the last season. Our first time participating in the Historic Garden Week in Virginia in late April was a great success. Particularly after the event was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was such a pleasure to be able to show off the beautiful site that Bunny Mellon created to nearly 1,000 garden lovers from all over the country. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without the hard work of our wonderful staff and volunteers!

In addition to the Historic Garden Week tour, we've been excited to welcome friends old and new out to the site for a range of pant-centric workshops, short courses, and residencies – a trend we hope to continue as we slip into the warm and vibrant days of summer. Scroll down to see upcoming opportunities to learn and grow on our beautiful site.

Learning on the Landscape

We're accepting applications for a roster of short courses and workshops set to take place at Oak Spring in the summer and early fall, all of which will make use of Oak Spring's stunning and varied property.

Our course in paper making, led by Alyssa Sacora, will engage participants in every step of the papermaking process, using plants grown in the Biocultural Conservation Farm's fiber garden. Visit our blog to read about 2020 artist in residence Aimee Lee's experience making fiber art from plants grown at the BCCF and her seven tips for artmaking.

We're also excited to offer a 72-hour course in Permaculture Certification Design. Click here to read an interview with instructor Danielle Wyman Castellano about the nature-first approach to landscape design.

We're also offering a workshop on piedmont ecology in partnership with the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia and a short course on environmental writing and literature from University of Texas, Austin professor Gretchen Henderson.

2022 Fellowship and Residency Opportunities!

The deadline to apply to our range of 2022 fellowship and residency opportunities is coming up soon - July 15, 2021! Note: there is one application to complete for all residencies and fellowships.

Fellowships in Plant Science Research and Plant Conservation Biology

2022 will be the second year that we have offered our annual fellowships in Plant Science Research and Plant Conservation Biology. We're thrilled to continue to support outstanding early-career professionals conducting important research in these fields. Our Fellowship in Plant Science Research is awarded to one early-career plant scientist, with preference given to scientists working in organismal plant biology, and our Fellowship in Plant Conservation Biology is awarded to an early-career practitioner, scholar or scientist working on issues related to plant and landscape conservation in the broad sense.

Each of these awards includes a $10,000 individual grant and a 2-8 week residency at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, where fellows will be able to explore our 700-acre landscape, and visit our rare book library that holds over 19,000 objects.

Fellowships in Bibliographic Study & Artistic Excellence

We're also pleased to offer our annual Stacy Lloyd III Fellowship for Bibliographic Study and our Eliza Moore Fellowship for Artistic Excellence. The Stacy Lloyd III Fellowship will be awarded to one outstanding early-career scholar, working in some area related to the history, art, and culture of plants, gardens and landscapes. The Eliza Moore Fellowship will be awarded to an exceptional artist who shows remarkable promise to contribute to a deeper understanding of the natural world, and humankind's place in it. Both opportunities include a $10,000 individual grant and a 2-8 week stay at the foundation.

Residencies

Applications are also open for our 2022 Interdisciplinary Residencies, which are open to scientists, artists, writers, scholars, and others whose work is related to the natural world and include a $2,000 individual grant and a 2 or 5 week stay at Oak Spring. We're also accepting applications for our 2022 Botanical Artists in Residence program, which is designed to support artists who create beautiful and scientifically accurate depictions of plants. Awardees will receive a $1,000 individual grant, as well as an offer to purchase one final work on paper for $1,000 that will be accessioned into the OSGF Florilegium.

Reading & Watching

While we're always busy over at our blog - check out our recent posts in celebration of National Herb Week, Arbor Day, and about Oak Spring's iconic planters - we're also thrilled to share new research from OSGF president Sir Peter Crane! Published in the influential journal Nature, the paper explores the origins of flowering plants. Head over to our website to watch videos about the groundbreaking research.

Finally, click here for a look back on Oak Spring's Historic Garden Week in Virginia tour - a truly special two days in the foundation's short history - and click on the video below to take a virtual stroll through the formal garden.

Take a stroll through Oak Spring's beautiful formal garden in this virtual tour made for the Land Trust of Virginia's annual garden party.

Scenes from a Busy Spring

Clockwise from upper left: a recent Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share prepared by our Biocultural Conservation Farm; a temporary installation in the Round Barn by artist in residence Quynh Lam; lifestyle legend Martha Stewart exploring the Oak Spring Garden Library collection; participants in our Invasive Plants of Northern Virginia workshop learning about invasive species management.